BSD's Approach to Learning at Home
BSD's Approach to Learning at Home
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As a public school system, Burlingame School District strives to equitably provide engaging learning experiences leading to productive learning outcomes for all our student learners.
Due to conditions necessitated by the current coronavirus episode, BSD has shifted the design and delivery of our instructional programs. BSD staff, at the district level and across all school sites are working intently to support students as they learn at home.
Below are details of our district-wide approach. Be sure to watch for school-site level communications and check with your student’s teacher and/or principal regarding site-specific details and approaches.
Overview
Overview
At this extraordinary time, as we all respond to the coronavirus pandemic, BSD's priority focus is the safety, health and well-being of our students and their families, along with our entire BSD staff. Our approach to learning at home keeps this focus in mind.
Our approach is to provide families and students with academic resources and support that enable continuing, quality learning for all BSD students while recognizing the following:
Different student and family situations mean the experience of learning at home will vary across BSD households.
BSD's approach is designed to be accessible to all BSD students. It is intended to provide a level of flexibility that enables continuing learning for all BSD students within their particular household context.
BSD's approach seeks to support a balance between individual student and family well-being, especially in these challenging times and circumstances, with continuing academic learning, exploration and enrichment.
Defining Learning at Home
Defining Learning at Home
By learning at home (home learning) we mean the student learning that can and will occur at home with students away (remote from) their schools. It can include both online and offline activities, and the use of both physical materials and digital content and interactions.
Learning at Home will be supported by BSD principals, teachers and staff, and-both necessarily and importantly-parents/guardians, family members and any appropriate others sharing the home learning space with BSD student(s).
For details on BSD's stance re: the focus and scope of learning at home, see our Learning Targets/Scope of Instruction page.
What Learning at Home is Not
What Learning at Home is Not
Learning at home is not an attempt to replicate the entirety of the in-person, classroom-based learning experience via live, daylong streaming online teaching. Given the variability of conditions across households with BSD students, we cannot guarantee that live, full class remote teaching sessions would be accessible by all households.
In order to ensure equity of access to learning content and opportunities for all BSD students during this school closure, BSD staff and teachers are providing prepared digital content and resources (when appropriate) for learning. These are available on-demand at any time of day by BSD students and their families.
BSD teachers will not be providing full-class, live streaming instruction. Teachers and staff are using live connections to check in with individual and small groups of students and will continue to do so for the duration of this school closure.
A Phased Approach
A Phased Approach
From where the coronavirus crisis caused school closures, to where we are now, to where we anticipate being as the crisis abates, BSD is thinking of the continuity of learning in phases. It's helpful to remember this is a marathon, not a sprint!
Closing Schools, Pivoting to Learning at Home
School closures occurred suddenly, prompting the necessity for BSD educators and staff to rapidly pivot to the learning at home approach. Challenges included embracing and learning to use new technology, including digital tools and online platforms, along with unfamiliar ways of doing their work. Teaching practices do not simply shift from those used for in-person classroom-based learning, and so teachers worked to modify existing and develop new practices for providing learning interactions. We put conditions in place for all students and families in need to access devices and connectivity to participate in digital learning at home.
BSD teachers, administrators and staff, many of whom have their own children at home and family members to care for, put forth an enormous effort to initially respond to this pandemic emergency. With Phase 1 concluding, we acknowledge and appreciate our community's understanding of the difficulty of meeting this challenge, their flexibility in supporting this transition, and the expressions of appreciation for our efforts.
Extended School Closure, Continuing Learning at Home
With the certainty that students will not be returning to schools sites until sometime after June (extended school closure) BSD staff are shifting our mindset and approach from a shorter-term coping approach to a sustained approach to supporting learning at home. BSD staff continue to exert an incredible effort to support their students.
For Phase 2, we are emphasizing teachers maintaining strong connections with students and families, and have a clear strategy for doing so. We have articulated a scope of desired learning outcomes grounded in grade-level learning targets for Trimester 3. We are continuing to refine our approaches to remote teaching and learning at home processes in order to streamline and strengthen them. We are offering more resources and information to parents in support of home learning, and creating additional channels for parent input. We will continue and deepen professional learning and coaching for BSD educators to help them continue to level up on use of technology and digital teaching practices.
With Crisis Comes Opportunity
With Crisis Comes Opportunity
The experiences we are living now are significantly different than those of our "previous normal" before the coronavirus hit. During this extraordinary time, we are missing connections and interactions in person, together, and the benefits and enjoyment they bring.
That said, in such a time, there are unique opportunities for learning, growth, and change.
We wanted to share the following thoughts from a Warren Apel, Director of Technology at the American School in Japan. While directed at teachers, we feel these possibilities can be embraced and acted on by parents and students as well during learning at home.
Seize the moment; embrace new opportunities and possibilities for your students
Years or decades from now, how will your students remember the emergency that resulted in school closure? While distance learning should attempt to bring some normalcy and routine to students’ lives, teachers shouldn’t ignore the opportunities resulting from school closure either. Teachers might require students to keep a daily journal or diary for the duration of the crisis. Personal journaling and/or other creative writing assignments can help students process their thoughts, worries, and emotions, particularly in times of crisis. Students might use other media as well, including video, drawing, painting, and music. Moreover, the crisis might also provide other real-life opportunities to study scientific phenomena associated with the crisis, how the media is reporting the incident, how governments are responding, and many other opportunities to seize the moment and design new learning trans-disciplinary experiences for our students.
From 10 Guidelines for Teachers During Distance Learning published via Medium
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