The transition to a remote learning environment is unknown territory for everyone. It presents a lot of questions and concerns that we will work together to address in the coming weeks. Our goal is to support all teachers, students, and families during the transition with clear communication, quality resources, and responsive feedback systems.

We have been combing through different resources,as many of you are currently doing, and have created some guidelines to help create a consistent experience for our students and families in a remote learning environment. We strongly encourage you to maintain the routines and practices that your students have become accustomed to this year. We know that you will work tirelessly to support your students and their families in awe-inspiring ways! Please maintain a healthy work/life balance. Keep lines of communication open with your colleagues and building admin teams if you are having any difficulty in this new frontier of learning. We are here to support you!

Here are a few stories from those who are a few weeks/months ahead of us:

• • Edutopia: What teachers in China have learned about remote learning

  • Remote Learning in Washington

  • Tips for Moving to Remote Learning

• • Asynchronous Learning Experiences:

  • Asynchronous learning will be our primary method for remote learning experience design. The word "asynchronous" means not keeping time together, which refers to students' ability to access information, demonstrate what they've learned - students do NOT have to access the material at the same time and can work at their own pace.

  • Asynchronous vs. synchronous learning - What’s the difference?

Email: Homeroom teachers in grades PreK - 4 will use Email to communicate all learning resources.

• • All grade PreK-4 teachers will clearly communicate daily learning plans in their email. The email should be copied from the template you linked yesterday. Each day you will add a new copy of the table to the top of your google doc and fill it out. This folder should be posted at the top of your Schoology materials page. Once it is ready to go, you will copy it and send it out to families. Emails should be sent out by 8:00 pm the night before to allow families an opportunity to gather materials if their child will be doing their learning other than at home.

  • Staff will clearly outline the learning goals and simple descriptions of activities as a part of their Remote Learning Experience Plans.

  • Any digital resources related to the work will be linked within the email. You may need to give families log in directions - as we can not assume all of our students will know how.

Connecting with students:

• • Teachers will be expected to connect with students on a consistent basis throughout each week. One possible consideration is to hold consistent office hours throughout the week so students and families know specific times that you are available to support their learning progress by answering questions, clarifying learning plans, providing learning supports, etc.

    • You might do an hour of office hours twice a week where parents can jump on a Google Hangout and ask questions - one in the AM and one in the PM.

    • You will also need to plan for time when you can connect in small groups or one on one with students as needed. This would be time to listen to them read, coach on a math problem... This can also be asynchronous.

Specialists Role:

• Specialists Roles will vary. Please look to information from your direct supervisor on how you will be supporting your students.

• Plan to connect with teachers you support to collaborate on how to best serve the kids you share.

The following considerations should be taken into account as we transition to a remote learning environment:

• • Learning assignments and content delivery must be rethought.

It is not best practice to simply take what you were going to do on Monday and put it online. Students and families will need clear and explicit learning plans to communicate learning goals, what activities to engage in and when, due dates, and how to submit items.

• • Reduce the workload by half.

Often online learning can take twice as long to do half as much. Consider how you can chunk learning into shorter segments to help students and families manage the learning expectations and to allow you to incorporate check-points to support student learning. Some suggestions: You might alternate sending home a mini lesson videos (reading one day, writing the next) - although you would still encourage them to read and write each day. You might only give 3-5 math practice problems - rather than 10...

Recommended Maximum Total Time Kids Will Spend on Schoolwork:

Preschool - 1/2 hour per day, broken up into smaller increments

Kindergarten - 1 hour per day

1st & 2nd grade - 2.5 hours per day

3rd & 4th grade - 3 hours per day

• • Be thoughtful in the type of learning activities and assignments you post for students to complete.

Consider ways that students can engage in a variety of learning activities that go beyond digital worksheets which can be frustrating to students and families.

• • Rely on tools and resources you currently use with students as we transition into a remote learning environment.

If your students have not already used the tool in class, it is recommended that you not introduce a new tool now. It may be ok, but it could also be a point of frustration for the student and parents. Subsequently, this could take away from the actual learning. Some of you will likely need to introduce some new tools - just be thoughtful of only using one or two at a time.

• • Consider how you will get feedback from students and ensure that students are engaging in the learning and getting the proper supports.

This could happen in a variety of ways such as through a google form, submitted assignments in Seesaw, Flipgrid, etc. Just as in an in-person learning environment, teachers should reach out to students and families proactively when they have concerns about a student's engagement or well-being to ensure they have the support(s) they need to be successful.

• • Keep instructional videos less than six minutes.

Students will want to feel like they are in class with you! They want to see and hear from you - the more it feels like a normal face-to-face interaction in your classroom, the better. Your presence as a teacher is important and can reduce anxiety for students,

Below you will find some tutorials and resources that will help you learn how to video conference with individuals or groups using google meet. This includes making conferencing available to your students/families. Google meet can be used to meet with large groups or in small groups. It is an extremely valuable tool for connecting with students to support or facilitate learning experiences virtually.

Why Google Meet and not Facetime or some other tool? Meet is a part of our GSuite and is considered a "safe" tool that is within our system and is not limited by age restrictons. We recommend recording your Google Meet sessions so that students can go back and review the learning and conversation.

There is a link to Google Meet in the waffle on Mason Connects. Helpful tip: use the unique URL that is given to you, as opposed to creating an easy to remember one. This ensures that a unique Google Meet is created for you.

Youtube videos are the easiest for families to access from any device. You can quickly add a saved video from a screencast or your phone.

Step 1: Open YouTube.com

Step 2: Click on the camera in the top right corner

Step 3: Click the blue select file button and Choose the video you want to upload or Drag video in

Step 4: Answer the questions. NOTE: Choose UNLISTED for the video. This allows it to be accessed via a link - but it is not searchable on the web.

Step 5: Copy the Share Link and share with families.

Now give it a try. Take the Meet Video you recorded or another video and practice uploading to YouTube!