School Closure for Parents
If your children's school has closed and you haven't been given very much guidance in how to proceed with their education, you have surely seen the firehose of resources being shared from which you might cobble together something resembling a learning plan for your children. Between figuring out how to schedule these days and choosing which of those resources to approach, to say parents are feeling a bit overwhelmed is a major understatement. As a classroom teacher for almost 20 years and parent for 13 years, I have quite a bit of experience with reviewing and selecting educational resources. Hopefully I can apply this experience to supporting parents in this unexpected time!
Infographic: How To Plan For A Week Of Learning
Schedule suggestions and ideas to keep learning moving from day to day
or instead of a schedule, try...
Choice-board suggestions for planning home learning
Elementary Grades (K-5) Resources
Middle and High School (6-10) Resources
Many of the resources, like Khan Academy, overlap both grade bands. If you're at the edge of one of the bands (5th or 6th grade, for example), check out the resources in both sections!
Sample 7th or 8th grader schedule
Sample 2nd grade Choice Board
Top Tip: Have your child keep a hand-written /drawn daily learning journal.
Use these resources to get your daily learning journals going:
Consider keeping your own parent learning journal, too!
Don't try to pack the day exclusively with highly academic activities like worksheets or read-and-response.
Do include time for: eating, physical activity, reading, cleaning and other chores, computer-free time, mindfulness time, and going outdoors.
Include your child in the planning. Look over resources together to choose areas of focus. Be willing to change areas of focus if some don't work out, but encourage your child to stick with a choice for at least a day or two!
Explore options for live virtual learning events, and schedule around those if desired! For example: one teacher's daily newsletter of live virtual learning events for that day.
Include a little of the basics - math, language arts - but just enough to keep their skills fresh. Let this school closure be an opportunity for exploration and reflection, with plenty of room for calm in the midst of this stressful time.
Consider inviting one of your child's friends to plan some of the same learning activities, and give them opportunity to chat about their experiences via a web video call (Google Meet, Zoom, or other video chat).
John Spencer's choice-based schedule:
