Engaging and Inspiring Learners at Home: A Curated List of Distance Learning Resources for PK-12, College and Adult Educators, Facilitators, and Parents

Distance_Learning_Resources_For_Educators

It has now been three weeks since my in-person workshops with educators, facilitators, and students came to a screeching halt because of the Coronavirus crisis. Since then, I, like most of you, have been navigating the balance between focusing on keeping my family and community safe and healthy, managing the worry of losing jobs, and completely re-framing the way I work for the foreseeable future. The silver lining to this crisis has been witnessing people reach out to support each other and strengthen community in a myriad of ways from social media groups, to old-fashioned telephone calls, doorstep deliveries to neighbors, and letters (thank you USPS).

What I love most about my job is working with educators from all over the country and internationally from diverse backgrounds of all ages and grade levels PK-12, college, and in adult learning and community building. I am grateful that technology has allowed me to continue to socially engage with these dynamic educators and facilitators in this time of physical distance. During the past three weeks, I have been continually inspired by the creativity of the professionals in my global education community and the scope of ideas and resources they are generously offering for their peers and for parents whose roles have changed drastically in such a short time.

Last week I started a digest of some of these innovative distance learning and community building activities, strategies, and technology resources from educators in my network and gems discovered through my favorite education podcasts, and periodicals. Hopefully, this post is a way to build community and opportunities to collaborate between you and the other dynamic professionals and organizations listed here. I know this barely scratches the surface. I figure this list is a starting point, as there is a lot out there to digest! If you’ve used any of these resources, please share your experiences, and other useful tips, strategies, or technology you’ve run across.

This initial collection includes articles and tools for educators of all grade levels, PK-12, college, and adult education, as well as for parents managing homeschooling (and parenting) during the crisis.  I have categorized them by age group/grade level, but there is a lot of overlap of ideas and resources that apply to all. Innovative educators and facilitators can always find ways to adapt strategies offered by practitioners from different settings and age groups.

This list touches upon just a fraction of the tools and resources being shared by creative educators each day of this crisis. I’ve never been prouder to be an educator. I’m grateful to be part of such a dedicated community of professionals who are stepping up to help each other, learners, and families. I am hoping you will find these ideas and links useful in your teaching and facilitation. Hopefully, a silver lining to this crisis is that it is stretching many of us to grow professionally by learning new technology skills, reflecting on our practice, and despite physical distancing, networking, collaborating and building community with a broader circle of colleagues.

Articles Relevant to All Educators

 

  • Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Delivery of Lessons/Experiences: As the educators I work with design distance learning, many are weighing how much asynchronous vs. synchronous learning they are using in their programs and lessons. Christopher Pappas, who has been a leader in online earning in the corporate training world for years, offered a simple exploration of both types of lesson design that could be useful to all educators in his 2015 blog post: Synchronous Vs. Asynchronous Learning, Can You Tell the Difference?

 

  • Distance Learning: A Gently Curated Collection of Resources for Teachers by Jennifer Gonzalez, author of the Cult of Pedagogy Blog. This is an incredibly well written and useful article on mindset, nuts and bolts, and tech tools. In this post, Jennifer offers a comprehensive set of resources in an easy to digest and compassionate way. I think this is a must-read for all educators designing distance learning. I look forward into delving into more of her Cult of Pedagogy offerings: Distance Learning from Jennifer Gonzalez

 

 

 

 

Educators Offering Innovative Resources for Other Educators


PK-12 All Grades
  • Austin Independent School District’s Connect. Design. Learn. site is a platform for innovative PK-12 Austin teachers to share ideas. They are regularly posting articles from educators of all grade levels: https://connect-design-learn.org/

PK-12 Elementary K-6 (and Beyond)

PK-12 Early Ed and Elementary
  • Kristine Mraz is an elementary teacher, writer, pun nerd, and consultant. She is co-author—with Christine Hertz —of the Kids First from Day One and A Mindset for Learning.
    • This week she has generously posted a packet to help parents of young children facilitate purposeful play and inquiry at home using easy to obtain household items. See parent section below.

Older Elementary, Middle, Highschool
  • Jess Lifshitz’s Learn Something New Lessons. Jess is a 5th grade teacher, but her lessons could easily be adapted to upper grades: Check out the Learning Something New Project Google Doc
  • Sandhya Nankani’s founder of Literary Safari created the Story Seeds Podcast to inspire students, families, and educators to cultivate creativity by showcasing and modeling the creative process Storyseedspodcast.com
  • In Justin Reich‘s Teach Lab Podcast “A Math Teacher Goes Online” he interviews Michael Pershan, a New York City math teacher at one of the first schools in the country to shut down in the face of COVID-19. Michael joins Justin Reich to discuss equity, synchronous online learning, strategy, and planning: TeachLab Podcast
  • NuHop Online Lessons: This is a site generously shared by outdoor educator friends of mine from their center in Ohio. The lessons are designed for grades 4-7th and would be especially useful resources for science educators: NUHOP’s At Home Outdoor Education
  • From High School Educators I work with at Austin ISD: “Educators Forget about Content! How are we staying connected with our students? Stay In Touch” by Contributor Elise Baughman Physics and Forensic Science at McCallum High School. Austin ISD’s Connect. Design. Learn site
  • Facing History and Ourselves is a non-profit that uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate. They have created a library to support teachers during the COVID 19 crisis and have lifted login restrictions: FacingHistory.org Resource Library

Higher Education/Adult Learning and Facilitation

 

Technology Resources for All


For All Parents


For Parents of Young Children


For Parents of Older Elementary –Middle School

  • NuHop Outdoor Education: This is a site with resources generously shared from friends of mine from an outdoor education center in Ohio, they have some fun and engaging resources designed for grades 4-7. NUHOP’s At Home Outdoor Education
  • Jarrett Lerner has posted an online Classroom Guide to his book Enginerds Enginerds Classroom Guide, which offers a variety of engaging activities and projects.
  • The Right Question Institute is offering resources on their site to promote learner-centered inquiry and engagement: TheRightQuestion.org


For Parents of Adolescents

It would be wonderful to keep the conversation going. I am happy to update and expand this post with your comments and contributions. If you have ideas to add or have used any of the resources listed here, please share your experiences. Sending love to you all as we work together to meet the needs of learners, families, and each other during this challenging time.

Jen

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