Online learning, teaching and education continuity planning for schools
The University of Maine System
The University of Maine System’s NetworkMaine is offering to enable guest Wi-Fi services at 140 local schools participating in the Maine Department of Education’s MLTI program.
We would welcome assistance in spreading the word. Our press release, which includes links to Facebook and Twitter posts, can be found here.
Education Week Article: Being the Principal in the Age of the Corona Virus
Maine Department of Education
Hampden Academy, Hamden
Click HERE to see a copy of their plan.
Massabesic High School / RSU 57, Waterboro
Messalonskee High School, Oakland
We have gone in and created folders in google docs for every teacher and they will be dropping in assignments for students to do should they be out of school for a period of time. Our tech coordinator shared this link with us that would help students who do not have internet service at this time.
Mount Desert Island Schools
Our goal with remote learning is to establish community over all else. Our order of importance: (1.) Safety, (2.) Food Security (3.) Community and (4.) Learning, with the intent to prevent slide if lucky and nothing more. This is not business as usual. Any on-line platforms used are with the intent of keeping our kids connected to their school community. We piloted our first Advisory Google Hangout Meet yesterday for the high school and had AMAZING attendance. We know we are lucky for our resources but also have kids without them who called in via phone. The kids just want to be together. Even our chronic cutters of Advisory showed up. I share this to emphasize it is not about learning. It is about community and that is what we hope to hang on to as we move forward.
Mountain Valley High School, Rumford
I’m beginning by surveying my students to identify the percentage with reliable home internet service. The results of our survey will dictate our direction
MSAD 11
I’ve attached Word versions of what we are sharing with staff and families. These are elementary examples and we have middle school and high school examples, if you want to see them. With grades 7-12, we will engage in more virtual ways. I’ve drawn from Steffany Tribou’s resources to help add greater clarity to our own resources. Again, another example of how we work better collectively than independently.
Click HERE for a copy of K-5 Family letter.
Click HERE for a copy of the Emergency Plan.
RSU 13
Here is their alternative work plan:
RSU 34
Cover letter:
RSU 38
Thank you all for working on behalf of students and their learning needs – and sharing collaboratively. At this time, Maranacook, in agreement with other districts in our Supt. region, is not offering distance learning resources or expectations for staff. All staff are getting paid for two weeks (until Mar 27) and then we’ll decide what the next phase might be. Also, we ARE offering pick-up meals.
RSU 107
I had developed a proposal for an online program to supplement our brick and mortar offerings, and then this happened before I could get it rolled out. The plan is in to the DOE for approval currently and I would be happy to share what I have developed.
Maine Connections Academy
Anyone can call and they will share their process for providing virtual education at Maine Connections Academy.
Valley Unified Eduction Service Center (MSAD27, MSAD33, and Madawaska)
South Portland School District, South Portland
Woodland High School, Baileyville
This is an overview of what we developed. Individual schools will have to determine which access system works for them (GoogleClassroom for us) and how they plan to track logins from students. A preliminary conversation with Gayle Erdheim at the DOE determined that we could track attendance through student login, which for us worked well because it can help with our truancy problem (like for social anxiety, etc.). The proposal was developed for students with diagnosed conditions (like concussions, operations, etc.) who couldn’t attend school – meaning, it wasn’t supposed to be a year long/just-don’t-feel-like-going-to-school kind of thing, but could possibly work in an emergency like we have now.
Click HERE to view their plan.
Other Resources:
FROM Kim Marshall:
In this extraordinary national emergency, millions of students are unable to go to school, and teachers are stretched thin attending to students’ learning needs, in many cases while home-schooling their own children. I’m sending along a variety of materials that might be helpful. First are some of my own classroom writings that are available free online. Then I’ve pasted in an excellent 2019 article by Nancy Flanagan from Knowledge Quest (summarized in Memo 802) with online links to free reading and instructional materials. I’m also attaching the list of online suggestions from the last item in this week’s Memo.
Here’s another idea. For teachers who are using Zoom with their homebound students, there’s a feature that allows the teacher to have up to 250 people in the “room” (for example, a seventh-grade teacher could assemble all 125 students from her five sections), deliver a mini-lesson, and then ask Zoom to split them into 42 three-person breakout groups, give them ten minutes to discuss a question, and then call the whole group back together for sharing and discussion. During breakout sessions and whole-class instruction, it’s possible for students to throw in ideas via the Chat function. Pretty neat!
One more idea. You might encourage colleagues to use this homebound time to explore the Marshall Memo archive, which has more than 8,000 article summaries from the last 16+ years. This might be for a study group, action research, or problem-solving in classrooms or teams. The powerful search engine at www.marshallmemo.com can find article summaries by topic, keyword, author, publication, and level (elementary, middle, high). Let me know if you need a reminder of your password so you can encourage maximum use of this resource.
Click HERE for a full list of his suggested resources.
MEA Benefits Trust
We have free services that we would like to offer the districts for their staff from our MAP program, these services are directly related to the COVID-19 and assistance that we can offer to them. Every year in the Spring we mail an MAP booklet to the principals- but this I would like to email to them if possible. I have attached the document that I would be emailing to them for you.
Click HERE for a list of their resources.
*Parents will be able to access This Organizational Tool this from our district webpage once we post it. I have created a series of folders (currently only accessible to RSU 13 employees as they update and upload their plans) so that we can post a copy of all plans centrally. Essentially, I made a folder for each school, a subfolder for each grade level K-8 and each subject area K-12.
*Planning Guidance for Teachers is based in large part from the MCLA suggestions and also includes support for teachers to upload their plans so that I can have them all in a central location.
Maine Curriculum Leaders’ Association (MCLA)
MLCA has compiled, and is continuing to compile, resources to support the planning for continuity of learning in the case of school closures and extended absences. Please use the link below to access the growing folder. MCLA Members, please note that this folder is no longer in the Member Drive since it is now open and available to all. We highly encourage districts to have response plans that include giving teachers time and support for making remote learning and extended absence plans.
The folder contains:
- Examples of remote learning plans and letters home, which will continue to be added to
- Tools to guide planning for remote learning
- Ideas for low-tech remote learning opportunities, including quick-quide sheets for each grade span
- As an example, one district is preparing big envelopes for each student with a printed sheet of these prompts, a single subject notebook, two pencils, and a pencil sharpener. Teachers/teams can add other things into the envelope, but there’s at least a “baseline” ready to go.
- A spreadsheet with ideas submitted from members is informing this work – please keep adding to it! (https://forms.gle/XiV9kvT9WfaZYN2NA ).
Weekly Zoom Meetings:
Wednesdays 9:00-10:00am
Join URL: https://zoom.us/j/426575203
special Invitation for
Wednesday 3/25
to include your district
Principals and Guidance Professionals
Topic: Thinking Through Some What Ifs?
NAESP