By Bena Kallick and Allison Zmuda
Stories are pouring in from all over the world — each rich with curricular ideas that resonate not only for the moment but also for the future. This is a time when our dispositions really matter. Each of these contributions shows how the authors are thinking flexibly and their intentions are to spark your thinking and help you build the mind-muscle for you, your learners, and your colleagues.
Without further fanfare, here are ideas that have been curated as well as created for our community. Interact with these blog posts and share your stories.
- We launch with a blog post from Allison and Heidi Hayes Jacobs—Curriculum Triage: How do we manage the instructional challenge right now?
- Allison partners with Mike Fisher to turn down the volume on all of the ideas and actions that are shouting for teachers’ attention. Allison and Mike offer a remote learning map to encourage educators to “think like a filter not a dump truck.”
- Katie Muhtaris, instructional digital age coach and curriculum developer, pens a blog post on looking at learning through an empathy lens.
- Regular blogger Craig Gastauer returns with his compelling post “Now More Than Ever… Clarify the Purpose Behind the Assignment” inspired by a story from a former student.
- We are thrilled to welcome 2nd grade teacher Soroya Smith as a new author with two blog posts on Amplifying Voice in Remote Learning. The first post shares how she is using technology platforms to continue to grow a relational culture where everyone’s voice matters. The second post clarifies the need for establishing and monitoring a safe space for voice. She offers concrete actions that are essential regardless of the age of the learner.
- Allison came across Matt Renwick’s original post on remote reading conferences and she was immediately intrigued by the idea. Matt was generous enough to write a follow up, “Growing Readers Remotely: Three Types of Questions for Personalizing Reading Assessment.”
- Finally, we return to Meghan Raftery’s “Mom School” with an update on how things are going two weeks into remote learning with her son. Love that she and her son starts the day with Habits of Mind. … “To start Jude’s day on the right foot, we are introducing a daily Habit of Mind using a free trial from WonderGrove Learn. So far, this has been a great way for us to set the tone for the day. We are watching each video through once before we decide how this will be part of our goal setting.”
Thank you for your continued support in following our content!
All the best,
Bena and Allison
