I really enjoyed your post on the power of storytelling during this pandemic. I also feel that listening to stories together is one of the most healing and restorative experiences for children. My school moved to online meetings a couple of months ago and lots of things have felt very different compared to experiences in the classroom. But when all the children huddle by their screens to listen to a story read by a teacher or through a screen share, it is almost like nothing has changed.

I wanted to add a book to your list of resources, though. I shared Yumi鈥檚 Rainbows in Windows with our Toddler/Preschool class because I thought it was the most approachable story about Covid-19 for young children. It addresses feelings of loneliness and uncertainty while also acknowledging that it probably also feels fun to wear pajamas all day. We ended our meeting by making rainbows. By providing children (and ourselves) with opportunities to process what is happening, we enable them to start conversations, to express their emotions creatively, and to lean on one another for support. Thanks for the great resources.

Thank you for bringing attention to both the social emotional learning of students and teachers. As we worry about what academics students will be missing out on during their time away from the classroom, it might be easy to overlook the important role that social emotional wellbeing plays in our ability to learn. Children who are scared or anxious will find it difficult to process new information or to focus on lessons or homework. In helping children to navigate those emotions, I think it is important to remember the relationships that students have with one another. Students typically maintain these relationships by chatting between lessons, saving a seat at lunchtime, or playing together during recess. By losing so much of their time together, students also lose the social emotional support and comfort that being with friends provides.

I think when possible it is important to make time and create opportunities for students to laugh together, play games, or do other fun things so that the community that is created in a classroom isn鈥檛 lost during our time apart.

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outlines best practices when delivering curricula in an online format. After reviewing 鈥淎ward-Winning Faculty Online Teaching Practices: Elements of Award-Winning Courses鈥� in the Online Learning Journal, edutopia notes that it is inadequate to simply take the material that is presented in the classroom setting and place it online. Instead, curricula must be designed with thoughtful intention to serve students through this particular format. Specifically, edutopia noted that online learning should be authentic and relevant, use a variety of multimedia resources, and that learning should have a clear purpose. Additionally, students should be encouraged to create their own rich content and to reflect on their learning process.聽

All of these points resonate closely with our process at 果冻传媒 during a typical school year on campus. Curricula design has always been a cornerstone of ucds. Although designing curricula for Distance Learning is a new feat, it has been crucial that we remain anchored by these values that remain quintessential to the 果冻传媒 process.

Using an online format, it is perhaps easy to settle into a delivery system of worksheets and practice drills. Designing content that is authentic and relevant, however, is a hallmark of 果冻传媒 curricula during a typical school year, and teachers ensured it remained a priority that was not lost during Distance Learning. We truly believe that online learning doesn鈥檛 necessarily equate to rote learning. Teachers held steadfast in their goal to design meaningful learning activities that are integrated and relevant to our current lives. Writing skills were practiced through leaving messages of kindness to our community helpers or through hand-written letters to our 鈥渂uddy鈥� classes. Students practiced data collection and analysis by designing surveys that can be administered to their household members (and beyond!). We carried our school theme, WAVE, throughout the spring as students in all grade levels tracked migrating salmon in our local Pacific Northwest waters.聽

Teachers embraced the delicate balance of holding live video classes with sharing rich curricula that students can complete at home away from screens and at their own pace. To serve all learning styles, teachers invited students to use a variety of modalities when engaging with content. In addition to teacher-designed printed materials, they also created short videos to explain new concepts, making them accessible for learning at home. For example, teachers demonstrated how to sort toys by different features and then challenged students to do the same and record their results. Teachers held video office hours, welcoming any student to pop in to ask questions to clarify their understanding, or simply listen in while teachers worked with other students, deepening their toolbox of problem-solving approaches. Teachers recorded themselves reading classroom Read Aloud books to serve those students who learn best when they can both see the words and hear them spoken.聽

Students were invited to share their learning through a variety of methods.聽 Some students made short videos to demonstrate their understanding, while others uploaded photos of their learning process. These creative methods allowed students the freedom to not be constrained to the page, and to fully capture the depth of their knowledge. Of course, while some tasks called for turning in more traditional-looking 鈥渁ssignments,鈥� teachers had the flexibility to individualize to each student if modifications were needed. The goal is that each student was gaining practice and showcasing their understanding in an individualized way that worked best for them. This approach aligns with edutopia鈥檚 assertion that students thrive when they can create rich content when engaging with curricula. This approach also primed students to reflect on their learning, another message in this article. Distance Learning challenged every student with a new way to go to school, and this new approach was ripe with opportunities to debrief their process and problem-solve through obstacles. Students gained a deeper understanding of who they are as learners and what they need to be most successful. Distance Learning also encouraged students to practice independence and self-management. 果冻传媒鈥檚 approach to student-centered Spring Conferences aligned with the idea that student reflection is an important part of the learning process, especially in this Distance Learning format.

All of these points lead to the final strategy noted by edutopia, 鈥渆xplanation of purpose.鈥� Students appreciate the 鈥渨hy鈥� of academic content. Even through a Distance Learning lens, 果冻传媒 strives to design meaningful learning activities through a wide range of modalities that are relevant and within a context. Inviting students to share their understanding in a variety of creative and individualized ways is respectful to different learning styles and propels student investment. This educational approach results in students who are primed to reflect on their process and who they are as learners. While Distance Learning may not have been the school program that families and teachers were expecting, this edutopia article provides solid guidance on how to embrace the process and support student success.聽

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Written in response to the Mill Neck International article, .

As more and more hearing educators and families learn more about deafness, Deaf Culture (lowercase d 鈥渄eaf鈥� implies medical deafness, capital D 鈥淒eaf鈥� signals Deaf Culture and whose within it), and sign language, more and more conversations arise regarding the 鈥渄ebate鈥� between cochlear implants and sign language. For years the debate has gone something like:聽

Hearing person: Cochlear implants are the only way to go because we want our children to be able to hear and talk just like us!聽

Deaf person: Sign language is the only way to go because it allows us access to our community and rich cultural history.聽

Both points of view have valid opinions, research, and feelings behind them. I鈥檓 not here to pick a side or tell anyone how to support their d/Deaf children and students. But I am here to say that sign language, beyond being a rich cultural language, can be an incredibly meaningful accessibility tool for d/Deaf people, diverse learners, and students with disabilities.聽

In 2013, Klaudia Krammaer published a research review, combining a huge amount of research deafness, sign language, its effects on language development, and how it affected children with and without cochlear implants. The central conceit of this review was that sign language is deeply beneficial for all children with hearing loss whether they wear a cochlear implant or not. So, I鈥檓 here to say that, regardless of if a child has an implant, regardless of the level of their hearing loss, we should all be using sign language (I鈥檓 using the term 鈥渟ign language鈥� since there are hundreds of different types of sign language and they all show similar language development results).聽

Sign language does not have a negative effect on the development of spoken language. It is actually the opposite! And this is something we see when we use baby signs for our infants and toddlers. I have a hearing student who came into class at a little over a year old and was having challenges communicating their needs. After introducing them to some key sign language phrases, they were able to begin asking for help both verbally and signed, communicating if they wanted milk, water, or food, and their physical behaviors with other children decreased due to this language access. This child is now 18 months old and is right on track with verbal language development. No delays have occured because we used ASL, in fact, it supported them as they jump-started their communication skills. This example is with a hearing child, but this type of experience is seen with d/Deaf children with implants as well.聽

Used in a classroom, sign language can support all students鈥� language learning and brain development. It鈥檚 widely accepted that different people learn in different ways and it is being researched more and more that using our bodies can activate and help our brains retain and learn information more concretely. As a body-based and visual language, sign language can support d/Deaf students having access to a language that meets their needs, and it can also support hearing students working on developing other language skills.聽

Sign language can deeply support nonverbal children and children who have challenges finding their voice. In work with young children, we work with children with disabilities. We work with students whose development is on a different path than the majority of people in their classes. Whether a student is nonverbal all the time or becomes nonverbal due to a nervous system override when something stressful happens, sign language can be a deeply valuable tool. Not only can it support nonverbal students in making their immediate needs met, but it can help them create connections and feel more supported than if they kept being asked to communicate in a verbal or verbal-centered way. It simply allows our spaces to be more accessible and equitable for students of all abilities and students with different processing needs.聽

Finally, sign language makes spaces more equitable for d/Deaf people. Starting this equity early on in the home and at school can make a world of difference as d/Deaf children grow. While they will always be d/Deaf, they do not always have to be marginalized for their hearing differences if they have access to sign language in their everyday life. Whether a child has an implant and is simultaneously working on learning verbal language or they are Deaf and proud not to engage in verbal languages, sign language supports our ability to communicate with our children and students, and makes d/Deaf children feel they have access and space in a hearing dominated world.聽

All in all, the message from Krammaer鈥檚 review, and the message I have gathered after working in the Deaf community with students with and without implants, is that there is no harm that can come from using sign language. There are only neutral and positive outcomes. If you are looking for more ways in which to make your classrooms or other educational spaces accessible to many different students, including d/Deaf students, sign language is a wonderful tool as well as a beautiful way to integrate a wide array of cultures into the classroom.聽

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Written in response to the ASCD article by Dena Simmons,

Working for an independent school usually means working with a higher proportion of white students. It also means that those of us who are white teachers have more need to dismantle racism and white supremacy in our classrooms. Sometimes it can be hard to see this obligation when we do not have high numbers of students of color to whom we directly associate effects of race-based discrimination.聽

Racism and white supremacy affect everyone in our society, from our relationships with communities of color to the ways in which we relate to power dynamics in our classrooms. Engaging in anti-racist teaching practices, especially in primarily white spaces, allows us to dismantle aspects of white supremacy without relying on students and teachers of color to provide the education for us or re-hash oppression and microaggressions they face in their daily lives.聽

Dena Simmons provides a clear framework for anti-racist practices in the classroom:聽

1. Engage in Vigilant Self-Awareness
2. Acknowledge Racism and the Ideology of White Supremacy聽
3. Study and Teach Representative History聽
4. Talk about Race with Students聽
5. When You See Racism, Do Something聽

These tactics and ideals are deeply important for classrooms and teachers of all demographics and I want to share some of the applications of these frameworks I have used.聽

1. Engage in Vigilant Self-Awareness: Self-awareness means I am not always the teacher. There is a growing understanding that the teacher-learner dynamic is more flexible than it used to be viewed. In my classroom, I try to engage in this flexibility each day. I do not create arbitrary rules based on my own discomfort. If a child is choosing to go head first down the stairs I do not stop them, but ask, instead, how I can support them through that experimentation while also keeping them safe. Usually the answer is not to say 鈥淒on鈥檛 go down the stairs head first鈥� it is responding by letting them know they might get a head bonk or supporting their falls so they don鈥檛 get hurt, but experience the tumbling feeling. Giving students as much agency and power as possible in the classroom and taking a step back to become and observer and/or supporter decenters the white supremacist view that all adults are power-holders and all power-holders have the final say.
   
2. Acknowledge Racism and the Ideology of White Supremacy & Talk about Race with Students: Recognition of racial differences begins around 3 years old when students are developmentally working on recognizing differences in the people in their communities. That means we should begin talking about racism and white supremacy when students around three years old when these first observations are coming up. However, if students are not surrounded by racial diversity in their educational spaces, it becomes our job as educators to introduce these topics at the appropriate developmental stage. To tap into their natural inclination to recognize difference so we can explore diversity and support students in becoming advocates for equity. This could mean using diversity supplements such as dolls, books, videos, or making intentional time to occupy diverse spaces with students. It could mean bringing in community members who look different than the children in your classroom. It could mean any number of things taking into account resources and children鈥檚 interests. Creating these spaces to notice and talk about race and racism will create meaningful conversations and set the stage for children to engage in anti-racist actions later on.
   Talking about racism as a white educator also means taking responsibility for your actions and the actions of other white people. We cannot portray ourselves to our students as 鈥済ood white people鈥� because that is a trope that does not exist. We must own our biases and talk about them openly, allowing space for our students to feel comfortable owning the fact that they benefit from white privilege and it will mean a life-long unlearning process. When we own and acknowledge the harm our communities have caused communities of color and implement intentional space to reflect upon it, ask questions about it, and brainstorm ways to begin to heal harm, our students enter the world with a lens prepared to support and uplift others.
   
3. Study and Teach Representative History: Teachers at all levels, in all subjects, and with all students are history teachers. Whether you have a classroom full of toddlers or high school seniors, you will inevitably be teaching history. Therefore, that history has to be representative. No matter the racial makeup of your classroom, and especially if you have mostly white students. As white folks, we always see ourselves represented, so we must show our students as many representations of being human as we can. Maybe one day we can get to a point where people of color are the central represented people in our history teachings!
   In my classrooms, representative history has looked like playing traditional music from a variety of cultures. It has looked like sharing important people from varying backgrounds. It has looked like engaging in discussions with families about their histories and how they relate or differ from others in the class. Representative history opens our doors to so much more creativity, curriculum ideas, and engaging material for students in addition to creating a foundation for more open views of the world.
4. When You See Racism, Do Something: Racist things will happen in your classroom. That is a fact of many children sharing space with one another. Whether it鈥檚 targeted interactions to students of color or white children making hurtful remarks, it will show up. Therefore, we must address it and support our students in changing their behavior and viewpoints. We must go beyond 鈥渨e don鈥檛 say things like that鈥� and move towards the understanding of why these actions are hurtful, why they are unacceptable, and how we can help heal relationships that may have been damaged through these actions.
   Whether talking to a three-year-old or a high schooler, if we create space to discuss with the student why their actions were hurtful, they gain knowledge of how to more fully support their peers and increase their comfort sitting with challenging topics, both ways we can be more anti-racist.聽

Being an anti-racist educator is work. It鈥檚 hard work. It鈥檚 often uncomfortable. But it鈥檚 necessary. We have the privilege to be working with young folks who have the power to change much about their individual and collective lives and promote anti-racist work, values, and actions. As white people, with white students, we have the power to raise-up voices of people of color, do our own unlearning, and create a more equitable educational and social space for people of color in our communities and our society as a whole.

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When I first learned about the leveling system created by Fountas and Pinnell, I was getting my Master鈥檚 Degree in Teaching Reading. These two researchers created their system to describe complexity in books, and they measured a number of factors ranging from size of text to the complexity of theme. Their intent was for teachers to use this as a tool to form small reading groups and guide the children in those groups toward deeper understanding. For years I used their assessments and taught guided reading groups. Never did I tell the kids 鈥渢heir level鈥� as is so often done these days. Because it鈥檚 not about the kid. These levels are designed to describe books, not children. It seems to me that when teachers give a child 鈥渢heir level,鈥� they are being lazy or uninspired, or simply don鈥檛 know the limiting effect that labeling can have on kids. I鈥檓 so glad that this article was published in SLJ, as I hope it makes its way into many school libraries and then into the hands of teachers who can speak up about this ever-growing problem!

While I鈥檝e yet to read Lydia Denworth鈥檚 new book, Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and the Extraordinary Power of Life鈥檚 Fundamental Bond, I believe in the importance of connection. I see that every day as a classroom teacher. Every child in that room has the drive to connect with their peers and teachers. Some of them are naturals in this area, attracting others to them, while others need a lot of coaching on how to initiate conversations or practice perspective taking. While reading Edward L. Deci鈥檚 book on motivation (Why We Do What We Do), I discovered the idea that relatedness is actually a basic psychological need in human beings, similar to Denworth鈥檚 claim. Given that connections to others is so important to our health and well-being, it seems critical that we, as teachers, make social emotional learning essential to the daily classroom routines.

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