August 2020: News You Can Use |
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A Cradle to Credential Initiative: A community response designed to help children and youth develop the capabilities, connections, and the credentials they need to flourish. |
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Our friends at the Greater Good Science Center suggest that August is a good time to "work through conflict and find the love!" We appreciate the interactive monthly calendars they share each month with a different focus. |
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Resources for Protecting Kids During the COVID-19 Crisis : |
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In times of crisis and economic insecurity, rates of child abuse and neglect increase. However, reports to Washington’s Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline have declined dramatically during the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. When children stay at home, they are isolated from places where adults often look out for their safety and well-being including schools, childcare facilities, places of worship and other public areas.
We need all adults to step up: family members, neighbors, essential workers serving families in grocery stores and pharmacies and delivering goods to homes and school professionals who are still working with children virtually. ALL ADULTS need to be aware of their responsibility to protect children. YOU are #Essential4Kids!
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While things have been ever-changing regarding impact of and responses to how Covid-19 is occurring within our community, we now know that the primary model of instruction in the fall for our region will be remote learning. This will be challenging for students, parents and educators alike. Included in this edition of News You Can Use are some items that might be useful. |
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Distance Learning Tools:
"Distance learning has become the new norm in education since the advent of school closures as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and teachers have adapted—with the help of some truly amazing online applications."
As we find ourselves in distance learning mode again this fall, one educator writes about 5 apps to enhance distance learning and course delivery:
ESSENTIAL DISTANCE LEARNING APPS
1. Flipgrid: Flipgrid is a free online application that allows students and teachers to record short, online videos. Teachers can easily create accounts and then within accounts create “classrooms.”
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Relationship Building in a Virtual Learning Environment?
Relationships matter. We know this. We've always know this.
It was hard enough to maintain relationships when Covid-19 first appeared and forced a quick pivot in the spring, but now having to build relationships with new students in the fall seems even more challenging!
The good news is the key components of what makes a good relationship such as respect, trust, and support haven't changed...and we can show genuine interest in their interests virtually!
We enjoyed this educator's list of 33 ideas to build relationships in virtual learning.
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Translating Mindfulness to Distance Learning:
Setting the groundwork...."begin by explaining how the brain works. Sometimes, knowing the science behind mindfulness can be just as important for a new practitioner as knowing what meditation is or how to do it. Explain to students the relationship between their amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Students should know that an “amygdala hijack” is a physiological response to stress that makes it harder for them to think, learn, or remember. While it is not their fault, it is something that they can learn how to control through mindfulness practices."
"Modeling mindfulness can show students how the process works. Do you start your day with a quiet cup of coffee or an inspirational quote? Talking about a ritual and why it excites you may add to a child’s bank of experiences even if they choose not to do the practice on their own. Modeling a mindfulness practice in online learning shows students that it can be a simple, quick, and accessible activity."
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Virtual "Back to School" Events:
Graduate Strong is assisting local schools pivot from traditional "back to school" events, where students and families often have an opportunity to learn about resources and support from community organizations.
This year we are collecting short videos from community partners for schools/districts to use in their back to school materials in electronic formats. If you are interested in submitting a video, click here!
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Tutorials for Students and Parents for Google and Other Apps:
Check out this FABULOUS hyperlinked sheet with tutorials for students and parents that will cover most of what you are likely to see utilized in a remote learning environment.
Be sure to click the tabs at the top- one is for all of the google apps, and the other one has other apps like seesaw and flipgrid. There's a "teacher" link too!
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Help for Parents/Caregivers and Kids: A Playbook from California's Surgeon General
While we take action to lessen the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on our communities and our health care systems, it is also important to minimize the secondary health effects of this pandemic. Widespread stress and anxiety regarding COVID-19, compounded by the economic distress due to lost wages, employment and financial assets, mass school closures, and necessary physical distancing can result in an increase of stress-related health conditions.
Parents and families are facing a lot during this pandemic. Working moms and dads must now be workers, parents, child counselors, and teachers all at once. And some parents also face new work environments, job loss, and interpersonal violence.
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Connecting and Supporting our Early Learning Partners:
Kindergarten Readiness Guide- Use this guide to help prepare your child for school. Don’t worry if your child can’t do everything on the list right now.
Use the items to set goals and remember that children grow and develop at different rates. The activities in this calendar are designed for 4 and 5 year olds who will be starting kindergarten next year. They will keep your child busy and learning from September to August. Use this calendar as a guide for fun ideas, but make up some of your own activities too. Be sure to include family members and friends. Have a wonderful year together getting ready for the big event – going to kindergarten!
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Free Community Resource Fair for Families with Young Children:
The Olympic Educational Service District (OESD) #114 Early Learning Department is holding a Kitsap County Early Childhood Resource Fair on Saturday, August 22 from 10am - 1pm at the OESD Parking lot at 105 National Avenue North in Bremerton.
Free and open to the public, the fair will connect families with young children with resources from local organizations that are available to assist and support their day-to-day health and social needs.
How You Can Help:
1) We are accepting informational handouts for our resource bags and essential items for the event from community-based and health care organizations interested in participating in the event. If you are an organization interested in participating, visit Organization Registration Form to register.
2) Please help us spread the word about the Early Learning Community Resource Drive-Thru Fair with the families you serve. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. NO REGISTRATION/TICKETS REQUIRED. RSVP IS FOR HEADCOUNT PURPOSES ONLY.
Questions: Contact Richele Strong can be reached at 360-782-5065. Her email address is rstrong@oesd114.org.
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YWCA: 21 Day Challenge Call to Action
For 21 days, nearly 4,000 Kitsap County community members committed to learning about how systemic racism impact BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) throughout history and presently in voting, education, criminal justice and public health. We, as a community, were given the amazing opportunity to lean in, listen and learn from our local Leaders of Color while they educated us about how racism manifests in Kitsap County.
Together we worked to identify specific actions we, as a community, can take to begin addressing racial inequities and social injustices right here in Kitsap County.
View the Call to Action. Share this Challenge and Call to Action with your friends, family and colleagues. One whisper, added to a thousand others, becomes a roar of discontent. Together we are EQUAL. POWERFUL. UNSTOPPABLE.
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21 Anti-Racism Videos To Share With Kids:
The United States has a racism problem. The idea of tackling such complicated and hurtful topics in our homes and classrooms is daunting, but we can’t look away. We MUST face it. Fortunately, we live in a time when technology provides resources, such as the anti-racism videos below, designed to support us as we navigate these difficult and painful conversations.
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Teaching Hard History:
In these videos from Teaching Tolerance, scholars and historians explore the Key Concepts of the Teaching Hard History framework by discussing slavery’s impact on the lives of enslaved people in what is now the United States and the nation’s development around the institution. They also explain how enslaved people influenced the nation, its culture and its history.
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Race, Equity and Education Convening:
The League of Education Voters is hosting a free virtual convening on Oct. 8 featuring Dr. Benjamin Danielson, director of Odessa Brown Children's Clinic, exploring the role of racial equity, diversity, access, and inclusion in our public education system.
COVID-19 has illuminated many areas of inequity in our educational system. Not every student has the same access online. Not every family has the support needed to tutor. We all have seen that in the last several months. But leaders in conversations around educational equity have long known that our schools are not equitable, especially when it comes to race. COVID-19 has given us an opportunity to have critical conversations and develop solutions together.
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