It is my hope that each of you receiving this newsletter is safe and healthy! Many of you know that, in addition to my role as arts coordinator at the San Diego County Office of Education, I am married to a music educator and the parent of two boys: One is a kindergartner and the other is a senior in high school. Like many of you, I am trying to balance my appreciation for more time with my family as I mourn the loss of the rites of passage that come with completing kindergarten and high school. I am struggling with making sure all four of us can get online to complete our work and attend our meetings even though our Wi-Fi isn’t always reliable. I am intrigued by the opportunities that exist now since we’ve needed to rethink how we educate our students. At the same time, I am disappointed to cancel countless learning events for the school year. I wish I had answers to all of our questions about what the future holds, but here is what I do know: I want my children to know their teachers and peers care about them. I want them to be excited about learning. I want them to have empathy for our family members, our community, and our world.
Please know that I care very much about each of you and the students and educators you work with in your schools and districts. I want you to be excited about learning all you can about teaching and learning during this time. SDCOE has put together a
list of resources by content area to help support you with distance learning. Please contact me with additional resources to add to the list as you find them, so I can share them with others. I can empathize with what you are going through as I am learning more about distance learning and watching my family and friends experience it. Please check out two of my favorite videos about empathy here:
Brené Brown on Empathy and
Sesame Street: Mark Ruffalo on Empathy.
Please
email me or use Twitter to
connect with me and others passionate about arts education during our chats each Wednesday from 4 to 4:30 p.m. Whether you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat before or are an expert, please
visit this link to see the questions and learn how to join the conversation. Search
#CaArtsEdChat to see previous conversations on the new state arts standards, best practices, and the great things happening in your classes. I’ll see you then!
VAPA Coordinator, SDCOE
858-292-3547
