Return to School 2020-2021: Pandemic Resources

Monroe One BOCES School Improvement/Model Schools has compiled this resource list.

NYSCATE, NY's state technology in education association, is free for educators to join. They are offering a series of webinars for teachers who may need help teaching remotely.

1.  THE ED TECH DR. IS IN 

NYSCATE is here to help you and your teachers. They have expert members who have volunteered their time to facilitate office hours for you to call in and ask any ed tech related question you or your teachers may have. Check out their website for information: http://www.nyscate.org/

2.  Webinar Series 

NYSCATE members stepped up and have put together a series of webinars, offered daily to assist educators in teaching and learning online.  Some of these are platform-based, others are content-based, but they are all segments to assist educators regardless of their level of expertise.  The full list of webinars will be released on Wednesday, March 18 and can be found on the NYSCATE website at www.nyscate.org.

3. Learning Keeps Going

NYSCATE's national partners, ISTE, COSN, SETDA and others, have joined forces to create an online clearinghouse of educational materials and resources available to teachers and families during this crisis.  The materials are standards aligned, and easily searched through the link www.learningkeepsgoing.org. 

Online ReadAlouds, Doodling/Drawing and Online Story Times:

10 am: Super Hero Story Time (Facebook)

12:30 pm (Mondays): Ben Clanton (Instagram)

1 pm: Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems, live at Kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems Includes downloadable activity pages

2 pm: Oliver Jeffers Stay At Home Storytime (Facebook)

3 pm: Mac Barnett Daily Read Alouds (Instagram)

LivBits has shared this schedule of read alouds.

Online Story Read Alouds:

• Author, Kate Messner, shares Read Alouds and organizes e-learning ideas by grade level on her web site
• StoryTime from Space - Listen to an astronaut aboard the International Space Station read a story!
• Save with Stories
• Storytime with Ryan and Craig
• Pernille Ripp's Website
• We Are Teachers Author Activities
• At Home with Kwame
• Quarantine Art Club with Carson Ellis

Your Local Public Libraries

Brighton Memorial Library (Mon, Weds, Fri 11:00 - 11:30 am) (Facebook)

East Rochester Public Library Songs (Facebook)

Henrietta Public Library Pajama Story Time (Facebook)

Mendon Public Library is offering a Free Temporary Card to Access Online materials

BookFestivals

We are really sad about the postponement of Teen Book Fest. But there is an alternative! Kid Lit Authors Organize Virtual Book Festival for May. Check out the Everywhere Book Fest, happening May 1 and 2.

Podcasts

Grace Lin launched a podcast this week called Kids Ask Authors. Authors answer questions from kids in this 10 minute podcast. 3 episodes per week. Available online at kidsaskauthors.com or wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Pocast app, etc.)

We Are Teachers offers a list of Podcasts for Kids

Information regarding your own read alouds

You may have heard that some publishers are allowing teachers and librarians to use their work to provide their own read-alouds to their students. This may or may not be true, depending upon the publisher. If you're looking to read from something other than a Penguin Random House or Scholastic book, please seek out their guidelines. Kate Messner has been doing a great job tracking these on her website.

Penguin Random House asks that all educators, librarians and booksellers please notify them via email (addressed to StoryTimeTempPermission@penguinrandomhouse.com) when you post or stream a story time or read-aloud video or live event, providing the following information:

• Name and address of the library, school, or store
• Title, author and ISBN of the book that is read
• Contact information for the individual responsible for the reading
• The educational or social media platform on which the video or live event is posted or held and a link to that video or live event

JK Rowling has granted access for educators to read aloud her work for students. Click here for restrictions.

Scholastic asks you to follow these guidelines:

1. At the beginning of your video, please state that you are presenting your reading “with permission from Scholastic.”

2. Their preference is that you post your reading through your school's platform or another closed group or platform with limited access for your students. However, they recognize this may not be possible, in which case you may post it through a more publicly accessible platform, such as YouTube.

3. Since they view this as a way to compensate for the closure of schools, please delete your video or disable access by the end of this current school year, no later than June 30, 2020.

4. Please reply to tradepublicity@scholastic.com with your name, school, city and state, and the title and author/illustrator of the book you intend to read online. By posting a reading, you are agreeing to abide by the above terms.

5. Finally, they would love to follow along with your read-aloud, so please tag Scholastic's social media handles in any posts affiliated with it!

Twitter: @Scholastic Instagram: @ScholasticInc Facebook: @Scholastic YouTube: @Scholastic

Beginning March 23rd, WXXI will program a daily "Learn at Home" schedule from 6am to 6pm on WXXI-TV 21.1/Cable 11/1221. Educational content bands will focus programming on PreK-3rd grade, 4th-8th grade, and 9th-12th grade.

Click here for the March 23 - March 27 schedule.

Click here for the March 30 - April 3 schedule.

Project ideas for students:

• Boost visual literacy and critical thinking skills by having students write about "What's Going On in this Picture?" by the New York Times. Published on Sunday nights, they take a photo from the Times and strip it of its captions. They ask three questions - what do you think is going on in this picture? Why do you think that? What more can you find? On Thursdays the NYT publishes the reveal of what is really going on in the photo. Do not tell your students to register. This is personally identifiable information.
• Use this same idea but with Poetry or other media types.
• Have students explore Wonderopolis
• Check out Scholastic's Learn at Home Resource for students grades K-6+
• Ask students to write one good question that they wonder about the world each day. When they are back at school, they can pick one and research the answer.

• "Staying Cool in the Library" by Kathy Cool offers free lesson resources K-5. She has also written a timely blog post offering information for school librarians who may be preparing for school closures. Find it here.

  Here is a link to her free Library Skills Activity Packet on Teachers Pay Teachers. This product contains 12 pages of worksheets and printables that cover grades K-5

• Check out these 10 Nonfiction Children's Books that Humanize Math
• We Are Teachers List of Ted Talks for Students

Science Experiments:

• Fizzics Education - A list of 150 science experiments from Fizzics Education (out of Australia), a company offering live science education opportunities through video conference.

Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES Distance Learning department compiled this list of free virtual field trips from museums