In This Issue...

• Reflections from Suzanne Herko, Student Agency Coordinator
• RESOURCE: Distance Learning "Week at a Glance" Schedules
• LINK: Everything You Can Do with the Smithsonian Learning Lab
• VIDEO: How to Use Newsela for Remote Teaching
• LINK:  Please Do a Bad Job Putting Your Course Online
• VIDEO: Mindfulness Classes for Kids and Families

In This Issue...

• Reflections from Mary Plant-Thomas, AP Bio Teacher
• Avoiding the Dreaded Zoom Trolls
• LINK: Resources from the Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities
• VIDEO: How to Teach Remotely with a Google Slides HyperDocs Part II
• Resource: Distance Learning Check-In Guide

In This Issue...

• Reflections from Therese Arsenault, Math/Science Instructional Leader
• Everything You Need to Get Your Distance Classroom Up and Running
• Physical Education: Going the Distance While Social Distancing
• VIDEO: How to Teach Remotely with a Google Slides HyperDocs
• IFSEL’s Social Emotional Learning Tips for Distance Learning
• You Deserve A Night at the Opera

It has been an eventful week for us at Gateway Public Schools, as it has certainly been for most of you as well. Monday marked our first day back from Spring Break and the first day of our formal Distance Learning program, and with it the joy of “seeing” students again coupled with the anxiety of piloting a whole new way of teaching and learning for our community. Then Tuesday brought news that San Francisco would be joining the rest of the state and Bay Area in keeping campuses closed for the rest of the school year, meaning we are officially all-in on distance learning for the long haul. While this wasn’t entirely a surprise – in fact, it was the contingency staff were already planning for – the thought of our halls remaining silent for the rest of the year is, well, a bummer.

Wherever you thought the 2019-20 school year would take you, it probably wasn’t huddled over a webcam in your living room teaching students scattered across your city. But here we are, doing what educators always do even as news about the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter in place (for California) plans change daily: doing more with less, learning on the job, and honing our craft a little more every day. You are more than qualified to meet the challenge of the current moment, and our hope is our HomeRoom newsletter will be a forum to help us get there together.