Monday, March 16, 2020

Good morning, teachers, school leaders, parents and guardians. Across the country many of us are embarking on a journey to figure out how to educate our students remotely. At Inspired Teaching we’re creating resources for teachers, parents/guardians, and students so that remote learning can also include engaged and meaningful learning. We recognize some teachers and students will have access to and experience with sophisticated platforms that will make it easy to engage virtually, while others will have limited access to technology and may also have minimal experience engaging virtually. The activities we’ll share are designed for you to adapt to your, and your students’, needs, interests, and level of access to and comfort with technology. Some can be as simple as encouraging your students to take a walk outside and write up their observations. Others can be as complex as learning to monitor heart-rates. 

We are creating these activities in real time – and will share more each day. Our activities reflect the context of the day on which we share them. For instance, a number of our activities involve going outside and engaging, from a distance, with others, as that is in line with current recommendations. If and when things change, we’ll offer different activities that can be accomplished within recommended safety guidelines.

Most activities are designed for a teacher to use to engage a whole class of students; however they can and should be adapted for use by a parent/guardian with one or a few children at home. Some activities offer opportunities for adults and children who live in the same home together to engage together. However those activities can also be adapted for children to do alone, so that parents/guardians who are working (either at their desktops or outside the home) can offer their children engaging things to do.

Some activities are fully articulated, with detailed instructions and adaptations for different ages and grade levels. Other activities take the form of ideas, to spark your imagination and get you and your students started. If there are specific kinds of activities you’d like to see, let us know. If you have an idea or activity to share, let us know. We encourage you to share your experiences with these activities another approaches you’re using via the hashtag #Inspired2Learn. 

We look forward to collaborating with all of you over the coming days and weeks to keep engaged learning at the center of our children’s educational experience.

All the best,

Aleta Margolis, Jenna Fournel, and the entire team at Center for Inspired Teaching