COVID-19 K-12 Resources

Here are selected resources to support K-12 teachers’ work during the pandemic – including links to some useful websites and a LiDA eModule on remote teaching practices where you can learn on your own choosing the level of depth you desire, lessons learned shared by other teachers, and a series of “tweets” highlighting various resources.

Top Four Sources We Trust for Guidance During this Pandemic:

Many organizations have been creating online resources to support teaching during the pandemic. Here are links to a short selection of these sites we found particularly valuable:

  1. Common Sense Education’s Resources for Educators During the Coronavirus Pandemic – a collection of ideas and tips to support teaching during times of school closure for K-12 educators, parents, and advocates, created by Common Sense Education 
  2. COVID-19 – Learning Keeps Going – a similar website for teachers, leaders and parents, created by ISTE in collaboration with other organizations
  3. EDC’s Resources for the COVID-19 Crisis – a collection of information about the coronavirus pandemic and how to support students emotionally, as well as online instructional resources, created the Education Development Center (EDC) 
  4. EDUTECH’s Resources for Emergency Planning – website created by the Genesee Valley/ Wayne Finger Lakes Educational Technology Service that is especially relevant for Consortium district members

eModule on High-Leverage Teaching Practices for Remote Teaching

This eModule was designed by the LiDA Center to empower teachers with different backgrounds and interests to use a few powerful “online teaching practices” that are applicable to all subjects and topics.

Multiple pathways to use the materials are suggested, allowing for individual choice and different levels of depth.

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Lessons learned from Noyce Master Teachers

These “lessons learned” from teaching during the pandemic have been shared by a few K-12 teachers who participated in the NSF-funded UR Noyce Master Teachers Program: Preparing Highly-Qualified STEM Teacher Leaders for Urban Schools (Phase II) (award #1540712).

Facilitating remote projects with young children

Dr. Marie Rice, kindergarten teacher, Wilson Academy, Rochester City School District

How can we create meaningful activities for young students to do on their own remotely?  Providing a good structure and guidance is critical.

As a concrete example, I am sharing the set of slides I created to guide my kindergarten students through the challenge of “building the tallest free-standing snowman using only the materials provided”, following an engineering design process.This handout for teachers provides additional information about how to prepare for and facilitate this experience

Adapting successful teaching practices to a remote setting

Michaela Marino, math teacher, East Lower School, Rochester City School District

Teaching remotely does not mean you have to totally change your successful classroom routines – there are ways to adapt practices that worked before to an online environment!

Here are three examples of how I was able to do so successfully:

  1. Students’ self-assessment rubrics to determine a “daily grade”
  2. Building community through Acknowledgements, Apologies and Ahas
  3. Engaging students in “Summary Discussion” at the end of inquiry-based units

Leveraging Pear Deck to increase student engagement in online lessons

Mark Foster, math teacher, East Upper School, Rochester City School District

How can we better engage students in synchronous online lessons?  This has been the biggest struggle as my district decided to go fully online during the pandemic.  I found Pear Deck a very powerful tool to foster students’ interactions during my math lesson. Here are my reflections and lessons learned from using Pear Deck in my math synch lessons.

Supporting the planning of remote lessons

Lisa Zeller, , Rochester City School District

As a science coach, I have tried to support other science teachers in designing remote lessons that meet the Next Generation Science Standards. 

In this 5-minute vlog I report on a specific experience involving a remote science curriculum planning day I held with two teachers, and the lessons I learned from it.I am also sharing two tools I have found useful to guide the planning of phenomenon-based science unit template and daily lessons for a virtual learning setting.