Massachusetts Dept of Ed has published a good set of recommendations for remote learning in #COVID19. Unions, school committees, supts, and charters signed on. It's got three big ideas... doe.mass.edu/sfs/emergencyp… 1/ #mapoli 
First, care for students. Prioritize keeping students fed and sheltered, supporting emotional needs and mental health, and attending to the most vulnerable students. 2/
Second, create opportunities for projects and enrichment. Schools should focus on student interests, family projects, and reinforcing previously taught skills over addressing new material or learning objectives. 3/
Third, set realistic expectations. Schools should aim for 50% of the time of a typical school day, divided among teacher check ins, academic activities, exercise, & art. (Exercise and art everyday people, the state says so.) if you have to grade things, go credit/no credit 4/
I endorse the whole document. This is a good plan. I'm sure there are places to be improved (SPED issues, testing, HS dual enrollment, college admissions) but this is a good start. So if you are a school trying to implement this plan, you have to do two things. 5/
First, you need to curate, publish, and distribute projects and enrichment materials. These need to be accessible in every dimension: multiple languages, universal design, low-bandwidth, printable, textable. I like this one from @KellyGToGo 6/ static1.squarespace.com/static/52eec36…
It's basically: journal two pages/day about life in a pandemic and read 30 min a day. Its relevant to student lives, extensible to students who want to go beyond, is low tech, and the basic instructions could go out in a text message. This is the best kind of simple. 7/
Before districts spend a whole bunch of time and energy spooling up new tech platforms, first see how much you can accomplish along these lines with your existing infrastructure. Curate, publish, and distribute as much as you can with what you have already in place. 8/
Second, after schools publish projects and enrichment, teachers need to coach and check in. I think teachers are looking for guidance from schools and districts about how to safely, fairly do that. 9/
Consider keeping checkins and broadcasts low tech: phone calls, email messages, SMS, and the like. If there are video messages, be sure to have a low bandwidth alternative. Using phone calls and text messages to reach those with weak internet connections. 10/
The harder ones are synchronous meetings, & peer work. As colleges have found with zoombombing (techcrunch.com/2020/03/17/zoo…) there are risks with opening up internet cameras in our homes. If schools have teachers and students doing this, they need some guidance and tech help. 11/
Do two things well: 1) Curate and publish projects and enrichment. 2) Check in with students and families. For most districts, it will be easier to do those 2 things with the existing tech infrastructure, rather than trying to rapidly spool up something new in a pandemic. 12/
Two more suggestions. Partner with students, families, and teachers. Through calls, surveys, or other means ask them: 1) how are you? 2) what's working that we can do more of? 3) what's not working, or what do you need? 13/
Coronavirus feels like something being done to us. But we can be collaborative about how we respond, so that this new remote schooling is something that we build together, not another thing done to us. 14/
Finally, under the best of circumstances, schools aren't going to do all the learning that usually happens in the spring. Think about the most important things students are missing now, and start planning for how we can address those missing pieces this summer and fall 15/
In many schools, time invested in planning for summer and fall may pay off more than whatever scrambling can be down this spring. My hat is off and my heart is with everyone trying to make this work. 16/16
