Plus, our on demand webinar Morningside Center NEWSLETTER Dear Morningside Center friends, We hope that you, your family and friends are safe and well. With the coronavirus pandemic upon us, courageous educators here in NYC and across the country are now venturing into the world of remote learning with their students -- or at least those students who can access a computer and high-speed internet. (Now is the time to close the digital divide!) Although the focus has been on students' academic learning, we know that now more than ever, our young people need to connect, share how they're feeling, and get support from each other and adults. See below for lots of ideas for using our virtual classrooms to build community and address students' social and emotional needs. We also want to send our support and sympathy to those who have already lost loved ones and colleagues to the coronavirus, including staff, students, friends, and family of Dezann Romain, principal at Brooklyn Democracy Academy in Brownsville, who died of complications of Covid-19 on March 24. Today is International SEL Day The times definitely call for social and emotional learning, and as it happens, today is International #SELDay. To honor it, we'll be sharing some extra-timely SEL Tips with you on FB & Twitter today. Follow us, if you aren't already, and share, including with parents you know who are coping with family quarantine. You can find all of our our SEL tips here. Coronavirus & Remote Learning: Lesson Plans & Resources How Can We Support our Students During this Pandemic? Young people need support and encouragement now more than ever. We can create a caring community for our students now - whether we're connecting at school or online. 10 Tips for Moving Your Classroom Community Online As schools and districts shift to online learning in response to the coronavirus, we educators need to create supportive and caring classroom communities in this new virtual environment. Here are ten tips for doing it. If your staff, or your students, are coming together via an online platform, these simple activities, built around poems, may help you as a you create a new, supportive virtual community. Virtual Gathering for Adults | Virtual Gathering for Students Sample Virtual Community Guidelines for School Staff It's helpful to create community guidelines for our online gatherings of staff - during the coronavirus pandemic, or at any time. Here are some sample guidelines from a recent online gathering of Morningside staff. Guidelines for Addressing the Coronavirus Young people need a supportive, caring, and constructive environment where they can learn about, discuss, and share their feelings about the coronavirus. Here are some strategies for shaping the conversation. What does the Pandemic Reveal about Our Public Health Systems? Students consider how the coronavirus pandemic has revealed gaps in our public health system, amplifying calls for universal health insurance and a national paid sick leave policy. All of our coronavirus lessons can be found here. On Demand Webinar: Culturally Responsive Instruction If you didn't join us on Wednesday for our webinar, Culturally responsive instruction: tools to create a welcoming classroom for all, it's now available on demand, for free! And if you already participated, here's the evaluation tool. It could happen any time, tornado, earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen. Or sunshine, love, salvation. --William Stafford, from his poem Yes Visit our website Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility www.morningsidecenter.org ‌ ‌ ‌ Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility | 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 550, New York, NY 10115 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | About Constant Contact Sent by [email protected]