Plus, a video poem to encourage & inspire Morningside Center NEWSLETTER Dear Morningside Center friends, We send you our warm thoughts and best wishes once again this week, as this crisis wears on. It's a time when many of us are realizing the importance of taking care of ourselves. How can we help our young people develop this capacity? In this issue, we offer activities aimed at helping young people (from K-12) find their own ways of caring for themselves through music. Plus, Daniel Coles shares the uplifting poem Sometimes with you and your students. We are heartbroken by the loss of our beloved friend and colleague, Edwin Figueroa. Edwin, a long-time Morningside Center staff developer, passed away earlier this month from Covid. Last week, our staff shared our grief over losing Edwin, and our joy to have known him. Many spoke about how Edwin exuded kindness, warmth, and concern, every day - and about his decades of service to make schools, communities and the world a better place. An equitable place. "Edwin showed what love looks and feels like in action," said our staff member Daniel Coles. Our staff developer Nelida Espina, who worked closely with Edwin, said, “Your light will last an eternity. Blessed Edwin TE AMO!” New on TeachableMoment Using Music to Teach Self-Care Music can be healing, uplifting, and calming for both adults and children. In these lessons, young people experience how we can use music to care for ourselves during times of stress - including through movement, dancing, sing-alongs, and homegrown choirs. for grades K-2 for grades 3-5 for middle & high school Check out our growing Covid Crisis Support lesson series. Also, see Self-Care for Educators & Caregivers. Poem Reflection: Sometimes Listen to the poem Sometimes, and reflect on it with your students. What we're reading We Might Have Gotten Remote Learning Wrong. We Can Still Fix This School Year. "What occurs in the final weeks of our school year will have a huge influence on how students feel about—and make future decisions related to—learning and schooling, and we should do everything possible to ensure that they carry a positive feeling forward." By Larry Ferlazzo at EdWeek Teacher What Will It Take to Stabilize Schools in the Time of COVID-19? "Schools will likely also need to increase investments to meet the social, emotional, and mental health needs of their students who will be struggling with the stress and trauma of this pandemic and who have been largely isolated from their peers and other adult support systems for some time." By Michael Griffith at the Learning Policy Institute The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying "The pandemic has exposed the bitter terms of our racial contract, which deems certain lives of greater value than others." By Adam Serwer at The Atlantic Who’s being hit hardest by New York’s budget crisis? Its highest-poverty school districts. "The big takeaway is that high-poverty districts are getting disproportionately impacted by the covid crisis..." By Matt Barnum and Reema Amin at Chalkbeat "The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow that seemed hard frozen."  - From the poem Sometimes 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]