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" DET site page assist learning from home. They will continue to update this page in the coming weeks. On this page: Learning continuity contingency planning: early childhood and Learning continuity contingency planning: schools Online options Offline options Tips for remote curriculum delivery  Learning continuity contingency planning: early childhood When planning for children's learning continuity in the event of closure, early childhood education and care services may consider: identifying ways early childhood teachers and educators can initiate group or individual contact with children to maintain learning opportunities implementing activities with children by using available technologies maintaining contact with families to discuss and track the wellbeing of children and discuss the progress of children's development identifying ways educators can improve the implementation and documentation of the service's program and maintain educator practice. There are resources services can provide to support parents and carers to engage in learning activities with their children at home: Play-based learning for pre-schoolers - provides suggestions for good structured and unstructured play experiences for 3 - 5 year olds How to build literacy skills from birth to year 2 - includes tips on how to help build children's skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing How to build numeracy skills from birth to year 2 - includes tips on how to build children's skills in maths, measurement and patterns Building STEM skills for children - includes ways to engage children with STEM related experiences. Raising Children Network also has a range of learning activities for pre-schoolers. It includes tips and ideas as well as videos of drawing, writing, storytelling, counting and other activities that can be done at home. Services may also want to give parents information about talking to their children about COVID-19. For example: UNICEF's How to talk to

A reflection about one school library faculty's goal of creating a positive learning environment with space that would help students and teachers develop real-world connections and the approach they took to creating it. The ideas for the space included housing the collection, helping students and teachers collaborate, being a hub for learning with a flexible floor plan and supporting newly developing areas in educational technology. The school decided to create a learning commons to move beyond traditional thinking about libraries and respond to what the kids and teachers really needed. The faculty envisioned their environment to be developmentally appropriate for their young students, as well as to foster a sense of creativity, inspiration, and encourage dialogue and a sense of community. The new learning commons library offered more space for stacks, added conference rooms and a lounge area, but the learning commons concept informed more than the library. These design changes increase opportunities to be inspired by student work and performances and create stronger interpersonal connections among students and faculty.

"Remote learning is a major opportunity for schools to refine their lesson planning and delivery. The efforts of teachers to adapt classes to online platforms has been nothing less than heroic. Now we have the chance to incorporate the ingredients that create effective remote learning, accelerate expertise and enhance the experience of our students.  The rapid shift to remote learning has been unprecedented and we are all learning as we go through this. At its worst, remote learning can be disorienting and disconnecting. We all need to be innovative in creating learning that is engaging and involving for our students. The ideas in this paper are derived from the author's research and work with schools of the air and distance education as well as his work with students who have been unable to attend school due to mental health issues.  "

"Today's students require strategies that support their acquisition of knowledge, allow them to save their notes across devices, permit them to search through vast quantities of information, and share their learning with the rest of their community. Before blaming a device-either the pen or the laptop-we need to identify what is best for individual students by considering what I call the four S's of note taking. Does the system students are using: 1. adequately support the students' learning needs? 2. allow students to save their notes to multiple locations? 3. let students search for salient points? 4. permit students to share with peers and teachers?"

"A good chart featuring some important tips to help your students be smart learners. You can use this chart in your class with your students as a motivator to boost their learning moral or as a checklist for assessing their learning habits. While some of these tips are straightforward such as tip 6, 9, 11, other tips are a bit generic (tip 23, 25,26). Overall, these suggested tips cover several skills students need to work on to be better learners. These skills include sensory-motor skills, communicational skills, emotional skills, inter and intrapersonal skills, and critical thinking skills. They also touch on key areas integral to effective learning including: introspection, creativity, confidence, imagination, networking, passion, sharp observation, experimentation among many others."

Options for teachers to make virtual learning or distance learning work for all your students. CommonSenseEd has put together a list to assist teachers (The best tools for virtual and distance learning tools to build great learning). Tools to build great learning experiences for remote students. They have grouped the tools according to some key needs teachers may have when setting up virtual classrooms.

"Podcasts are a great way to help strengthen student listening skills. Podcasts are audio (and sometimes video) recordings similar to a radio program or television episode. A wide range of organizations and individuals host podcasts and share their thinking around a topic through this medium. There are a wide range of podcasts to choose from. If you are teaching a specific subject area, you can search for a related podcast to find a clip to share with your students. Teachers can use podcasts to help students build listening skills. By listening to a narrator tell a story or an expert discuss a topic, podcasts can help students strengthen their ability to gather information through multimedia." The author also links to another post where she shares some of her favourite kid-friendly podcasts.

There are many tools available for students to publish their ideas to in the year 2015 and you no longer need a great knowledge of HTML and CSS. With the surge of online blogging and publication systems, students now have many opportunities to express their thoughts and ideas with the added chance of getting global feedback on those insights. The author of this post offers a list of some of the online publication tools they recommend that enable students to post their creative impressions on."

"Genius Hour in the classroom is an approach to learning built around student curiosity, self-directed learning, and passion-based work. In traditional learning, teachers map out academic standards, and plan units and lessons based around those standards. In Genius Hour, students are in control, choosing what they study, how they study it, and what they do, produce, or create as a result. As a learning model, it promotes inquiry, research, creativity, and self-directed learning."

"Managing your digital identity is a skill that everyone needs to learn and educators should be teaching their students about. In a digitally focused world students may not understand the implications of what is shared via social media. Teachers need to be fully aware and proactive and start teaching students about the effects of their on-line activity and how to manage their own digital footprints."

The role of the school librarian is to guide students and fellow educators through the intersection of formal and informal learning. The instruction the school librarian offers is integral to a well-rounded education. As educators and instructional partners school librarians are critical to teaching and learning in the school community. The school librarian plays a prominent role in instructing students, faculty, and administrators in a range of literacies, including information, digital, print, visual, and textual literacies. As leaders in literacy and technology, school librarians are perfectly positioned to instruct every student in the school community through both traditional and blended learning.

Descriptors: Learning Culture, Learning Environments, Deeper Learning, Partners in Learning

A useful annotated list of collaboration tools. "The right strategies will enable instructors to conceive and create interesting, informative learning coursework, activities and exercises that will fuel students' hunger for learning more. Also this will encourage them to open up towards their instructors and other students in their group who can ably support them by offering thoughtful advice and tips. So implementing right strategies and using proper tools for implementing them, is a must for facilitating learning through online group collaboration."

"Teacher-librarians employ their unique expertise as they walk students through the learning library and demonstrate how to navigate databases and locate resources. They also sharpen research skills by helping students understand the validity of information and evaluate it by recognizing bias and persuasion in various sources. If teachers are open to it, the teacher-librarian can become a valuable support for teacher practice and student academic growth."

A compilation (annotated) of useful resources for students learning

"In our digital society, the concept of what to share in public is hard for kids to understand. And it's harder for adults to pass on sage wisdom because we're also still figuring it out ourselves. While students are grappling with, "Should I post that picture of myself dancing absurdly at that party?", teachers are grappling with the question, "Should I post that picture of myself dancing absurdly at that party?" Teaching about citizenship is an excellent opportunity for teachers to be learners alongside their students." Ideas on how to learn and share are suggested in rest of post.

"A collection of a number of websites that teachers, parents and students can use to help guide student reading selections. The aim : to assist students to find books to that they really like, then they'll be more inclined to make time in their busy schedules for reading."

"Children are heartily encouraged to read in their early years of school. However, once students have mastered this skill and they move from learning to read, to reading to learn, the role of pleasure in the activity can be forgotten. If reading is just seen as a tool for learning, the will to read may not be fostered in young people. Recreational book reading involves voluntary reading for pleasure, and research suggests that students in Australia and internationally are reading less over time."

"3D printing and hands-on learning opens up new worlds to some students"

"The culture of any library should not only encourage meaningful student learning, but also provide the tools, resources, and opportunities for students to thrive and flourish. The impact of these types of transformations on libraries can support all learners and encourage them to contribute to building a more dynamic and creative community."