How Teachers Can Navigate School Closures Due to the Coronavirus

Updated with new resources on 7/31/20.

Use these tools and resources to navigate remote teaching and keep students engaged while they learn at home during school closures.

Professional Learning

Teachers everywhere are using this summer to adapt to new classroom environments and student needs. Whether you’ll be teaching on campus or online, these free resources can help you prepare for next year.

KQED Media Academy for Educators
The new KQED Media Academy for Educators offers a set of four free, instructor-led online professional development courses that prepare educators to make media with students to support curriculum goals effectively and meaningfully. These PD courses are open to all educators and will give you the skills and experience you need to connect the dots between digital citizenship, media literacy, 21st Century skills and national curriculum standards.

• 3 Ways to Turn Your Classroom Remote in a Hurry Get tools and resources to set up your classroom for distance learning.
• 4 Online Courses to Bring Media Into Your Remote Classroom Learn about safety and privacy, assessing media projects and more.
• Misinformation, Data Literacy and the Novel Coronavirus Teach about misinformation, media literacy and data literacy.

Online Learning Resources for Remote, In-Person or Blended Classrooms

Start lesson planning for fall 2020 with these trusted resources that will help you continue to provide meaningful learning experiences for students on or off campus.

KQED Learn
KQED Learn is a free platform for middle and high school students to tackle big issues and build their media literacy and critical thinking skills in a supportive environment. Create an account and assign students current events discussions to participate in with other students from around the country.

Youth Media Challenge
The  Let’s Talk About Election 2020 media challenge is a free, standards-aligned program for students to share their voice with an authentic, national audience on KQED Learn. Students address real topics from immigration to climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic and more through audio and video commentaries.

Above the Noise  
The Above the Noise video series cuts through the hype and dives deep into the research behind the issues affecting middle and high school students’ daily lives.

PBS LearningMedia
PBS LearningMedia is a Pre K-12 FREE online library of trusted, quality, curated resources from PBS and public media stations including KQED. These digital resources include short videos, lessons and interactive games. Start with these collections created to align with PBS educational broadcasting that may be carried by your local station:

• English Language Arts collection
• Math collection
• Science collection
• Social Studies collection
• Bilingual resources grades PreK-5

Get started with these digital resources with our free weekly webinars.

• Curating High-Quality Media for Online Instruction with PBS LearningMedia
  • 30 minutes, Wednesdays at 7:30am PDT. Register
• Critical Thinking and Online Discussions with KQED Learn
  • 1-hour, Tuesdays at 3pm PDT and Thursdays at 9am. Register

Summer Learning Resources to Share With Families in Your Community

Many communities are still partially or fully sheltering-in-place, which makes this summer extra challenging for parents, caregivers and their children.

• At-Home Learning resources page: List of recommended resources for families, including a special educational television schedule as well as free, online learning media and activities.
• Blog series with videos and activity ideas for older children.
  • Explore California
  • Explore Nature Around You
  • Explore Wellness
  • Explore Dance, Place and Culture
  • Family Summer Reading List
  • Explore Youth Voices
• Where to Get Free School Lunch in the Bay Area Help families find free meals to go.

Summer Educational Programming on KQED Public Television

KQED is broadcasting additional educational television programming, developed with PBS SoCal/KCET. This TV schedule is intended to help provide equitable access to learning throughout the summer. This special summer educational programming runs from June 15 to August 28 on KQED 9, KQED Plus and KQED World. See daily schedules for all KQED TV channels and get information on how to tune in. Summer programming is time blocked for different ages and grade levels.

• TK-3rd grade: weekdays from 6am – 2:30pm on KQED 9 and our PBS KIDS channel every day, all day
• 4th-8th grade: weekdays from noon – 3pm on KQED Plus
• 6-12th grade: weekdays 9am – 2pm on KQED World
• 9th-12th grade: weekdays from 3pm – 6pm on KQED Plus

These resources are shared as part of the At-Home Learning California Public Education Partnership.