April-2020-Special-Edition

LEADING

2 CEA ADVISOR SPECIAL EDITION • APRIL 2020

TAKING CARE OF YOUR EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING We hope this message finds you safe and well. As the current public health crisis has upended our daily lives and routines, our top priority is your health and safety. Who would have thought that we would be here today, with schools closed, teachers thrust into distance learning with little to no notice or training, and kitchen tables turned into school desks and workspaces? We are proud of everything you are doing to keep your students engaged during these difficult times, and we are answering your questions and keeping you informed about changes that impact you and your students. (See FAQs on pages 4-5.)  Teachers throughout the state are doing all they can to ensure students’ and families’ social and emotional well-being and boost their morale. social isolation, and caring for family members while working. CEA, meanwhile, has been advocating for teachers, holding regular weekly meetings with the state education commissioner, providing and receiving guidance on education policy and practices during the pandemic, and developing and hosting free professional learning so that members can adapt to the new and changing realities of distance learning. Speaking up for teachers, students CEA Executive Director Donald Williams has been tapped to serve on the Education Subcommittee of Governor Ned Lamont’s Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group. “Any reopening of schools will require comprehensive testing, tracing, and tracking, and plenty of personal protective equipment in order to safeguard the health of students and adults,” Williams noted in the group’s first meeting, held on April 21. He added, “Such testing is not currently being conducted in a comprehensive way anywhere in the U.S., and we cannot allow our teachers and their students and families to become ‘collateral damage.’” Williams noted that Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona expressed that Connecticut needs the summer to plan and have the resources necessary if schools are to reopen safely and successfully in the fall. Advocating for teachers’ rights, education budgets CEA UniServ Representatives have been hard at work in districts throughout the state ensuring that teachers are not compelled to be in school buildings under conditions that put them at risk. From Andover to Woodbridge, they have also been tracking virtual budget meetings, hearings, and

This is happening quietly, with notes of encouragement shared across Google Classroom. It is happening through video and song, such as 2019 Connecticut Teacher of the Year Sheena Graham’s original composition “While We Wait,” which made its national debut April 21. (Watch at cea.org/2020- coronavirus/form ). It is taking on the sights and sounds of headlights and car horns as teachers organize motorcades through students’ neighborhoods, showing handmade signs reminding Connecticut’s children how much they care for them.  We proudly share your passion for teaching and learning and recognize that you care greatly about your students. But you don’t have to go it alone. School psychologists are offering guidance and support to help teachers recognize signs of conflict or trauma, and they are reaching out to students you are identifying as at-risk be deciding issues that impact schools and teaching positions. They are mobilizing members in those districts to reach out and give input supporting the necessary funding for quality education and continuity of learning. In addition to their continued work on enforcing settlement terms, negotiations, contract extensions, grievance arbitration, DCF investigations, and teachers’ transitions back from workers’ compensation and family medical leave, UniServ Reps are working long hours answering teachers’ questions about remote learning and interpreting union-district distance learning MOUs.  “We’re assisting local leaders in how best to address the changing working conditions under new work-from-home environments, gathering all the fast-changing information impacting our members, and distilling it down into daily updates to local leaders,” says UniServ Rep Lauren Hebert. CEA UniServ Reps are also coordinating information sharing among local presidents so that they can learn from each other about best practices and policies in surrounding districts and across the state. “In uncertain economic times,” says Hebert, “we’re providing our negotiations teams and executive boards with creative strategies to reject harmful concession requests and develop Get Out The Vote budget campaigns to influence Boards of Finance to preserve school funding.” “If teachers work remotely, we work remotely to support them,” says UniServ Rep Jim Tessitore.  

or who are struggling. (See page 7.)  We strongly encourage you to take time for yourself and address your own emotional well-being. Working with CEA, Dr. Marc Brackett, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, held a free webinar outlining strategies for coping in uncertain times (see page 8)—just one of many free training opportunities CEA is offering to help you with everything from managing stress to managing a virtual classroom. Eventually the health crisis will abate, and we eagerly await a safe return to our schools, bustling again with the exuberant sounds of our students at work and at play. But that can’t happen until we know your safety and the health and well-being of your students can be protected and ensured. To that end, CEA is part of the governor’s Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group, serving on the Education Subcommittee and Professional development is more important than ever, as educators work to adjust to a new teaching and learning environment, with all the challenges it brings. Thanks to free virtual training hosted by CEA, hundreds of teachers from around the state have learned how to use Google Classroom to create, distribute, collect, and grade assignments, collaborate, design rubrics, and provide students with timely feedback. The training, conducted via one-hour webinars with time added to answer teachers’ specific questions, is among many distance learning/technology training opportunities CEA is providing to bridge the gap while schools are closed. Other key topics have included student engagement, maintaining privacy and security, developing formative assessments, balancing asynchronous/synchronous learning, and best practices for online teaching. “Staying connected to our students is so important, especially during this time of social distancing,” says CEA President Jeff Leake. “For many students, school is a social-emotional lifeline as well as a place of learning, so our association is doing all it can to preserve those critical connections and supports.” CEA’s beginner-level classes designed to get teachers more familiar with the Google Classroom environment have shown teachers how to post existing or newly created materials, schedule them to pop up in students’ feeds, set due dates, organize work, create quizzes, add videos, give documents structure (like worksheets), set up assignments so

working hard to ensure your safety and rights are protected now and when schools are back in session. (See story below.)  We have heard from many of you, and we encourage you to continue contacting us with your concerns and issues by emailing us at  info@cea.org .  We hope that you will keep this special edition of the CEA Advisor  as a reference guide for information related to education and the coronavirus. We will continue to share guidance and information with you in the weeks and months to come. Watch for emails from CEA, visit cea.org , and check CEA’s Coronavirus Resources page for the latest information. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Together, we will emerge stronger than ever. Jeff Leake, CEA President April 22, 2020 that students can work on them individually, in groups, or collaboratively as a class, check students’ work in progress, and use Google’s assessment tools. In the absence of in-person communication, teachers are eager to personalize their instruction and interactions as much as possible. Among other things, Google Classroom allows educators to customize multiple-choice assessments so that students receive helpful feedback whether they select the correct answer (“That’s right! Way to go!”) or an incorrect response (“Try again!” “Check out this link for more information!”). To help approximate classroom environments and routines more closely, educators have picked up tips on creative ways of taking attendance—such as by posting a question of the day, like, “What did you do this weekend?” They have also been shown how to invite parents and guardians to see summaries of class assignments as well as information specific to their own students. CEA also offers free virtual yoga sessions every Friday to help teachers reset and destress. In addition to creating new training specific to distance learning, CEA is moving many of its traditional professional development offerings to online platforms so that members don’t miss a beat. CEA’s webinars— as well as myriad other resources and news alerts critical to teachers at this time—are available at cea.org/2020- coronavirus . Also check Upcoming Events at cea.org to register for everything from student loan relief workshops to retirement planning.

CEA PROVIDES CRITICAL SUPPORT, TRAINING, ADVOCACY DURING SCHOOL SHUTDOWNS Educators have been working hard to adjust to a new way of teaching and connecting with their students, all while coping with the struggles of economic uncertainty, deliberations scheduled throughout the state, where town officials will FREE TRAINING

Special Edition • April 2020 Volume 62, Number 6 Published by Connecticut Education Association 1-800-842-4316 860-525-5641 • cea.org CEA Advisor

The CEA Advisor is mailed to all CEA members. Annual subscription price is $5.72 (included in membership dues and available only as part of membership). Institutional subscription price: $25.00. Advertising in the CEA Advisor is screened, but the publishing of any advertisement does not imply CEA endorsement of the product, service, or views expressed. CEA Advisor USPS 0129-220 (ISSN 0007-8050) is published in August, October/November, December/ January, February/March, April (regular and special editions), May/June, and summer (online) by the Connecticut Education Association, Capitol Place, Suite 500, 21 Oak Street, Hartford, CT 06106-8001, 860-525-5641. Periodicals postage paid at Hartford, Connecticut. Postmaster: Send address changes to CEA Advisor , Connecticut Education Association, Capitol Place, Suite 500, 21 Oak Street, Hartford, CT 06106- 8001. Production date: 4-24-2020