This is great idea Helen and as global.school library community we should
spear head this urgently,here in Kenya its already lockdown schools upto
University level,the local education institution is trying a radio lessons
but coverage is not realised in all areas due to signal challenges, hence
any opportunity to bridge the gap is highly critical before its too late.
On Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 12:10 PM Helen Boelens <helenboelens@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear friends and colleagues,
I have just read the following link,
https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-teachers-china-have-learned-past-month?fbclid=IwAR37q6DVlTJ4vtvYCfAbMfoMr4LeTiE2_MnVypDxSpoXHU03YmATKBzxc30
posted
on Facebook by Dr. Marcia Mardis.
Here in the Netherlands all schools and school libraries are closed, from
kindergarden to high school exam classes. Public libraries are also
closed.
Teachers, (school) librarians and parents are trying to continue students'
education in a sensible and reasonable way, using the facilities which are
available. It is so important that teachers, librarians and parents are
sharing ideas with each other, about online teaching, about how to keep
their students active, and also about how to involve parents, who are also
working from home. Many schools are not used to this form of teaching, but
they are putting up a valiant effort. Many do not have the funds to afford
an adequate online teaching program.
I suggest that we try, working together, to set up some kind of
(multilingual) log of teaching ideas, per age group, per class, per
language, so that schooling can remain "almost normal" in these strange
times. Does anyone have any ideas? I realise that curricula vary from
school to school and from country to country, however there must be many
ways in which we can help each other.
The children (especially the smaller ones and the ones who have no
brothers and sisters) are lonely. Some online contacts with other children
are recommended. Ideas for simple activities (even craft work) which they
can do at home would be appreciated. Yesterday I read a really nice idea.
Each child, regardless of age, is encouraged to write a short story at the
end of the daying, talking about what it was like on that particular day,
working from home and not have the companship of their friends. This is a
very nice idea. Stories can be shared with other children and eventually
bound and turned into books which record the experiences of children during
the Corona outbreak.
Also, children from larger, poorer families are suffering because their
access to the one computer in their home is limited. Also, refugee and
immigrant children sometimes have no access to computers, because the
library is shut (that is the place where they often did their homework).
How can we work together to solve some of these problems?
Suggestions please.
Warm good wishes to you all. Keep well.
Helen
Helen Boelens PhD
International School Library Researer and Advisor,
The Netherlands.
helenboelens@xxxxxxxxx
