Dear Educators,

Schools and districts globally are facing unprecedented disruption and uncertainty. At Chalk, we share the concerns of all teachers and administrators doing their best to navigate the COVID-19 challenge on behalf of their students and communities. We know that many have already made the difficult decision to either pause the semester or close campuses indefinitely and are now looking at options to deliver course content to students remotely.

For those schools that are making the shift to online education, it’s more important than ever to stay coordinated and focus on communication.

That’s why we’re committed to supporting you and your team during this time of uncertainty. We’re continuing to deliver high quality and reliable service through our online chat support. Our customer success, support, education, and community teams are standing by to help you with any needs. We’ve also compiled some resources outlining best practices on how Chalk can support educators below.

We are very grateful for the role we play at your school, and remain as committed as ever to ensuring your success. We wish you, your teachers, students, and families safety, wellness and positivity during these challenging times.

On behalf of the Chalk team, we’re here for you,

Evan Trafford, Head of Customer Success

Phase 1: Create and Communicate a Remote Learning Plan

Here is a Remote Learning Plan Template for Administrators to help get started.

Within your remote learning plan, make sure to highlight what technology is available, how to use it and the purpose it serves in your remote learning plan. Make sure to focus on the tasks you need to complete, then pick the technology that best serves that need (not the other way around).

Here are 8 free technologies we recommend you utilize for remote learning.

Phase 2: Train staff to use Chalk and other technologies for Remote Learning

Depending on the tools you’re using, staff may need some additional training in order to be able to take full advantage. Below we’ve listed some tips and tricks on the most relevant features based on those using Chalk for Schools.

Instruction

If you are using our lesson planning solution, you have the ability to continue teaching online by sharing resources with colleagues, guardians and learners. Here are some recommendations on places to start in Planboard.

Recommendations:

  1. Create a New Lesson Plan template that aligns with your goals for remote planning.
  2. Create lesson plans that can be shared publicly.
  3. Get feedback continuously from your administrator on your lesson plans. Communicate what’s working and what’s not in real-time with per plan conversations.
  4. Share resources with other educators and continue collaboration efforts.
  5. Combine Chalk with a video recording tool to teach lessons online. Here are some examples: Soapbox, Vidyard, or Quicktime or using Zoom Video.

Assessment

Our Assessment solution includes several ways teachers, guardians and learners can work with each other.  We have created a few recommendations on how teachers can best use Markboard.

Recommendations:

  1. Send Chalk Announcements to notify guardians and learners via email.
  2. Create periodic check-in assessments to host conversations between teachers, guardians, and learners.
  3. Create online Assessments for students to interact with.
  4. Make lessons in Planboard accessible to guardians and learners from their Chalk account.

Curriculum

With our Curriculum solution, be sure to take advantage of some of our features that are geared towards remote teams collaborating on curriculum maps. Here are some recommendations so you can keep making progress on your curriculum mapping initiative.

Recommendations:

  1. Take advantage of real-time collaboration to continue collaborating with colleagues remotely.
  2. Use Field Descriptions to provide guidance on best practices for creating curriculum maps.
  3. Use Curriculum Map Comparison to create a shareable dashboard focused on maps your team is working on.
  4. Use comments on curriculum maps to drive conversations remotely.
  5. Administrators can share maps publicly for guardians and learners.

A quick tip: Don’t forget to use our Chat Support that is available Monday to Friday. We’re here to help 🙂

Phase 3: Monitor Progress

Being able to understand where your teachers are in the instruction process is going to help your school stay on track during this transition. Re-visit the recommendations in Phase 2 and track your progress in areas such as map completion or use the pacing guide to see where teachers are in the process. Administrators can monitor a teacher’s progress in regards to their intended lesson delivery.

Phase 4: Continuous Check-In with Teachers and Students

We recommend constantly communicating with all members of a school whether that is through email, forums, or your dedicated SIS/LMS.

Selfcare Infographic for Educators 💪

Selfcare Infographic for Learners 🧠

We hope that this helps you during your e-learning journey. We are very grateful for the role we play at your school and remain as committed as ever to ensuring your success. We wish you, your teachers, students, and families safety, wellness and positivity during these challenging times.

From the Chalk Family ❤️