The following was written by EdCal Editor Michelle Carl. When I ask my two boys, “What did you do today in school?” I’m usually met with, “I dunno.” “Didn’t you have library today?” I’d ask, using my knowledge of their daily extracurricular schedule to try and eke out a smidgen of information. I’m lucky if I get a syllable. But now, thanks to the COVID-19 shutdown of school campuses, I know everything they are doing in school – and it’s made me more connected to my kids and their education. In Roseville City School District, where my second grader and TKer go, “homeschooling” began with three weeks of enrichment. I’m a planner — spreadsheets and schedules are my thing — so when I found out I was suddenly going to be responsible for programming my children’s days for three weeks, I got to work. I began assessing my educational resources like a shipwreck survivor listing all of the supplies in their possession:

I looked at online sites like Teachers Pay Teachers. I tore out pages from workbooks and stuck them into binders with dividers for each day of the week. And then it was done — I had the day all planned out into 30-minute increments on a neat little spreadsheet. All it took me was four hours. Wait – four hours?!?! I didn’t think of it in the moment, but my kids’ teachers were doing the same thing. They were dusting off online resources they may have never used. They were scouring the web looking for videos to explain science and AB patterns. They were downloading Zoom and e-mailing passwords to their students. Now I understand how time-consuming lesson prep can be. The fact that teachers had to adapt their plans and create new ones in a digital format was truly remarkable, especially given the short amount of time.  Once distance learning officially began, I was glad to have more guidance on what my boys should be learning. The lessons were in Google Classroom with new content for every day. Hooray! (The boys were getting a little bored of me making them do workbooks, anyway.) The teachers were also creating their own content. Our TK teacher, Margaret O’Hair, created storytime videos for her kids, reading stories like “It’s OK to Be Different” and “Llama Llama Mad at Momma” from her backyard tree. My second grade son’s teacher, Madeline Scudder, recorded a daily math lesson to explain concepts like subtracting three-digit numbers (and she has made sure us parents know that ungrouping and borrowing are really the same thing). There have been some things I just don’t get. While reviewing a reading lesson, it asked to “Think of the BME.” What’s the BME? I wracked my brain. Then it dawned on me: beginning, middle, end. My son already speaks the language of second grade reading — and I’m having to catch up.  It has also been delightful to get to know people who are part of my sons’ lives whom I’ve never even met. Our school’s P.E. teacher and music teacher have sent us engaging video lessons that we have experienced together. My second grader has started learning piano using an app that teaches how to read sheet music. My son already knew more than I realized. “That means it’s a half-note,” he confidently stated while using the app one day. “I learned that in music.” In my head, I was beaming. He does pay attention in school! We are also getting reminders on social-emotional expectations from our school principal at Thomas Jefferson Elementary, Kirsten Acke. Now before this, I probably couldn’t tell you what each letter of our school’s motto meant without thinking for a second, but now I can quickly spout off that Respect, Integrity, Safety, and Engaged are how the TJ Stars are expected to R.I.S.E. We now talk about these values at home, as in, “Are we being safe when we slam our brother’s hand in the door jamb?” I took for granted that it’s not just my kids who are part of a school community – it’s me, too. Moving forward, I hope the lasting change from this will be that I am a more active part of my child’s learning.