Dear Parents, Caregivers, & Community,

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I've updated my COVID19 resource list below with more distance learning, given that our MDUSD schools are now closed until at least April 12th. 

Please share this information about free meal services starting tomorrow, Wednesday March 18th, at 8 schools sites as well!

Resources I've compiled beyond the official CDC, CDE, CCHS sites:

Free tech resources:

• Education companies offering Free subscriptions
• List of Companies providing Free Internet & Unlimited Data 
  • Free Internet & Wifi for 2 months from Comcast
  • Unlimited data & no late fees from Sprint
  • Unlimited data & 20G mobile hotspot from Tmobile
• Free ZOOM videoconferencing for school & student email addresses

For Students:

• MDUSD Student Portal

• Khan Academy - free lessons & quizzes by grade level & subject. Computer programming & reading too!
  • Espanol - Para cada alumno, cada salón de clases. Resultados reales. 

• BrainPop video & quiz on What is Coronavirus

• also Brainpop Espanol, Brainpop Francais, Request free access

• A comic-edition piece& radio from NPR that focuses on the COVID-19 topic

• Shared by OGMS counselors:

For Parents/Teachers:

• **MDUSD Parent Portal is now LIVE with Remote Learning resources!
• **MDUSD Teacher resources are now LIVE via the staff portal with Remote Learning resources!
• Google Classroom - tutorial for Teachers, guide for Parents
• Khan Academy
  • article on How to Use Khan Academy for remote learning during school closure, including guide for parents or teachers
  • ¿Cómo puedo utilizar Khan Academy para el aprendizaje a distancia durante el cierre de escuelas?
• Seattle parent list of online & offline resources/ideas
• Virtual Field Trips around the world
• Student High School Journal COVID assignment by YV High teacher Brian Shaw, Tarea de Diario Estudiantil durante Covid19
• UC Berkeley Professional Development for Teachers - Resource List
• Tech Blog by Karly Moura, MDUSD - google classroom & eLearning Choice Boards

How To Talk Guides:

• Talking to Children About COVID-19 (Coronavirus): A Parent Resource
  • Hable con sus hijos sobre el COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Un recurso para padres 

• How to Talk to Kids About Coronavirus: Keeping your own anxiety in check is key
• New York Times Article on talking with teens about the virus
• COVID19 Facts Infographic, COVID19 Espanol

• Printable posters in Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, & more  
• Mindfulness to help families manage anxiety around coronavirus

Anti-Racism & Coronavirus:

• COVID19 Anti-Stigma Toolkit for social media
• Teaching Tolerance Guide to speaking about racism & coronavirus

Family Emergency Preparedness:

• Develop a Family Disaster Plan - California Department of Public Health

• Desarrollar un Plan Familiar - click "Select Language" at top for translation to 100 languages

Dear Parents, Caregivers, & Community,

The Mt. Diablo Unified School District school board is meeting at 2pm today to discuss details & logistics of the school closure.

In the meantime, here are a few resources I've compiled so far that might be useful for you beyond the official CDC, CDE, CCHS sites:

Free resources:

● Education companies offering Free subscriptions

● Seattle parent list of online & offline resources/ideas

Thank you to all staff, teachers, parents, and students who promoted African American Awareness month as an integral part of our history and cultural identity during the month of February! Here are a few of the inspirational events, recognition and resources that I was fortunate to see.  I want to share these out and remind everyone that though the awareness month of February has ended, African American history is something that we should all be incorporating into our lessons and activities all year long:

• Concord student wins Humanitarian of the Year!
• HBCU fair
• Dr Carrie Frazier, Ruah Community Outreach
• MDUSD Parents for Multicultural Education
• Resources on Equity & Diversity
• East County NAACP Membership & Scholarship Gala

Contra Costa Humanitarian of the Year – Christina Mazzi

Did you know that a student from MDUSD’s Concord High won a countywide recognition of her work?  Yes!  Christina Mazzi is a senior at Concord High who decided to build a more positive culture on Instagram by featuring successful women of color.  Visit ProjectWOC to be inspired by women of color athletes, academics, artists, and more. https://www.instagram.com/projectwoc/

Not only that, she was named a 2018 Buck Scholar and has won a scholarship from Chevron.  "In my 10 years working at Concord High School Christine is the first student that has left me speechless when I think of all that she has accomplished and how she is changing lives for women of color; I can honestly say that I have never worked with a more selfless teenager than Christine," said School Counselor Becky Heindlel.

HBCU Fair

Thanks to Brian Brown, college and career counselor at Mt Diablo High, our school district hosted the HBCU (historically black colleges & universities) Fair for the 2^nd year in a row at Mt Diablo High.  Students from all over our district attended, and over $2 million in scholarships were awarded on the spot. 

Dr. Carrie Frazier, Ruah Community Outreach 

Ruáh Community Outreach is a non-profit, community service organization founded by Dr. Carrie Frazier. https://www.ruahoutreach.com/

Dr. Frazier has been bringing her African American history exposition each year to Bel Air Elementary!  Here she is in action:

MDUSD Parents for Multicultural Education

Students and parents at Valhalla Elementary took the initiative to celebrate Black History Month by putting up posters around the school, and from there it grew into a full on event on Feb 28^th including activities, inventions, books & book marks!  I recently met parents Cri and Michelle, who started a Facebook page to share out resources and ideas to all families, teachers and staff in Mt Diablo schools.  Follow them here: https://www.facebook.com/multiculturalparents/

and here’s a resource list provided by them for teachers & parents:

Black Lives Matter at School

https://blacklivesmatteratschool.com/classroom-resources/

Zinned Project

https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/?cond%5B0%5D=themes_str:African+American&cond%5B1%5D=media_types_str:Teaching+Activities+(Free)&cond%5B2%5D=levels_str:Grades+3-5

Facing History

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library?f%5B0%5D=fh_search_api_search_type%3Acontent&f%5B1%5D=multi_field_subject%3A837

https://www.facinghistory.org/educator-resources

POC Online Classroom

http://www.poconlineclassroom.com/blog/2018/2/7/black-history-month-resouces?rq=black%20history

Education Post

https://educationpost.org/if-we-really-want-to-teach-black-history-in-schools-were-going-to-need-more-diverse-books/

Gender Spectrum

https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-links/books-and-media/

Raising Luminaries

https://booksforlittles.com/info/archives/

Embrace Race

https://www.embracerace.org/resources/action-guides

Teaching for Change

https://www.teachingforchange.org

Re-thinking Schools

https://www.rethinkingschools.org

Equity Literacy Institute

https://www.equityliteracy.org/educational-equity-resources

Race Conscious

http://www.raceconscious.org/2016/06/100-race-conscious-things-to-say-to-your-child-to-advance-racial-justice

Additional resources I find helpful

Build Culture, Conditions & Competence in Equity: National Equity Project

www.nationalequityproject.org

Teaching Tolerance – free resources to educators to help youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy

https://www.tolerance.org/

Resources for parents on how their choices impact school diversity:

https://integratedschools.org/resources/  

“How Students Benefit from Diversity,” by Jeremy Adam Smith:

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_students_benefit_from_school_diversity

School to Prison Pipeline Reduction - Fact Sheets & Tools:

https://advancementproject.org/home/

Coming Soon: East County NAACP Membership & Scholarship Gala

Save the date for the NAACP Unity Gala, April 25th!  For information & tickets, email [email protected]

Please keep sharing your actions & resources with me and with each other!  Next up, Women's History Month.

Thank you to all who spoke at Monday's meeting or emailed us with your perspective on the budget reductions! The list is now being adjusted based on the Board direction that was given that night.

What's next?

Our School Board is meeting next Monday, March 9th at 7pm. You are welcome to attend, speak, or watch online. Agenda will be posted here: https://mdusd.org/agendasminutes

We will vote on:

1. a list of budget reductions by item type and cost, to add up to a total of $21.1 million
2. the final PKS list - this is the list of "particular kinds of service" - certificated positions that could be removed for the 2020-21 school year.

What else can you do to help? 

Please call the governor and all state legislators who represent our district, to ask them to significantly increase funding for public education immediately.  Here is a phone list from the grassroots Contra Costa Coalition to Fund Education Now - bit.ly/FENWcallscript 

(follow CCCFEN on Twitter @cccfunded #FundCAEd )