Hi everyone,

MDUSD is holding a Town Hall TODAY at 3pm! Just go to mdusd.org/townhall to watch or participate.  See you there!

(this was in the Superintendent's March 20th Friday letter, which if you missed it can be found here)

Also in the letter, did you know that meals are now being served at 9 sites?  "With the addition of Bel Air Elementary, we are providing free community meals at 9 school sites district-wide for all children 18 years and younger. Please see the attached flyers for a list of locations and details: English Flyer | Spanish Flyer "

And here are a few additional resources that have come to my attention in the past week:

1. Free Meals App
2. Free Groceries 
3. Free Tutoring & AP Resources
4. COVID resources for Undocumented communities
5. Tools for Special Needs & Struggling Students
6. Mental Health, Non-screen Activities, & Spirit Week

Free Meals App

Check out this new free app from CA Dept of Education!

Our MDUSD 9 sites are on there as you can see below, so it's a great way to share this out to our community.  Contra Costa County Food Bank has been providing fresh produce at our sites too!  From MDUSD Food Services Director Dominic Machi: "I want to thank my MDUSD Food & Nutrition Services staff for supporting me and their students. On the front lines preparing food for our kids and distributing over 5000 meals in three days (last) week. As we asked my staff on the front lines, if they would continue to do the work needed? Everyone of my staff responded" we are in this for the long haul, these are our kids". They are now my heroes and could not be more proud. Take care and be safe to all!"

Free Groceries: Monument Crisis Center

Monument Crisis Center is helping with groceries for entire families in the Monument area.  See their flyers here for how to access food or donate:

Free Tutoring & AP resources

Students can access from their phone a ton of resources now to stay on track with learning.  Here's two that came up just this week:

• Free AP review courses, support, & possible at-home testing

• Free online tutoring for ages 5-18 at GoPeer.org, from university students including MDUSD alumni who are now at Cal

COVID Resources for Undocumented Communities

This comprehensive list in English & Spanish details national & CA resources for undocumented community members to access health services and education during COVID19. 

Tools for Special Needs & Struggling Students

This resource shows how teachers & parents can use over 30 Chrome web extensions that can assist students in five main categories:

• Text to Speech
• Readability
• Reading Comprehension
• Focus
• Navigation

There's even a way to verride all fonts on a webpage with the OpenDyslexic font, making the text more easily readable!

Mental Health, Non-Screen Activities & Spirit Week

Lastly, I wanted to share a few ways to keep your spirits up and things you can do off-screen:

• Check out these Tools to Bring Calm & Connection during Chaos, from MDUSD parent & school psychologist Katie Raher - https://www.constantloveandlearning.com/coping-tools

• Non-Screen Activities shared by MDUSD Health Teacher on Special Assignment Courtney Longua

• Spirit Week!  This was shared on Twitter by teachers from a few different schools: Ms Cattalini and Ms Moura. And I see some schools have their own they are sharing too.  Wonderful ways that teachers are keeping spirits up!

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.