It is HARD to be an educator right now.  (You know that, frankly, better than I do.)  So much of what I and my team do these days boils down to this: How can we make things a little easier for the educators we serve?  It's a constant question, but it feels especially pressing now.

The last thing I want to do is give you another "Must Do" - I'm sure you've already gotten plenty of those.  Instead, in this week's email, I want to share three "Should Do" and three "Aspire to Do" techniques, which come from our Distinguished Modern Classroom Educators and which I hope might ease your burden a little bit.  Here they are:
 

To make learning accessible to students who miss class:
★ Should Do: Browse YouTube for an engaging instructional video that helps explain your content.
★ Aspire to Do: Follow our mentors' advice and record your very own instructional video! 

To help students who have fallen behind stay on pace:
​★ Should Do: Make your LMS a "digital home base," where students can find everything they need - whether they're in school or not.
★ Aspire to Do: Use our auto-updating progress tracker template to show every student where they stand, and what they need to do next.

To help students develop authentic mastery:
★ Should Do: Remind your students that learning is hard - that's why they have you! - and that it's both natural and productive to struggle. 
★ Aspire to Do: Help your students' caregivers support mastery at home.
 

As you do what you can do to meet your students' needs under these incredibly challenging circumstances, I sincerely hope that one of these ideas will help.