Dear Neighbor,

Over the past few weeks, parents across our community have been frustrated by the flawed rollout of their schools’ online learning programs. I share that frustration. Our school systems must invest in technology and be better prepared for unforeseen circumstances like this one.

While our school systems are working hard to get these programs up and running, I want to make sure you have additional educational resources at your disposal in the meantime. Below, you’ll find some resources that I hope you and your kids will find interesting and useful. Northern Virginia Family Service also maintains a great list of educational resources on their website.

Smithsonian Institute: Digital Resources

• Learning Lab: A free, interactive platform for discovering millions of authentic digital resources and creating content with online tools. The Learning Lab has an immense amount of content, and the Getting Started guide is a helpful resource. In addition, the weekly Smithsonian Activities Choice Boards features weekly highlights for various subject areas. Issue One and Issue Two are available now. New issues are released each Monday.
  
• Smithsonian Open Access: Allows students to download, share and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images without asking permission because they have been released into the public domain.

• Smithsonian Digital Volunteers Program: Allows the general public to make things like historical documents and biodiversity data more accessible. Students can join fellow volunteers to add more field notes, diaries, ledgers, logbooks, manuscripts, biodiversity specimen labels and more to the collection.
  
• Sidedoor: A podcast for students that enlists the help of biologists, archaeologists, zookeepers and astrophysicists to tell engaging and educational stories. 

SI Museum Teaching Resources: Four different Smithsonian museums (American History, American Indian, Natural History, and American Art) provide additional lesson plans for teachers tied to national standards.

Resources aligned to DCPS Curriculum: SI also provides resources that are aligned to DCPS Curriculum Pacing Guides in order to help parents better support their child's learning at home. SI has created Google sheets which are updated periodically. SI has Google sheets for each grade level (K-8), these sheets breakdown resources for parents aligned to subjects. For each resource, SI identifies the subject it covers, the learning objective, and links to the SI resource.

• Resources for PK-5: SI has also created a large google sheet with online self-directed activities for parents and caregivers that allows them to assign to children in PK-5 grades. Most of these resources are interactive games and activities.
• SI Office Hours: SI is also offering office hours to better support teachers who are using these SI resources. Teachers are able to connect with a Smithsonian educator and ask further questions on how to best use the SI tools and features being offered.
• Other Smithsonian Resources:
  

  Free Smithsonian STEM Games and Simulations; Meet the Animals of the National Zoo; 3D Exhibits and Virtual Tours; Smithsonian Magazine Ten Museums You Can Virtually Visit; The Museum of Natural History Virtual Tour; Digital Smithsonian American Art Museum; Distance Learning Resources

Library of Congress: Digital Resources for Students

• Student Discovery Sets: Puts primary sources in student’s hands by bringing together historical artifacts and documents on a wide range of topics. The Student Discovery Sets are free on iBooks.
•  Current Exhibitions: The Library has several current exhibitions available online, including ones on Rosa Parks, the Nineteenth Amendment, comic art and more.
• Digital Collections: Over 400 digital collections are available online, featuring content from U.S. Presidents, musicians, inventors, historic newspapers and more.
• By the People: A crowdsourcing initiative that allows anyone to volunteer to improve access to history by transcribing, reviewing and tagging Library of Congress documents.
• Classic Children’s books: Available for free online via the Library website.
• The Library of Congress’ YouTube Channel: Contains a wide range of author programming, as well as content from scholars and musicians.
• Ask a Librarian: The tool remains available to the public, with Librarians available to answer questions and provide research assistance.
• The Library’s National Screening Room: Showcase the Library’s vast moving image collection. It is designed to make otherwise unavailable movies, both copyrighted and in the public domain, freely accessible to viewers worldwide.
• Presentations and Activities: Presentations look across the Library’s online collections to explore events and issues from U.S. history and beyond.

Other Federal Agency Resources: At Home Activities

• Department of Defense: Learn about careers in STEM fields
• Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics: Kids' Zone
• Department of Energy: Games and Activities; Virtual Field Trips to National Energy Labs
• Environmental Protection Agency: Games, Quizzes, and Videos about the Environment
• NASA: Interactive Lessons about Space, Earth, Solar System and Universe; Lessons from Astronauts about Living in Space; STEM Activities for Students of All Ages
• The Kennedy Center: Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems; Tour the Kennedy Center with The Pigeon
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Use Real-Time Ocean Data to Explore the Environment
• U.S. Geological Survey: Learn from Home About Physical science, Geography and Maps

Google Resources

• Teach From Home: A central hub of information, tips, training and tools from across Google for Education to help teachers keep teaching, even when they aren’t in the classroom

• Training Materials: Explore distance learning through resources for schools affected by Covid-19

Additional Resources

• National Gallery of Art: The National Gallery of Art offers learning resources and programs for audiences of all ages. To support parents and their children, teachers, students, and caregivers.

Please continue to take care of yourselves and each other, and remember that my office is here to help. Be sure to visit the COVID-19 page on my website for more information and resources. If you have any questions or concerns, or if you need assistance, please don't hesitate to call us at (703) 256-3071.

Sincerely,

Gerald E. Connolly
Member of Congress