Dear Colleagues,

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Thank you for all of the tremendously hard work you are doing every day to help your students through this challenging time. Even though teaching changed completely overnight as a result of COVID-19, you have persevered. I am inspired by the resilience you have shown and your determination to ensure your students do not fall behind, despite the many challenges we are facing. We are so lucky to have you all as educators here in New York State.

NYSED is highlighting the exceptional dedication of New York's educators with inspiring examples of emotional support, equitable solutions, and instructional practices that are being used to stay connected with students while schools are closed. You can visit our Staying Connected web page to see some of the stories or to share your own. In addition to posting the stories on our website, we are spotlighting the stories with the hashtags #StayingConnected and #EducatorsAreHeroes on our social media channels. You can also sign up for our Staying Connected newsletter. 

All of your efforts are recognized and appreciated, and we are here to support you. We continue to add new resources to our Continuity of Learning web page featuring resources (technology- or non-technology-based) to provide educators with increased remote learning options. We are also posting high-quality resources, guidance, tips, and activities that can all be used to help facilitate learning at home as part of our #NYLearnsRemotely campaign on social media. We post new remote learning ideas every day on our social media channels,

 so be sure to follow us for new ideas.

It is also National Nurses Week, and we recently celebrated School Nurse Day! Thank you to all of our school nurses who care for students and promote learning by helping to keep children healthy. School nurses play an integral role in our schools, and we are grateful for their knowledge, care, and professionalism.

Working in partnership with Chancellor Rosa and the Board of Regents, the dedicated staff here at NYSED have been hard at work maintaining crucial services for students, P-12 schools, colleges and universities, professional licensees, adult education programs, cultural institutions, and the people of New York State. At this week's Board of Regents meeting, I gave an update on NYSED's response to the COVID-19 situation. 

Thank you again for being there for your students. I hope you all continue to stay safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Shannon Tahoe

Interim Commissioner

Story Time with Interim Commissioner Tahoe

Join Interim Commissioner Shannon Tahoe for story time! Encourage your elementary students to watch this video to hear the book What Do You Do With an Idea? written by Kobi Yamada and illustrated by Mae Besom.

Reading with children has many cognitive, social, and emotional benefits. When children read to themselves or when they are read to, they develop a stronger vocabulary and a range of knowledge and skills that lead to reading success. Reading also strengthens social emotional development by providing children with a greater range of words to use to describe their feelings and a stronger emotional toolkit.

Let's keep kids reading each day while they are at home.