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Right now, my school is back in “all in” with students, but even with that, we’ve had some last-minute distance learning days.  Since March, I’ve found some things that have helped me, so I wanted to share them with you today.

1. Google Drive:  Pre-Covid, I moved all of my activity and template files, and this has been ESSENTIAL for distance learning days.  A few weeks ago we had a last-minute distance day, and I was able to pull up everything  I had planned for my students up on my home computer.
2. Google Classrooms:  At the start of the year, I set up Google Classrooms for every student I had, even if I didn’t plan to do virtual counseling with them yet.  This again has been a life-saver for last minute, virtual days.
3. Pairing in person and online tools: A lot of you have asked me questions about doing virtual counseling.  I wrote here about how I do that, but probably the biggest thing that has helped me is replicating as much of my in-person sessions as much as possible.  This means following the same routine, check-in system, and curriculums.  It has made transitions much easier for my students.
4. Online documentation:  Using Google Forms for all of my documentation has made a transition to and from distance learning easy-peasy.
5. An online to-do list:  I still hate it, to be honest.  I miss pencil and paper!  But still, when you never know when you will be home or not, being able to see my to-do list from anywhere is essential.
6. A second screen:  WHY DID I NOT BUY THIS SOONER?!  Mine was under $100, and with virtual learning, this blog, and an online teaching gig, this was so worth it.  When doing virtual sessions with kids, it is so nice to be able to see them and what I’m presenting! (I have a Mac and needed this adapter as well)
7. A mouse and keyboard:  This makes typing emails and reports so much easier
8. Airpods: These are much needed with working from home with kids
9. Clearmask: I feel like I have tried way too many masks already.  These are not my favorite for everyday use, but I use them for testing and for teaching students to read facial expressions.
10. A resource of freebies:  Having a few resources in your back pocket is a great idea.  Youtube always has a plethoa of videos, and I also love Howard Wigglebottom and Social Thinking.