Cyberbullying could worsen during distance learning unless districts focus on positive online environments for kids, experts say.

The specific factors exacerbating potential threats include more access to technology, less adult supervision, and fewer distractions, said Sandra Chafouleas, a professor at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education.

Each of us is processing what is happening in the world right now on our own terms. Some of us prefer to do this alone, reflecting inwardly. Initially, I was one of them. I avoided talking through my feelings with anyone else. I did not consider myself prepared to help other people feel better. I put on my figurative protective armor and took some time to try and catch my breath. I did this despite knowing that, given my position and my race, people might want to hear from me. Despite their needs, I had to take care of self, first.

“Take time to care for yourself. Pause, listen, and catch your breath. Then make sure everyone around you can breathe, too,” says Dean Gladis Kersaint.

Black lives matter. We share the grief, sadness, and anger at the loss of George Floyd, whose murder follows so closely on that of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others. Each of their lives, like each and every Black life in our community and around the world, is unique, beautiful, and irreplaceable, and deserving of respect and dignity. The great and abiding shame of our nation is our inability to acknowledge, confront, and redress the legacy of white supremacy and the failure of our institutions, particularly our law enforcement institutions, to respect the human rights of black and brown people.

Our hearts ache. George Floyd’s life matters. Breonna Taylor’s life matters. Ahmaud Arbery’s life matters. Black lives matter.

We are reaching out to share resources that we believe might be helpful as you reflect on the current and ongoing racism in our country. We hope that these resources will help you reflect on and process the current moment. Of course, this list is not exhaustive, as there are so many dynamics, so many theories, so many histories to grasp in order to do our work of understanding anti-racism. We hope it will, though, provide a place for you to start or some new directions to go. As you find useful resources, please continue to share and learn together.

It’s one thing to learn a skill in a class. It’s another to practice it in the real world, where conceptual lines are blurrier than they are in textbooks. It’s a distinction that leads many professional training programs to feature internships, which some may call clinical experiences of practicums, to complement the skills students learn in class. It is one that led the University of Connecticut’s Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) to reexamine internships when it began revamping its offerings to strengthen principal training.

Violet Jiménez Sims, a faculty member in the Neag School and New Britain Schools board of education member, comments on the board’s vow of inclusion in response to George Floyd’s death.

“As we piece together what the new normal might look like in our high schools, we should take advantage of this disruption to reconfigure the many moving parts that have been used as excuses for maintaining the status quo,” says Michele Back, an assistant professor of secondary and world languages education in UConn’s Neag School of Education.

We recently spotted a great quote from James C. Kaufman, a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut that said: “If creativity is a light, it does not have an on/off switch.”