School is back in session with the start of the new year, and that means it’s time to implement some new and creative ways to engage your students! As teachers and students across the country continue to attend a mix of in-person, remote and hybrid classrooms we wanted to share a few ways to invigorate remote learning for the start of 2021. 

Students have been through months of on-and-off remote learning, and may be experiencing Zoom fatigue as well as higher levels of stress, worry and anxiety as a result of upheaval in the country. All these factors may contribute to students feeling disengaged and unmotivated when it comes to virtual learning.

What can we, as teachers, do to refresh our students and increase engagement to set them up for success in this semester?

Here are five activities to start the year off on the right note and get students engaged in learning in 2021!

Set Intentions

What better time to set intentions for the rest of the year than in January? We’re leaving behind the weight and negativity of the past year, and looking forward to the future with hope and aspiration. For middle school students, choosing a word for the year to guide them can help them start off the year on the right foot.

This is also a great time to encourage students to reflect on 2020, and consider their goals for the upcoming year. Use this as an engaging and creative activity to help students ease into being back in school, and prepare them to dive into lessons with more motivation and enthusiasm.

Bring Real-World Professionals into The Classroom

Career exposure in middle school helps pave the way for future student success, and to this end, we’ve launched “Read to Lead LIVE!”, a free student-centered webinar series that gives students a front-row seat into career exploration. Each session features a working professional who shares their leadership experiences and career journey, giving students a unique chance to learn more about different careers first-hand. By bringing real-world professionals into your virtual classroom, you open doors and career opportunities for students that may have never existed otherwise. 

Sign up for the next Read to Lead LIVE! session on February 5th with Misty Copeland, principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre.

Start a Virtual Gratitude “Jar”

Gratitude has been shown to have immense benefits, both in good times and in bad, but it is a habit that is difficult to cultivate. Help get your students in the habit of being grateful this new year by starting a virtual gratitude “jar”. 

Want to take engagement to the next level? Use Flipgrid’s video platform and ask students to record videos of themselves talking about things they are grateful for, or you can create a shared Google Drive folder for students to upload their daily or weekly gratitude notes. Not only will this help develop students’ Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skills, but it will also give them something to look back on in tough times.

Build a Bitmoji Classroom

Building a Bitmoji classroom together can be an engaging activity to build connections and boost energy with students virtually. Students will love the chance to create their own Bitmojis and can even use these images to spruce up their assignments or projects. 

You can also use this as a way for students to help personalize their virtual learning environment and ensure the Bitmoji Classroom is culturally responsive.

While they may not be physically in a classroom, students are bound to be more enthusiastic about learning in a space they helped design and create, even if it is virtual.

Motivate Students to Read Through Game-Based Learning

Career exposure in middle school helps pave the way for future student success, and to this end, Read to Lead has introduced Live! webinar sessions with the aim of helping students take career exploration to the next level. Each session features a working professional who shares their leadership experiences and career journey, giving students a unique chance to learn more about different careers first-hand. By bringing real-world professionals into your virtual classroom, you add some excitement to your lessons and boost student engagement.

Starting school in January virtually doesn’t have to be a drag. By incorporating these four activities into your virtual classroom,  you can engage, motivate and captivate your students and put them on the path to a productive and successful year ahead.

Curious to learn more about Read to Lead? Sign up for free and get immediate access to three different virtual workplaces, over 30 games and a multitude of lesson plans and resources to bring the real world to your virtual classroom.

The post Top 5 Activities For Your Virtual Classroom This January appeared first on Read to Lead.

Photo Attribution: Alpha Stock Images | www.alphastockimages.com

The Presidential debate that took place on September 29, 2020 was not one of the United States’ proudest moments. However, like all historic events, there are lessons to be learned from the debate. As educators, it is our responsibility to guide students in critically viewing and navigating the information they may be seeing first hand or hearing about afterwards.

Respect and open communication are essential in a democracy, particularly one as diverse as the US. Sharing diverse viewpoints and trying to understand how others think and feel should be modeled by our leaders. This does not mean we have to agree with one another, but we should strive to engage in respectful dialogue. However, we continue to see, at the highest levels of our government, an absence of respectful dialogue and openness to diverse viewpoints. 

The 90-minute debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, was not our proudest moment. Both parties continually interrupted each other, and made personal attacks and hateful remarks. Ultimately, the presidential debate was more an instance of bullying at the highest levels of government, than a true debate to engage constructively with opposing viewpoints. Students today need to understand that bullying is not a characteristic of leadership.

October is National Anti-Bullying Month, which makes it all the more important to highlight instances of bullying, particularly when our most powerful leaders are engaged in it. Pointing out instances of bullying wherever we see them ensures students are aware of and can recognize bullying behaviors or actions when they encounter them in their own lives. As educators, we also need to equip students with the tools to address the problem of bullying.

What is Bullying?

With one in five students reporting having been bullied, this is almost certainly a term you and your students have heard before. Bullying goes beyond taunts in the playground, or stealing someone’s lunch money. It is important for students to understand that bullying exists in many forms. Generally, bullying can be hostile actions or words from one person to another with the intent to hurt someone.  

A bully can be any gender, shape, size or color, and may be bullying others for a variety of reasons. Bullying usually happens when there is an imbalance of power. In the school setting, the bully may be bigger in size, have superior knowledge, or is better in some activity. They use this to their advantage and act on their desires to hurt the other person. 

We often think of bullying as something physical – hitting, pushing around, stealing, or forcing people to do things against their will, but it can also be verbal. Teasing, insulting, refusing to talk to someone, spreading lies or rumors, or excluding someone from a group, are all examples of bullying. There were numerous examples of this during the first presidential debate, despite the fact that the activity of debating someone can be a helpful tool to address bullying. 

How Can Debate Help Address Bullying?

Debate is a long-standing tradition and a historic skill set focused on respectful listening to facts and evidence to engage in a productive and constructive conversation on a topic that two people may disagree on. There are ground rules in place that must be respected, such as only speaking when it is your turn, listening attentively and respecting all opinions. Read to Lead‘s lesson plans outline the ground rules for effective debate.

The beauty of debate is that you don’t have to agree with someone, but you do have to respectfully establish your position based on facts, with the goal of convincing others of your position, rather than bullying them to concede defeat. The opinions presented may not be in line with your own, but this does not mean you can’t have some level of respect for the person who holds these opinions.

This is how the Presidential Debate should have been conducted, but unfortunately, poor form on both the part of the participants and the moderator, led to what critics have described as “a disaster” and “one of the worst debates in televised American history”.

At Read to Lead, we believe giving students tools for respectful debate will reduce bullying. By giving students the skills they need to engage in meaningful and respectful dialogue, and disagree constructively with one another, we empower them to take control of situations where bullying may occur, and avert them.

Resources to Develop Debate Skills and Avoid Bullying

Read To Lead games explore the value of debate and offer proven resources to cultivate these skills in students. 

Many lesson plans include a debate component, such as “Is it worth it to have health insurance?”, “Should schools practice techniques like meditation during the school day?”, and “Which type of therapy for anxiety do you think is more beneficial? Why?”. The lesson plans also outline ground rules and guidelines about how to conduct debate sessions, while providing students with language to approach debate.

In the game Dad Genes  of Vital Signs, the debate question focuses on how to deal with a friend who is bullying someone. Students are encouraged to explore different options like approaching the friend directly or seeking help from someone else. By digging deeper into real life scenarios that students may encounter in their daily lives, we equip them with the skills necessary to tackle such situations.

In line with Anti-Bullying Month, we also have a special close reading lesson for October about bullying. This close reading passage provides a deeper look at what makes a bully, and some strategies to handle bullying, as well as teacher-guided questions to lead discussions around the effects of bullying on victims and students’ own experiences with bullying. By holding space for our students to engage in these conversations around bullying, we help them recognize and address the problem of bullying in our schools.

Bullying is an issue of serious concern in our schools, workplaces and even government, as demonstrated by the recent Presidential Debate. However, by drawing attention to it with our students and providing them with the necessary tools to engage in constructive debate, we can help address this problem and reduce the instances of bullying.

The post Using the First Presidential Debate to Teach Lessons on Bullying appeared first on Read to Lead.

Building literacy and leadership skills, with an emphasis on career readiness are at the core of nonprofit Classroom, Inc.’s mission. To deliver on this mission, the organization launched Read to Lead®, a comprehensive and free program developed through nearly 30 years of impact with students and teachers in high poverty communities. Read to Lead® is based on five principles that advance literacy, build leadership skills and equip middle school students for success in school today and their future careers.

Read to Lead: Five Guiding Principles

At the foundation of all learning lies the ability to read and understand. Reading proficiency is the number one predictor of a student’s success in high school, college and career, which is why ensuring all students are equipped with the necessary skills to be competent readers is critical. Yet, reading is not something that comes naturally to every student. By offering an engaging reading experience within an immersive fictional workplace, Read to Lead® blasts through traditional reading barriers to improve reading confidence and proficiency.

Apart from reading, students need to develop skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. As the world and the workforce becomes increasingly more complex, providing youth with opportunities to practice and develop their 21st century skills creates the foundation for a lifetime of opportunity. In Read to Lead® students are faced with workplace challenges where they must evaluate evidence and make tough decisions, helping them to build the skills to navigate school, life and their future workplace.

Put middle school students into positions of power and leadership, and they will rise to the occasion. Read to Lead intentionally creates characters that reflect the diversity of the communities it works with. Allowing students to see themselves in the characters of the learning games empowers them to learn about diverse career paths they may not have otherwise considered. Read to Lead® also gives students access to leadership opportunities and the chance to see themselves in positions where they can enact change, a powerful experience that inspires them.

Learning must be relevant. 81% of high school dropouts report that real-world learning opportunities would have improved their chances of staying in school. Read to Lead® Learning games give students the opportunity to experience over 30 careers, helping them make connections between what they are learning in school and to future career opportunities. 

Across the country, a majority of parents and students have reported that they do not get recognized for their achievements, nor do they get celebrated for reaching new levels of success. Within the Read to Lead® platform, students are awarded badges for reaching certain milestones, and can follow their class leaderboard which tracks the number of words they’ve read both individually and as a class, which inspires and motivates them to keep striving for higher levels of excellence. In addition, Read to Lead creates moments to honor student and educator achievements, through events such as the Million Words Read Challenge. 

Based on these five guiding principles, Read to Lead has developed a learning game platform and a community of committed educators dedicated to equipping students with skills essential for success in school today and the careers of tomorrow.

Interested in participating in the 2020-2021 Million Words Read Challenge with your students? Be sure to register on the free Read to Lead® platform, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop!

The post 5 Principles For Building Literacy, Leadership, and Career Readiness Skills appeared first on Read to Lead.

The Power of Culturally-Responsive, High-Quality Education

“A good education empowers students to understand more about the world, including politics, socio-economic issues, art, culture, and themselves. Through education, students can learn how to be positive contributors to their own culture and society.”  – Antionette Means

Antionette Means is a School Support Teacher at Westside Academy, a community school in central Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Westside has “high expectations focusing on core academics and the social-emotional development of students to prepare them to be college and career ready.” This mission extends into Westside’s afterschool program, where they officially launched an academic component three years ago. 

Ms. Means was brought in as the Academic Coordinator to help identify and implement academics into the program. This opportunity was a perfect fit for Ms. Means, who believes that “education allows students to recognize their strengths and how to build on them, ensuring they are both intellectually and emotionally intelligent and prepared for life after school.” 

By incorporating academic components like Read to Lead into Westside’s afterschool program, Ms. Means could help her students continue to build literacy and leadership skills outside of the school day. 

To Ms. Means, education is critical because it increases the opportunities for students beyond school. Read to Lead helped her students understand what it means to be the boss, preparing them for their future careers. 

“Some kids aren’t used to making tough decisions, and we have to give them the tools to investigate, get the facts, and be a leader. Read to Lead made them more aware that they have the ability to choose how they respond to different situations. They get to be the boss.” 

Preparing students for their futures is only one part of Ms. Means’ approach to education. She recognizes the importance of students being able to see themselves reflected in the content they engage with both during the school day and afterschool. 

“When Black students see themselves and relate to the content, it helps them understand their importance in our society and in the world. If the Black experience is never mentioned in their education, how can students feel self-pride, hope, strength, and positive self-esteem?” 

It’s critical that academic resources are authentic in how they include diverse perspectives. “It’s not enough to just change all the faces brown and give characters different names to be culturally relevant. Quality resources must also include the Black experience, both good and bad. This will not only help students but also educators, many who do not know how to incorporate culturally responsive teaching.” 

As an educator, Ms. Means actively looks for ways to incorporate Black voices into the curriculum. She identifies opportunities to relate topics to Black History, culture, and Black experiences. Ms. Means knows that “students tend to be more interested in a topic when they can relate it to their lives.” 

Instead of just teaching about the Bill of Rights, for example, Ms. Means extended the lesson to include the historical context for Black Americans. “I had to add to that lesson the mistreatment of Black people and explain how the Bill of Rights did not apply to us. I extended the lesson so we could explore the 13 Amendment and the Civil Rights Act.”

This approach can be tough for educators who aren’t used to incorporating culturally responsive teaching, but the positive impact on students makes it critical. Topics like Anti-Racism need lots of time and a safe environment to explore. Ms. Means intentionally creates space for her students to share their life experiences. 

“Initially, students would express anger, sadness, and fear when discussing these issues. Over the course of the lessons, I think my students felt pride, empowerment, and wanted to be agents of change.

This is a new topic that is long overdue for our Nation and should be mandatory in every school. Hopefully discussing this in different platforms will make our students leaders in the movement and valued stakeholders in this nation.”       

At Read to Lead, we are intentional about creating authentic learning experiences that reflect the vibrant diversity of our communities. We appreciate Ms. Means taking the time to speak with us about this topic. We agree with Ms. Means that a good education can change lives and that academic resources must be reflective of the students they serve. 

We also recognize that there’s still plenty of work to do. If you have suggestions for how we can improve our games and resources to better acknowledge and celebrate the Black experience, please let us know. 

The post Educator Spotlight: Antionette Means appeared first on Read to Lead.

Learning loss, typically associated with summer vacation, is a well-known challenge that educators face, particularly after extended breaks in instruction. 

This new school year, as students return to a variety of classroom environments, educators are facing an additional challenge: “COVID Slide”, which accounts for the additional month’s students spent out of school buildings this spring because of the pandemic. 

This long absence from in-person instruction will inevitably compound the summer learning loss that students usually face. Achieve3000 predicted that students could lose 49% of potential learning gains by the start of next school year and that the achievement gap between low- and high-income students could increase by as much as 18%.

Numerous schools have reported not being able to have any contact with some of their students from the onset of the pandemic. The potential for learning loss with that population is significant. 

Through these are sobering statistics, educators can develop instruction plans that can mitigate the effects of learning loss. Here are three strategies to help counter the effects of learning regression exacerbated by the COVID-19 school closures. 

Engage Students with Real-World Application

Research shows that even before COVID-19 closed schools and classrooms went online, students were feeling disengaged from their education, with more than half of middle school students reporting that they felt “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” in their learning.

There are many factors as to why students may feel disengaged at school. One key complaint is “boring and irrelevant” lessons. Selecting curriculum and resources that have direct applications to the real world can engage students in their learning, improving overall results. 

A variety of free tools can help students understand the real-world application and relevance of their education. These tools can help combat COVID-19 learning loss, but also ensure they are preparing to become engaged citizens of their community, country, and the world.

Read to Lead Recommends:

• Introduce students to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development via SGDs in Action, a mobile app that helps students learn about and engage with issues affecting our world and environment.

• Bring governance, politics, and civic participation to life with iCivics, which features interactive games and classroom resources for educators to break down the complexities of civics education in a fun and enjoyable way.

• Couragion exposes students to a variety of STEM careers through inclusive, work-based learning experiences that prepare students for jobs of the future.

Make Learning Fun with Gamification

It’s no secret that the old-fashioned approach of a teacher spending an entire class lecturing does not lead to happy, engaged students. With educators facing even more significant literacy loss than in years past, it is critical that students have access to learning experiences that are both academic and fun.

Gamified learning platforms offer an alternative to traditional forms of instruction. Game-based learning has been shown to be an effective way to improve literacy, in addition to increasing engagement and motivation among learners.

Read to Lead Recommends:

• Prodigy, a curriculum-aligned program for mathematics allows educators to design assignments and provide feedback, while students cover core concepts within a fun video game layout.

• Khan Academy is a favorite among teachers and students for its interactive and easy-to-navigate interface, which features subjects such as math, science, history, and more.

• Scholastic has a variety of learning games available for students covering a range of subjects and grade levels.

Elevate Student Choice, Voice, and Agency

Middle school is a unique time for any student. With schools reopening after COVID-19, middle school students face the additional challenge of getting back on track with their academics while navigating the new normal. 

When students have a choice in what they learn and are offered customized learning paths catered to them, they display greater engagement, which translates to better academic outcomes. Affording students greater agency also drives self-initiated learning, fosters collaborative learning environments, and helps inculcate students with a range of essential skills. 

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an effective way to elevate student choice, voice, and agency. PBL offers students the freedom to direct their own learning, and empowers them to take ownership of their education, which can help combat learning loss. This translates to better outcomes in terms of student performance academically, student motivation, and preparing students for further education and future careers.

Learn more about how to elevate student choice, voice, and agency, and why this matters HERE.

Read to Lead Recommends:

• My PBL Works, by the Buck Institute for Education, features an extensive collection of resources for teachers to introduce project-based learning to their students, including planning tools and project ideas.

• Virtual Schoolhouse showcases resources for teachers to immediately implement in their classrooms

• Dreamdo Schools offers teachers an easy to follow handbook for introducing PBL to their students.

Conclusions 

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the education of our students and left unaddressed, they could be facing an immense amount of learning loss.

By increasing student engagement through real-world applications, capitalizing on gamified learning platforms to keep students interested, and focusing on student choice and agency, we can help tackle this problem.

About Read To Lead

In the Read to Lead games, middle school students become the boss in a digital workplace. They play through their workday, reading closely, thinking critically, and solving real-world problems, all while balancing the hectic demands of an exciting career.

Our games and lessons include:

– Reading and writing practice through game-based learning

– Career games that build real-world connections 

– Turn-key project-based learning curriculum that reinforces literacy & career skills

By playing our games, students increase reading achievement, find motivation, and see— often for the first time— a real connection between learning, career aspirations, and their futures.

To learn more, visit us online at http://bit.ly/platformreadtolead 

The post Three Reading Strategies to Counter COVID-19 Learning Loss appeared first on Read to Lead.

COVID-19 has drastically altered how we think about education. In a majority of US states, students have been out of school since spring, and virtual learning has taken over as the main form of instruction. While the future of schools remains uncertain, it is clear that when teachers are faced with virtual learning, it is critical that they make the most of the face-to-face instruction time they have with their students. 

Our time with our students is precious, which is why we need to focus on discussion, collaboration, and connection during these brief periods of virtual interaction with them. 

Here are three ways you can use Read to Lead to make the most of live instruction with students.

Grab Student Attention with Conversations About the Future 

Engage students by focusing on topics that are relevant and make connections to their lives beyond school. Introducing students to the world of work as early as middle school can guide students in making informed decisions about future career paths, and help them stay motivated through the school years.

The Read to Lead program gives students the chance to take on a leadership role within three different workplaces. Students are also introduced to a variety of professions and careers within the platform, and educators can use these games as a starting point for discussions and debates among students. 

Tip for Live Instruction: Flip the classroom! Send students discussion and debate questions the day before and assign reading and preparation as homework. Students will come to the live instruction prepared to discuss the topic and share their learnings.

Use Read to Lead’s offline curriculum to engage with students on the screen. With Read to Lead’s Be the Boss Activity, educators can guide their students through discussions to identify the qualities of a leader and explore what it takes to be the boss in an authentic workplace setting.

Teleconferencing platforms like Zoom also often include features that allow for virtual collaboration, such as breakout rooms for small group discussions, and chat boxes for students to type their responses to discussion questions, or even respond by “clapping” or giving a “thumbs up”.

Give Students Spaces to Talk About The Current Moment 

The COVID-19 global pandemic is affecting all aspects of our lives and our students may be experiencing higher levels of stress, and anxiety. They need safe spaces to talk about how drastically their lives have changed. As educators, we need to address this situation with our students, particularly more disadvantaged children who may not have alternative channels to discuss the challenges they are facing. 

Though not part of our traditional curriculum— dealing with the pandemic, managing the emotions that students may be experiencing at this time, and identifying the positive aspects of the current situation— are critical conversations to be having with our students at this time. 

We have created a curated collection of Read to Lead lessons relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic. Covering topics like Making a Diagnosis, Managing Anxiety, and Looking for the Helpers, these lessons are immediately relevant and applicable to students’ lives.

These lessons are standards-aligned and can be used towards your ELA, Science, Health, Social Studies, or SEL learning goals. Each lesson is specifically designed for a distance learning setting, and include step-by-step directions for execution as well as Google worksheets for students to complete. They aim to spark meaningful conversation, promote critical thinking, foster leadership and provide support to students as a class community.

Tip for Live Instruction – Include your Students! Take stock of what’s happening in the community, state, and on a national level. Ask your students what they are thinking about, and let them help drive their learning experience.  

Introduce Read to Lead distance learning lesson “Anxiety Relief” to help students identify their feelings, explore strategies to manage anxiety, and make space to uplift each other. You can download all of our distance learning lessons here. 

Encourage Independent Work

The constraints placed on live instruction as a result of the transition to distance learning and remote classrooms, in another light, can be seen as an avenue for educators to encourage independent work. By giving students tasks or projects to work on independently in their time outside of virtual instruction sessions with their teachers, we can empower them to take charge of their own learning.

Tip for Live Instruction – Be Flexible – and Forgiving! One-way delivery of content through a video chat can be exhausting for both educators and students. By giving students space to explore their interests with project-based learning, educators can maximize facetime and empower students to drive their learning.

Research projects or Project-Based Learning (PBL) are another way in which educators can encourage independent work and make the most of live instruction. Allowing students to pursue topics that resonate with and interest them will engage students better. The Read to Lead platform includes a wide selection of close reading articles that students can choose to read independently and write their own articles sharing their perspectives. Educators can then dedicate their time with students to answering their questions, and helping them develop critical thinking skills.

Conclusion 

Making the transition from in-person education to distance learning can be a challenge, but Read to Lead is here to support you through this time with useful and timely resources that you can start using in your remote classrooms immediately.

It is easy to get started with Read to Lead, and the platform is free to educators and students. It includes 44 games where students get the chance to take on leadership roles in different authentic work environments that be used in independent learning time. 

Make the most of live instruction with Read to Lead’s extensive library of worksheets for students, and self-directed learning projects for students to work on independently – a total of more than 150 hours of games, curricula, and content. Most importantly all games, activities, and projects are completely virtual, easily applied to distance learning environments.

If you have a question that needs to be answered right away, write support@classroominc.org and our team will respond to you within 24 hours.

The post How to Make the Most of Live Instruction: The Read to Lead Guide to Engaging Students Virtually appeared first on Read to Lead.

With over a decade of experience as an administrator, teacher-leader, coach, and mentor in district, state, and national levels, I have seen the inequities in education first hand. 

While I enjoyed working with children from various student populations in New York and New Jersey, and remain passionate about bringing my creativity to education, it is undeniable that addressing inequity in education goes beyond just changing the curriculum.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how,  when, and where students learn, and as a result, has also exposed the jarring disparities that exist in our education system. To address these inequities, it is necessary to look beyond just overhauling the curriculum— we need to re-think the school experience, elevate student voices and choice, and leverage technology to create a more equitable learning environment for our youth. 

RE-THINK THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

Create safe spaces for learning 

The word ‘school’ calls to mind an image of a safe, inviting, and wholesome environment to play and to learn. Yet, the reality in public school is anything but. 

High rates of policing and zero-tolerance discipline policies in under-funded and under-resourced public schools creates a school-to-prison pipeline instead. This disproportionately funnels Black children out of the public school system and into the juvenile justice system. 

When so many public schools have metal detectors at the entrance, it is hardly surprising that it doesn’t make for a welcoming experience for the students to inspire them to learn. 

We need structural changes and shifts in attitudes to make the culture of schools about learning, not policing. Metal detectors and a culture of rules and punishment don’t make people better human beings. Instead, we need to bring the focus of schools to creating spaces for kids to learn and grow.

Build strong relationships between the school and the community

There has to be more of a relationship between schools and the communities they serve, where the school brings parents to the table and parents are more involved in the curriculum. 

It’s amazing how many people don’t feel welcome in these conversations.

We need to create systems and structures that are inclusive of parents, families, caregivers and students. Involving all stakeholders, not just educators and administrators, in discussions about what and how children are learning is one of the effective means of addressing the inequities in education.

Increase representation

There’s no denying that in the past half-century, US schools student populations have become more ethnically diverse. However, diversity among educators and administrators has remained stagnant with 80% being white and mostly female. In fact, as more children of color enroll in schools, the racial gap between students and teachers has widened. 

When students of color have teachers who match their race or ethnicity,  they see improvement on almost all educational outcomes – better attendance, fewer suspensions, more positive attitudes, and higher test scores, graduation rates and college attendance. It is evident that to address the lack of equity in education, we need more representation in schools. We need more teachers and administrators who look like the student populations they serve.

ELEVATE STUDENT VOICE AND CHOICE

Get to know your students’ lives at home 

As educators, we need to put our students front and center of the work we do. We need to strive to really understand our students, to know what their lives are like outside the classroom, their struggles and challenges, and their worries and fears. How can we build a loving place for people to be educated if we can’t understand the trials and tribulations they are going through?

For example, a huge and growing problem in US schools is homelessness. The latest data from federal sources shows 1.5 million students were homeless during the 2017-18 school year, a new all-time high. Nationwide, more than 129,000 students live on their own without a parent or guardian, another number that is rising, and which also poses significant challenges of its own. Unfortunately, homelessness is strongly correlated with poor academic performance, and homelessness disproportionately affects people of Black and minority communities.

Educators need to make their classrooms a safe space. They can ask their Black and brown students how they are feeling. But more importantly, they can have grace with their students. If a student doesn’t turn in an assignment on time, ask them what’s going on in their life that might have prevented them from doing that work. By actively seeking to understand what our students are going through, we can then act more equitably toward them.

Let students opt-in

School closures and the shift to digital learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed students to opt-in or opt-out of what they are learning. Without teachers constantly monitoring their activities, students are free to choose what, how and when they learn. What the pandemic has done is given students agency to be responsible for their own learning.

However, as educators, if we are not teaching in a way that speaks to students or incorporates their interests, they will not opt-in. There is a belief that students do not want to learn, but that is simply not true. Students want to do things that are meaningful to them. COVID-19 has shown us that students will choose to learn in the ways that have value in their lives.

It is a great thing for students to be able to choose their own adventure, to help design what their own schools look like. Going forward, to create education that is truly equitable, we need to involve students in the conversations about designing what schools look like and what they learn in school.

LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY

Consider technology access equity 

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the digital divide that exists in the US. With schools closed and distance learning on virtual platforms becoming the predominant form of instruction, children who lack access to the internet and devices now also lack access to education.

Almost a third of US households lack broadband access, and in households that have access, there is often a shortage of devices for everyone who needs it – including parents who are now working from home and multiple school-going children. Research also shows that Blacks and Latinos are much less likely to have access to home computers than are white, non-Latinos, and that poverty and race are significant factors in lack of access to the internet.

Thankfully, we are starting to have conversations about WiFi as a public utility, like water or power, which can make it more accessible. In order to bring equity to education, it is imperative that we treat access (to the internet and computers) as part of the problem that needs to be solved.

Technology enables students to participate in new ways

COVID-19 has highlighted something many educators already knew – that digital learning (and access to education through digital means) can create equity because it empowers students to learn where and when they are able. 

Research shows that Black and minority race children have higher rates of absenteeism, causing them to miss out on valuable instruction and class-time, which impacts academic performance. Technology that allows students to learn from home can help address this problem – even absent students will have access to the material taught in school.

However, districts that are poor tend to have limited access to technology, which hinders the Black and brown students they serve. It is crucial that we start working towards bridging the digital divide between schools and the communities that they serve.

Careers of the future

The need for some measure of digital literacy at almost every level of the employment ladder. Even jobs not traditionally seen as “technology jobs” require some level of understanding and skill of how to navigate digital tools and systems.

We cannot deny that technology is the way of work moving forward, and we would be doing our students a disservice if we did not equip them with these skills. It is incumbent upon schools not to allow their students to opt-out of learning how to use technology. We have to teach students what it means to be digital citizens, and how technology is part of the future in order to give them a fighting chance to be a part of the modern workforce.

CONCLUSION

COVID-19 has made it impossible to ignore the societal inequities that matriculate into schools. School closures have exposed the reality that educators are more than just teachers – they are social workers, they provide emotional support – and that schools are more than just buildings where students learn. 

We have to change the structure of how public schools operate in the world. People tend to think that the way they live is the way everyone lives. COVID-19 made it clear that isn’t the case. Education needs to be about more than just teaching students content – it needs to be about equity. 

By re-thinking the school experience, elevating student voices and choice, and leveraging technology, we can address some of the inequities in our schools and our education system to create better outcomes for all our students.

ABOUT KWAMARA THOMPSON

Kwamara leads the strategic vision for partner acquisition and retention and thought leadership and professional development, working to elevate Read to Lead’s community of educators across the country.

She holds a Masters in Education Leadership and a Bachelor’s from New York University, and also sits on several boards and helps those organizations strategize and implement their education programming initiatives.

The post It’s More Than Curriculum: Bringing Equity Into Education appeared first on Read to Lead.

Summer is just around the corner, and ordinarily, we’d be looking forward to fun activities and holiday plans. However, with many parts of the country and the world still in varying degrees of lockdown due to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic, our summer vacation plans may be in need of a revamp.

Students have now been engaged in home-based learning for the past few months, and if they do not keep up with educational activities during summer, the effects of summer slide could be very pronounced. Summer can be used as an opportunity for kids to dive into experiential learning, outside the structure of the classroom. These activities can keep your child’s brain engaged while also being fun!

If you’re feeling stumped about how to keep kids occupied at home during the long summer months, we’ve got your back. Here are some free summer activities your kids and you can enjoy together!

1. For the Art Lover

The Smithsonian Museums have a variety of resources available, including online events and workshops, open access to digital images and data, and games and activities to keep children occupied for hours. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also has specially designed a section for children to explore interesting exhibits, as does the Boston Children’s Museum.

2. To Make Young Scientists Squeal with Glee

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is another museum that offers virtual tours of their exhibits. The American Museum of Natural History also has virtual field trips designed for students of different grade levels.

3. For the Intrepid Traveler

International travel may have been severely restricted, but there’s no reason why you can’t still take your children on a trip of a lifetime this summer – for free! Why not take a virtual vacation outside of the US? Use the power of technology to “teleport” to iconic landmarks throughout the world, and be back in time for dinner. 

Fancy a visit to Easter Island off the coast of Chile? What about a trip to the Sydney Opera House? Perhaps explore the architectural wonder that is the Eiffel Tower! You can even spend an afternoon or two exploring the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Vatican Museums, or any of the hundreds of other museums worldwide with the Google Arts and Culture platform.

4. Space Adventurers Aboard!

If you and your children are feeling particularly adventurous – NASA’s Glenn Research Center offers virtual visitors an inside look into their testing facilities.

5. Something for the Nature Buffs

National parks are also stepping up their game and offering virtual visits to their premises. Yellowstone National Park has virtual tours of Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser Basin and more, while many other parks have set up live streaming webcams for virtual visitors to enjoy the sights and sounds of the park from the comfort of their homes. You can even Find Your “Virtual” Park to discover what else the National Parks have to offer.

6. For the Young Zoologist or Aspiring Veterinarian

Nature and animal enthusiasts will also enjoy the variety of live streaming webcams available for viewing. The Nature Conservancy has webcams featuring some of their popular animals, while Explore.org has wildlife webcams to pique anyone’s interest. WildEarth hosts a guided live stream of their sunrise and sunset safaris daily, and many zoos and aquariums such as San Diego Zoo and Memphis Zoo also post live webcams of their popular residents.

7. Bring out the Bibliophile

Libraries are a great treasure trove of resources and activities to do with your children during summer. From summer reading challenges to virtual storytime at the library to weekly creative writing prompts by beloved children’s authors, summer can be the perfect opportunity to cultivate your children’s reading habits and engage in literacy activities together. In addition to special programming created in response to the pandemic, libraries also have a huge variety of eBooks, audiobooks, videos, and more.

8. For the Moving, Grooving and Active Kids

Get your groove on with Just Dance, a YouTube channel that will get the whole family busting out the dance moves and working up a sweat. If you just need your kids to settle down and stretch for a while, Cosmic Kids Yoga has videos for yoga and mindfulness suitable for the whole family, while PE Teacher of The Body Coach regularly puts up PE lessons that will definitely be a workout for mum and dad too.

9. Give Your Child a Virtual Internship with Read to Lead

An award-winning gamified platform that puts children in the boss’s shoes within an immersive virtual workplace, Read to Lead games are the perfect summer activity to keep children reading and leading. Each game is also accompanied by free lesson plans and discussion questions that you can use with your children to explore different professions, and engage in meaningful discourse about topics such as decision-making in the workplace, the importance of cooperation and more!

The COVID-19 pandemic may have put a damper on our summer plans, but there’s no reason to squander away this precious time we have with our children at home. By doing different activities with your children during the summer vacation, you can help keep their minds and bodies active while strengthening your bond with them – all for free!

The post 9 Free Summer Activities for Kids And Parents to Enjoy Together appeared first on Read to Lead.

The Classroom, Inc. team stands with the millions of Americans seeking justice and humanity for Black lives lost including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, and countless others. We condemn systemic racism.

Black lives matter and we will continue to use our voice, actions, and platform to fight for change. 

Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop said, “All children need a mirror to see themselves, a window to see the world beyond their own, and a sliding glass door to encourage them out into that world.”

We want Black youth to see powerful images of themselves in their learning. We are committed to creating more “windows, mirrors, and doors” that elevate and empower Black lives through the characters, scenarios, and conversations they encounter in Read to Lead. 

We will work with our community of educators, families, and supporters, to create and share tools that expose all youth to diverse ideas, diverse people, and tough decisions by: 

• Providing Black students with windows to careers through our games: Only 13% of children’s literature includes multicultural content. We will continue to work tirelessly to design new learning games that elevate Black lives and put them in positions of power. 

• Supporting educators with the tools for dialogue and processing: We will develop educator resources that help all students navigate deep conversations, tackle tough issues, and broaden their understanding of “other”. These conversations are essential to combat racism, and bias.

• Designing our games to challenge our students to see themselves as leaders and changemakers: We will give students agency to make difficult and complex decisions as the boss, helping them to transform into the leaders of the future. Empowering and preparing youth now will help them create a more just world that is free of oppression against Black lives. 

In addition, we commit to critically examining ourselves— identifying new voices and perspectives and creating opportunities for dialogue with our staff, Board, and supporters. Through these efforts, we will hold ourselves and our community accountable for elevating Black lives and dismantling systemic racism. 

Yours in grief and hope, 

The Classroom, Inc. Team

The post We Stand Firm For Black Lives appeared first on Read to Lead.

When it comes to students’ learning success and overall well-being, their mental health is just as important as their physical health.

Mental health problems can affect a student’s ability to focus and their energy levels, and in turn, negatively impact their performance in school. It is something that we as educators always need to be aware of, but now more than ever before, our students’ mental health deserves extra attention. 

The Global Pandemic & Impact on Mental Health

The current COVID-19 global pandemic has necessitated social distancing and school closures to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. A consequence of these measures is the social isolation some of our students may be facing during this stressful and uncertain time. Humans are highly social beings, and an extended lack of social interaction with others could result in poor mental and physical health. 

May – A Spotlight on Mental Health

May is Mental Health Month, and a great opportunity to shed light on the importance of caring for mental health. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that almost 1 in 5 adults in the US lives with a mental health condition, and a similar incidence of mental health conditions has been observed in middle school students.

Educators and parents can demonstrate and promote healthy practices in mental and emotional wellbeing. Being open about your own challenges with your students and sharing positive strategies can encourage students to open up about their own struggles.

With the right structures in place, it is possible to foster a sense of community among our students, and to drive important conversations about our students’ emotional and mental well-being.

Read to Lead on Mental Health

Getting the conversation started on mental health can be tricky. To give educators and students alike a starting point to engage in meaningful discussions around this topic, we’re highlighting some of the Read to Lead games that can kickstart conversations on this topic.

Game-Based Learning 

In the Vital Signs series, students take on the role of Medical Director of a Family Clinic. They encounter different real-world scenarios dealing with health-related topics, including mental health issues and wellness, and must decide on the best course of action for the patients and staff.

The easy-to-navigate platform is designed for independent learning, which also makes it a great resource for students learning from home.

In the game High Anxiety, a patient believes she has an obscure disorder she read about on the internet, but the clinical staff on her case thinks that she suffers from anxiety and recommends counseling. Students learn more about the symptoms of anxiety and its causes, as well as treatment options.

The game is also accompanied by post-game discussion and debate questions. By encouraging students to think about and reflect on the topic of anxiety, educators open the doors of  communication with students who may be struggling with similar feelings. These tools can also be used to further the conversation about the challenges around discussing mental health. 

Crash Course is another game that is a valuable resource to educators in talking about mental health. A patient comes in for treatment for injuries from a car accident that he caused, and he appears to be suffering from an enormous amount of guilt. However, he doesn’t want further treatment. Students learn more about PTSD – its symptoms and treatment options – and must assess the situation to decide whether to refer the patient for therapy.

In the post-game discussion questions and debate, students are invited to explore mental health and learn some practices around effectively managing their own emotional and mental wellbeing. Educators can use this as a springboard to lead guided discussions to support their students. 

Play High Anxiety and Crash Course by signing up for a free Read to Lead account. 

Extension Activities 

Both games, like all other games on the Read to Lead platform, can be played independently and work as stand-alone lessons for students. Our accompanying extension activities can be used to foster more self-awareness and self-management among students. 

By sparking meaningful discussions, we hope to normalize the topic of mental health and emphasize the importance of implementing proactive strategies to maintain mental wellbeing and asking for help when needed.

• Learning to Manage Anxiety Lesson Plan

This activity will help students identify their feelings, explore strategies to manage anxiety, and make space to uplift each other. 

• Mental Health Awareness Lesson Plan

This activity helps students think more deeply about their own mental health and promotes the importance of taking care of their mental and emotional wellbeing. 

Read to Lead’s Top Picks for Information for Educators on Mental Health

We curated some of our top picks for educators on how best to approach mental health with your students. 

• Mental Health Month, Mental Health America has compiled an extensive repository of information and printables on specific topics relating to mental health. These resources are research-backed and can be shared with your students remotely. 

• Child Mind Institute offers excellent classroom strategies and information on learning issues and the connection to mental health. 

• Edutopia is also a useful platform with resources for educators to address any behavioral, emotional, or social challenges their students may be facing.

There is no doubt that this is a difficult period for students and educators alike. Our students may be more susceptible to mental health issues, and as educators, we need to provide the necessary support to help them navigate these complex times.

By engaging students in meaningful discussions and providing them with tools to manage their mental and emotional wellbeing at this time, we are not only addressing their immediate needs, but also equipping them with skills for the future as well.

Sign up for Read to Lead today to explore the variety of games available for free, and jumpstart the conversation on mental health!

The post Mental Health Awareness Month appeared first on Read to Lead.