Celebrating and supporting our students while learning at home by keeping students engaged, continuing meaningful learning, and strengthening relationships.
This challenging time has taught us a great deal about what students need to succeed and has helped prioritize what is needed now in education. Our program focuses on developing self-directed, lifelong learners. Every child deserves to be bolstered with the confidence that they are capable of goal-setting, making decisions, and steering aspects of their own education, especially outside the walls of their classroom.
Here are some tips for keeping students engaged, continuing meaningful learning, and strengthening relationships while learning at home:
Student Engagement Activation Tips:
Support your child to be passionate and motivated by what they are learning. To accomplish this, you can:
- Connect your student’s learning to what’s happening at home or in the world, today, through conversation.
- Select a complementary Habit of Success and cognitive skill to guide their mindset and attention as they work through assignments, reading, and remote learning lessons.
- Encourage them to explore topics that excite them beyond the scope of an assignment to practice following their own interests
Meaningful Learning Activation Tips:
Provide opportunities for your child to apply what they are learning and build confidence making connections. You can:
- Discuss your child’s plan and goals with them for remote learning during the closure. Let them take the lead and provide feedback when needed.
- Ask open-ended questions focused on what excites them about a particular topic or an interesting detail they learned. These questions are a good substitute in lieu of asking how they scored on an assessment or how quickly they progressed through a project or reading.
- Acknowledge all big and small efforts and successes as they adjust to learning from home, especially when they are challenged to build a new skill or try new approaches.
Strong Relationships Activation Tips:
Anxiety is high now, and we are all missing out on key social connections that help support us during challenging times. Remember to prioritize your child’s social-emotional well being. You can:
- Ask them about their weekly check-ins with their mentor from school. If this is not set up, help them reach out to a trusted teacher or advisor from their school to see if this is possible to schedule.
- Consider ways to maintain relationships with your child’s friends and school families while respecting social distancing. Set-up a video chat social time, a text chain, or organize pen pals.
- Make time for touchpoints throughout the day to provide real-time conversations. Take a breather from the news, work, and school requirements to create the space for and listen to how your child is feeling.
Let us know the ways you’re engaging these tips at home by reaching out to us on Facebook or Twitter.