Chino Carpenter Builds Hundreds of Free Desks

Chino-based software engineer and carpenter, Chai Hansanuwat, started building free desks for students in need after he was recently laid off from his job in technology. With the massive shift to at home learning, desks are often out of stock, increasingly overpriced from the demand, and many families with multiple children can’t afford the cost of buying desks for each child. In response, Hansanuwat began building and donating desks to families, and created a network of other carpenters willing to donate time and supplies to help reach more families.

“I had no idea how big the need was until I started building free desks for local families,” said Chai Hansanuwat. “What started as one request for a family in my community grew to 20, which then grew into 250 requests and counting.”

Hansanuwat was inspired to start the initiative after learning about a family in his community with four students, and without access to a table or desk large enough to fit them all. The family had recently relocated to California to live with their grandmother following a job loss caused by the pandemic. Hansanuwat, who has been a hobbyist carpenter for over 12 years, built four free desks for the family. Word spread about his good deed and he received hundreds of requests from families in the area in need of desks, and without the means to buy them.…Read More

The Character Tree Expands its Offering to Kindergarten

The Character Tree, an online resource that teaches character development though engaging videos and downloadable activities, has expanded to offer videos and content specifically for kindergarten-aged students. The videos are short and feature puppet characters sure to appeal to the youngest learners while they teach lessons on classroom citizenship such as hand-raising, full-body listening and other skills that are important for children who are just starting school.

A 2020/21 subscription to The Character Tree includes 36 episodes, 18 original songs, 36 sets of parent’s guides and 36 sets of useful supplemental resources. The videos are appropriate for use in classrooms, especially in live virtual classrooms, child care centers and for parents at home. To sign up, visit: https://charactertree.com/subscriptions/.

“Our first set of videos this year focused on students in grades 1 and 2 and we had such an amazing response that we are expanding to kindergarten,” said Bill Apperson, chairman of Apperson which created The Character Tree. “These lessons will help young students make that tough transition to school and teach positive character traits that will serve them well into the future.”…Read More

Newly Minted Career Sparks National Nonprofit Links Kids with Professionals

Today marks the official launch of Career Sparks, a nonprofit organization aimed at connecting real-world career professionals with K-12 students, who are primarily disadvantaged, in a fun and exciting virtual setting. With Career Sparks children now have the power to explore exciting careers from a traditional classroom setting or at home through distance learning.

Career Sparks was conceived during the beginning stages of social distancing when its board members saw the imperative need for children to have positive human connections, especially in the homes of underprivileged children. Education and Employers, an independent UK-based charity, found in a study titled “Drawing the Future” that less than 1% of children have been provided the opportunity to learn about a career from an actual career professional. This statistic is even more dire during COVID-19, as many children are being neglected, and often placed in front of screens with no interactive responses and little human connectivity.

“Plain and simple, our children need career heroes,“ says Career Sparks President Elaine M. Patel. “They need to know that they can become anything they aspire to. Career Sparks gives students a personal connection within distance learning that spurs exploration and ignites passions.”…Read More

3 ways to teach STEAM in a blended learning environment

Before March 2020, there were many conversations about the benefits of minimizing screen time for young learners. Since the pandemic hit, educators and parents have had no choice but to rely on screens to reach and teach students. But screen-based learning is not always developmentally appropriate for young learners, and it is not well suited to some forms of learning. STEAM lessons in particular, with their exploratory and experiential elements, may seem impossible to deliver in a remote learning model.

But with the right tools and the right approach, we can keep engaging our young learners in STEAM. Here’s how educators, whether they’re teaching 100% virtual or in a blended learning environment, can teach STEAM concepts in a hands-on, playful way.

Grounding learning in hands-on manipulatives…Read More

Back to School Guide to Support Students’ Social Emotional Learning

As students, teachers, and families prepare for the 2020-21 school year, social-emotional learning will play an important role in helping them navigate the emotional and logistical challenges created by the events of the last few months. To support them, Aperture Education has created its free 2020 Back to School Guide packed with helpful information, lessons and activities to strengthen social-emotional skills for children and adults.

The 2020 Back to School Guide contains more than 40 pages of downloadable resources and articles created by experts and SEL professionals to support SEL in the classroom, in the home, and during distance learning. To download the 2020 Back to School Guide, visit: http://info.apertureed.com/2020-btsg.

“This school year, social-emotional learning will be more important than ever as students, teachers and families adjust to going back to school while the COVID-19 pandemic still has an impact,” said Jessica Adamson, CEO of Aperture Education. “Our Back to School Guide provides resources to help school administrators, educators, and families work together to ensure student success.”…Read More

How can high schools better prepare students for college and career success?

Today, many parents in the United States are worried — worried about their children’s physical health if schools open, worried about their mental health in case they don’t, and worried about the quality of their education in either case. While the worry about health is driven by COVID-19, the concern about how well schools are preparing children to succeed predates the pandemic.

One of the main roles high school plays, aside from providing a general understanding of core subjects, is to create a thirst for learning to accompany young people into their early adulthood and beyond. For many, this means continuing on to higher education. However, the cost of attending college has increased eight times faster than average salaries, making many question whether pursuing a college degree is worth it.

Related content: Inspiring students through college and career–and beyond…Read More

Almost half of parents uncomfortable with in-person schooling

A new series of surveys of almost 40,000 parents reports that nearly half of respondents say they are uncomfortable sending their children back to school for in-person learning this fall. When asked “Do you feel comfortable sending your child to school for in-person learning?” 43 percent of parents responded “No” while only 36 percent responded “Yes.”

While 21 percent of parents responded that they were “mostly” comfortable with their child returning to school, further analysis of this subgroup revealed that the majority still did not favor entirely in-person learning with 59 percent preferring a mix of remote and in-person learning, 5 percent preferring fully remote learning, and only 37 percent expressing a preference for entirely in-person learning.

The “Back to School Parent Pulse Survey” was conducted by Possip, an online engagement platform that enables parents and family members to share feedback with their child’s school through brief weekly surveys conducted by text. Between June 12 and July 20, 2020, Possip asked parents and family members ranging from East to West Coast to respond to short “pulse check” surveys that take less than a minute to complete. The respondent pool included parents and families representing 366 K-12 schools located across the country. Collectively, 28 languages are spoken by the parents and family members surveyed.…Read More

Survey Shows Over 80% of Parents Are Future-Proofing Kids

Osmo’s latest parent survey reinforces what most parents already knew–that coding skills and STEAM education are a desirable means to future-proof kids and will help them become successful. To complement survey results, Osmo debuts a Coding Starter Kit which combines 3 coding bestsellers and features new hardware. Osmo is an award-winning, educational STEAM brand used in over 30,000 schools and 2.5 million homes.

In the OnePoll-conducted survey of 2000 U.S. parents of school-aged children, over 80% believe in future-proofing kids with necessary skills to ensure career success; 75% believe coding will be a required job skill; and 79% want their child to start learning coding at a very young age. Also, 71% think coding should be mandatory in elementary education. Many early childhood education teachers agree that coding is a vital life skill and learning coding helps kids develop creativity and problem-solving skills.

How do parents future-proof their kids? Data shows 67% have tried to encourage children to pursue their areas of interest, 53% have introduced their kids to educational shows and games, and 47% have introduced structured learning (i.e. workbooks, flashcards). However, 66% do not know where to start when it comes to coding education.…Read More

Free classes and practice problems in over 200 subjects

Many K-12 schools have closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More closings are sure to come. In response, Varsity Tutors, founded by Washington University in St. Louis alum Chuck Cohn, has launched a new service called Virtual School Day.

Virtual School Day: Nearly 200 free, live K-12 classes available all day long intended to help parents fill their children’s day with enriched learning. Some popular classes are “Intro to Spanish for Kids”, “Coolest Women in History”, “Java Programming Basics”, and “The Story of Your Favorite Fairy Tales”.

Virtual Summer Camps: Free half-day summer camps are a week-long, with enrichment-based classes in subjects like foreign languages, chess, theater, coding, Minecraft, how to be a detective, photography, and more. These live, interactive camps will be taught by expert instructors vetted through Varsity Tutors’ platform.…Read More

Forces Join To Grant the Wishes of More Than 500 Classrooms Nationwide

My Wish For U.S., the digital platform that invites Americans to share their wishes for the country’s future, today announced a partnership with First Book, a non-profit social enterprise that provides new, high-quality educational resources to children in need, and AMERICAN HERITAGE® Chocolate. The partnership will provide classrooms nationwide with books to add to their libraries, chosen by educators to support the wishes they submit with their students on MyWishForUS.com. Educators will be able to select books from categories like Activism and Civic Engagement, Making a Difference, Biographies, and more. The program will launch this fall and will distribute approximately 15,000 books to classroom libraries serving children living in poverty.

My Wish For U.S. and First Book will encourage educators across the country to post their classroom’s wish to the My Wish For U.S. platform and social media. At least 500 educators will be chosen to receive gift credits to the First Book Marketplace (www.fbmarketplace.org), where they can select books that support their students’ areas of interest.

“Often, we tell students what they need to know and learn about, and that relationship only goes one way,” said Caroline Kilbanoff, Program Manager for Made By Us. “We are excited to collaborate with First Book to let students tell us what they are interested in learning more about and giving them the tools and information to take action.”…Read More

Georgia Power Launches Interactive STEM-Based Educational Videos

ATLANTA – July 22, 2020 – For parents looking for new ways to help keep children learning while outside of the classroom this summer, Georgia Power’s education team has created a series of interactive videos that allow students to discover science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through activities at home. The videos cover a variety of STEM energy topics with hands-on activities requiring only a few basic supplies, most of which can be found around the house.

“These videos are another way to engage students at home to explore STEM concepts,” said Lisa Olens, Georgia Power Education Manager. “The activities are designed to help make it exciting and fun for students to learn about the transformation of energy by building a balloon rocket or learn about solar energy by making s’mores in a simple sun-powered oven. There are many other topics and we hope students, parents and educators will find these videos helpful as they look for fun educational activities that can be done from home.”

To get started with these interactive activities and to learn more about Georgia Power’s Learning Power program, visit www.learningpower.org.…Read More

Bridging the gap in cybersecurity education

Experience Education (ExperienceAmerica.com), a leading organization in experiential learning, has partnered with Education Service Center (ESC) Region 20 in Texas to bring inspiration and innovation to children during a time of crisis. With kids across the country feeling increasingly isolated and disconnected from their friends, as well as their regular routines, Experience and ESC-20 have come together to give young minds a sense of purpose and connection through a one-of-a-kind virtual Cybersecurity Summer Camp. The goal: to merge the children’s love of technology with the national demand to fill tens of thousands of Cybersecurity roles.

Currently employing more than 900,000 Americans from coast-to-coast, Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing job sectors in the nation. According to a recent study, the U.S. Cybersecurity workforce needs to grow by 62% in order to meet the current demand. Yet less than half of schools in the country offer any education on the subject. What’s more is that access to Cybersecurity education is uneven and seemingly dependent upon geographic location and socio-economic status. Students from small and high-poverty districts are less likely to have any exposure to the field, causing a disproportionate percentage of youth to bypass an industry that is hungry for skilled professionals.

The strategic partnerships Experience is building with ESC-20 and other districts across the country will ensure the Cybersecurity career pathway is accessible for students from all backgrounds. “We’ve secured funding at the state level to offer full scholarships to 45 deserving students, along with Chromebooks to ensure all kids, regardless of socio-economic status, will be able to get the most out of the program,” explains ESC-20 College and Career Military Readiness Coordinator, Naomi Woods. “Together with Experience, we’ll also be providing an additional 55 scholarships. That way, 100 eighth graders in total will be able to take part in this unique virtual summer learning camp.”…Read More