Remote Learning Taught by World-Class Instructors

Today Osmo, the company behind a new category of seamless, digital and hands-on play for ages 5-12 and used in over 35,000 U.S. elementary school classrooms, announced the launch of Osmo Live, a new interactive platform for live learning that offers engaging, hands-on Bootcamps for children in grades K-5. Taught by some of the best elementary instructors in the U.S., each six weeks-long Bootcamp covers a critical life-long skill including Art and Creativity, Coding, and Math.

Nationwide COVID-19 school closures have given millions of parents the responsibility of ensuring their kids continue their education at home. In tandem, children who have been confined to home for months because of shelter-in-place orders have lacked the stimulation and socialization of the regular classroom that makes them excited to learn, ultimately leading to a drop in engagement and outcomes. Despite claims that the COVID-19 pandemic is improving, these remain critical issues for parents and their kids.

“Osmo Live is a simple and intuitive program that keeps children engaged and excited to learn,” said Dave Blanchard, who works in Teacher Development at Saint Cloud State University and helped design Osmo Live. “The Osmo Live Bootcamp series isn’t just another webinar for kids, it’s extracurricular learning done right.”…Read More

STEM @ Home

Pitsco Education is offering five STEM/STEAM activities perfect for K-5 learning at home. Using a few readily available household items and some creativity your students can learn while making 5 projects.

For older students, Pitsco Education has made its SySTEM Alert! publication available which includes STEM fast facts, trends, related topics, and much more.  A quiz and answer key is available for each as well.

For more information and many more resources visit Pitsco Education’s STEM @ Home website.…Read More

Free videos to support at-home learning during school closings

Ringbeller, an education media company dedicated to helping kids develop 21st-century skills like creativity, collaboration, and kindness, has released five episodes of its “edutainment” video content, designed for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, on the Ringbeller Youtube Channel. Described as “TED meets Mr. Rogers,” the content is part of Ringbeller’s subscription platform already in use in classrooms across the U.S. but is now being made available online, free of charge, to support students’ at-home learning while schools across the nation are closed due to the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) pandemic.

Ringbeller was created by entrepreneur and media producer CJ Casciotta, author of the book Get Weird: Discover the Surprising Secret to Making a Difference. Casciotta has collaborated on projects with MGM Studios, Sesame Studios, The United Nations Foundation, Whole Foods and more. A sought after communicator and TEDx alumnus, he’s traveled around the world inspiring communities like Lululemon, Creative Mornings and Charity: Water with his message that creativity and kindness, when combined, are the skills that ultimately move culture toward the kind of future we imagine. His work has been featured by Forbes, Salon, CBS, MTV and Publishers Weekly.

“Students and their families are facing an unprecedented challenge right now, with widespread and indefinite school closings becoming ‘the new normal’ nationwide. We want to do our part to ensure kids have access to resources that will support continued learning while they are out of school, so we’ve decided to make five Ringbeller videos available on Youtube, where they are accessible to all kids and their parents,” said Casciotta. “We have also created new supplemental activities for families to work on together as they reflect on the skill-building lessons in our edutainment content. We hope students will not only have an opportunity to continue developing their social-emotional skills but truly enjoy participating in these lessons at home.”…Read More

Keeps kids engaged with free one-a-day brainteasers

MindAntix, a learning company that provides all students with the opportunity to build creativity and problem-solving skills, announced it is releasing a weekly set of free brainteaser activities to support at-home learning. Teachers can use the brainteasers during remote learning sessions as a warm-up exercise or can assign them for students to work on independently. Parents can also participate by playing and co-creating ideas as a family. The first two weeks of brainteasers are now available here.

“COVID-19 has caused school closures, but that doesn’t mean learning has to end. Our free brainteasers are easy to access, quick to download, and fun to use in any setting,” said Dr. Pronita Mehrotra, founder of MindAntix. “We focus on helping students build thinking patterns that unlock their true originality, and we give them the skills and encouragement to explore the boundaries of their creativity. There are no right or wrong answers—the only rules are to use your talent, be unique and have fun learning!”

The brainteasers build specific cognitive thinking styles that have been shown to improve creative thinking. These thinking patterns include:…Read More

Here’s why you should attend FETC 2020

Celebrating any anniversary is exciting, but this year, educators, administrators, and support staff can all celebrate the 40th anniversary of FETC- Future of Education Technology Conference in Miami, FL.

For those of you who have attended this conference in previous years, the Miami Beach Convention Center is a new venue jam-packed with “game-changing” keynotes, workshops, concurrent sessions, learning labs, and so much more. FETC will not disappoint with its focus on innovation, creativity, collaboration, and personalized learning strategies for our students.

Related content: 5 components of educational innovation…Read More

Top trends: Student creativity, engagement, and reducing stress

Here are the most-read stories on creativity, engagement, and student well-being this month:

1. 3 great ways to supercharge student engagement

No matter what the subject, before students can learn new skills or absorb new material, they need to be paying attention. Here, three educators share the tech tools and best practices they use to improve student engagement and make sure students are energized, focused, and ready to learn.…Read More

Here’s how to put coding and robotics programs in K-8 classrooms

Coding and robotics programs in classrooms reflect how integral technology is in our lives.

Educators like Angie Kalthoff, a technology integrationist in St. Cloud, MN, and Ann Bartel, an instructional technology specialist in Chilton, WI, teach K-8 students about technology through coding and computer science programs that incorporate the 4Cs of learning: collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication.

Related content: 3 things to consider when introducing a K-12 coding or robotics program…Read More

3 keys to cultivating the maker mindset

When we dreamed of starting construction on a space where teachers and students alike could cultivate a maker mindset, our goals went beyond creating a dedicated makerspace. We wanted to empower our community, assure students that they were valued as individuals, and offer them opportunities to develop empathy and agency as problem-finders and creative problem-solvers.

We knew we could accomplish this with a designated space that celebrated creativity, emphasized process over product, and highlighted the importance of reflection. We set out to design a space where students could not only develop a design thinking philosophy, but integrate this maker mindset into their core studies.

Related content: 9 ways schools can create better makerspaces…Read More

The coolest K-12 robotics programs we saw at ISTE

Efforts to get kids coding have exploded in recent years, but sometimes kids need a push to discover the “why” behind learning how to code. At ISTE 2019, that push to learn coding was clear as new K-12 robotics solutions emerged.

Aside from the cool factor K-12 robotics offers, students who learn to program through robotics learn a number of skills they’ll take with them well into adulthood, including creativity, problem solving, and the ability to fail without quitting.

We’ve rounded up some of the best K-12 robotics solutions and programs we saw during the conference. Share your favorite K-12 robotics programs with us on Twitter @eschoolnews.…Read More

5 ways to create spaces that unlock creativity & encourage collaboration

It’s easy to focus on what we teach and how we teach, but where we teach is often overlooked.

We need to prepare students for jobs that don’t yet exist and for a world that is rapidly evolving. While no one can predict what the future will look like, we can set students on a path for success by unlocking their creative potential.

One of the best ways to foster creativity is to provide conditions in which all learners can develop ideas, solve problems, connect, learn, and adapt.…Read More

3 changes that can help the class of 2030 succeed

Today’s kindergartners are the class of 2030, and by the time they enter the workforce, it will look vastly different. Occupations will need expertise, creativity, grit, and, most importantly, people who can learn and cultivate new skills.

But if we’re going to ensure the class of 2030 succeeds, our current education system needs an overhaul and a refreshed focus, according to a new report from Microsoft. The report, which is based on surveys of 2,000 students and 2,000 teachers, was conducted with McKinsey & Company.

Read more: How SEL inspired a transformation in my school…Read More

11 educators share how they bring coding into the classroom

By now, most educators understand the importance of coding. Programmers continue to be in high demand, and coding improves much-needed skills like creativity, persistence, problem solving, and critical thinking.

But just because you know you should teach something, doesn’t mean you can. Perhaps you can’t figure out how to fit it into your already crowded curriculum, or maybe you’re intimidated to try. eSchool News is here to help.

We asked 11 Sphero Heroes—teachers from all over the U.S. who are using Sphero robots to transform teaching and learning in their classrooms and beyond—to share their expertise about bringing coding into the classroom.…Read More