In the recovery process, we must emphasize catching our students up. The Homework Gap only widened from remote learning, and, as a result, many experienced a significant amount of learning loss.
But, pulling American students away from summer fun is not the solution. After what we’ve all gone through, our children especially need a happy and stress-free summer.
This summer, we need to make education fun-first, especially with coding. Discover tips to keep your students engaged and relaxed as you work towards narrowing the Homework Gap.
Code Outdoors
Students have been spending a lot of their time on screens. Learning, activities, and homework have all been online. That’s a lot of reading screens, watching screens, and relaxing by looking at more screens.
This summer, unplug their education. Find ways to bring lessons outdoors and teach with physical tools.
Of course, your learners might still want to play their favorite online games, but they’ll feel less tired if they take their eyes off the screen and move around every once in a while.
Encourage them to take screen breaks often and split up learning time that’s spent online.
Use What They Love
What’s the latest fad in the classroom? What game, video, or activity are your kids constantly talking about? Once you know what they love, find the lessons within it.
Combining gaming and learning can have a significantly positive impact on your learners.
Instead of feeling like learning is a chore, they’ll begin to see that picking up skills can improve their abilities in activities they care about.
Plus, learning time won’t interfere with fun time when learning feels fun. This way, your students won’t feel like they are biding their time until they can play again. Your learners will enjoy their educational journey more.
Make Learning Hands-on
Over the last year, students spent a great deal of time watching and listening. Many traditional activities that classes commonly used to break up lecture time didn’t transition well to the digital world.
This summer, encourage hands-on learning. Interacting and engaging with learning materials instead of watching will feel like a breath of fresh air.
When you’re picking out activities, aim for the interactive ones. Games, team-building exercises, physical toys, sports, puzzles, and challenges will make a massive difference for summer education.
Bonus points for you if your choice of learning is project-based. Helping your students along with a long-term activity that they can show off is a fantastic way to teach a wide variety of essential skills.
Focus on Social-Emotional Learning
It’s been a challenging year for everyone. Our nation has tackled a lot of complex subjects in quick succession. You’ve likely had to give some tough lessons and explain hard truths to the young learners in your life.
This summer is the perfect time to process through this last year with your learners. In this much-needed break, focus on emotional well-being, recovery, and building up their social and emotional skills so they’ll be better equipped to tackle the next set of difficult moments.
Social-emotional learning is critical for the young coder -the discipline is all about teamwork, problem-solving, and stress management. If you’d like to read more about Coders and SEL, check out Coders Need SEL Too.
At Mastery Coding, we put fun first!
Our summer programs use what kids love as inspiration for education. We offer a wide variety of video game-based courses that teach STEM and SEL.
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