As schools worldwide remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning has become the new normal for just about everyone, whether you’re a student or an educator. The transition has been far from easy, and educators need all the help they can make online learning as efficient and accessible as possible. 

Here are a few resources that everyone can use to help make navigating online learning a little easier. 

Hand2Mind

In response to the closing of schools across the country, and indeed across the world, Hand2Mind launched a new website called [email protected]: Daily Lessons & Activities for K-5 Students. It offers a series of free daily activities and lessons, created and provided by teachers. 

Each week, the website provides the following:

• A schedule that can be followed easily, by grade, for students from kindergarten through to the 5th grade. 
• Daily videos, specific to grade, delivered by teachers, on lessons for Literacy and Math.
• Worksheets for the lessons mentioned above
• Special daily activities, like STEM, Art, Social Emotional Learning, and more. 

Each of the daily videos is about 10 minutes long and come with appropriate activities and worksheets to enhance student engagement and comprehension. 

KinderLab

For teachers, or even parents with children at home, that wish to teach design and engineering, building, and coding without the need for a robot, KinderLab Robotics offers their ‘No KIBO? No Problem!’ booklet for no cost. It includes a series of STEM activities that are genuinely engaging that learners from ages 3 to 7 years can get into straight away.

All of the activities are based on KinderLab’s 160+ hours of standards-focussed curriculum. They each provide clear guidance on learning objectives and the resources that will be necessary for completing the project. Download the PDF booklet here for free. 

Symbaloo

Symbaloo is a platform for content-integration. They are offering their PRO version to all educators for free for the duration of the school closings due to COVID-19. If you already have an account, you can upgrade to the PRO version for free, and if not, you can sign up free of charge. 

If you are a new educator to the platform, Symbaloo actually has several video tutorials that can help you get started. If you aren’t able to make your own content just yet, you will find plenty of open-source digital resources on the Symbaloo marketplace. 

If you are using a virtual classroom platform, like Pedagogue, Symbaloo will create video content for your online classes. It is especially useful if you are using the Flipped Classroom model as well. 

Concluding Thoughts

Online learning is a tricky field to find your way around, especially if you are new to the entire experience. There is a lot to learn and even more to do, but with the online resources we mentioned above, you’ll have a much easier time navigating through the online learning space.