Connecting and Learning Across Different Physical Settings
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Page 20
Goal
Create a tool or experience that helps connect the worlds of home and school (either home-to-school, school-to-home, or both). For example, this could mean providing ways for children’s interests and activities at home to become possible at school, or for topics of interest at school to become more available to children at home. It could also be a way to involve parents in children’s school experiences, or connect educators to children’s home lives.
Solution
The first thing Brandon and his family can do is set up a Seesaw account with his teacher. With Seesaw, children are able to document, share, and revisit their own work, in class or outside of school. They are able to log on anywhere, and can share photos, videos, links, notes, etc. with other classmates, parents, or teachers that are connected. Users can also like/comment on shared posts. It is such an easy way to share information with each other. This app can encourage ongoing learning; children can revisit concepts they've learned at school, when they are outside of the classroom. With this app, Brandon’s parents will be able to see what he learns about in school, and then can participate in similar activities at home.
Brandon is interested in superheroes and fossils, but he cannot find books on these topics at his reading level since English is his second language. Most of the books at his reading level are for younger children, so they are not fascinating to him. To solve this issue, Brandon and his parents could go on https://www.learninga-z.com/site/products/. This website offers more than 1500 e-books at 29 different reading levels. Learning A-Z would be perfect for the family, since it is online and easily accessible.
Lastly, Brandon’s parents can find out what he is interested in at school by communicating with his teacher, in person or through e-mail. Brandon’s parents can ask his teacher to provide them with a monthly newsletter, in Spanish or English, so that they know what Brandon is learning about. The teacher can give Brandon’s parents resources or information about subjects Brandon is interested in, so then they can answer his questions about these topics at home.
