Resources in reach: Cultivate your virtual classroom
As a parent of a child whose school is closed, I’m reminded every day just how vital teachers are. With 94 percent1 of schools closed, teachers are shifting to distance learning and employing new technologies, curriculums, and teaching methodologies to maintain educational continuity. To these teachers, who are actively helping us minimize a COVID-19 educational gap, I want to say thank you.
Creating a new normal is important for students and we want to help teachers craft their own personal stamp for distance learning. Here are some free resources from across Amazon and from our partners that teachers can use to shape their digital curriculum and virtual classrooms. Listen to educators share remote learning strategies, gain access to digital reading material, tap into coding class exercises, and more.
For educators, by educator
Join webinars hosted by members of the AWS Educate network on how to transition to virtual classroom and maintain a sense of community. Sign up for office hours to dive deeper on weekly webinar topics or ask general questions.
From the page to the tablet
Choose from hundreds of free digital books or audiobook stories from Audible.
Going digital
Disciplines that already lend themselves to be digital, like coding, can be a natural fit for the virtual classroom. For example, Wyman Khuu, a teacher at New York City's KIPP Infinity Elementary, uses robotics coursework to help students stay engaged.
"These kids normally spend half their day in school, and they're no longer there alongside their teachers, peers, and friends. So to be part of a program through Amazon Future Engineer, and have a collective experience and shared language of experience is awesome. It allows them to feel a connection during this unstable time. It creates genuine, natural excitement. They've opted in to this together, and they're hopefully going to run with it."
Read more of the story here.
- Lesson plans and coding resources
- Computer science courses
- Virtual robotics & coding
- Learn to code through music
- AWS Workshops from Home
For students pursuing AP Consumer Science programs, Amazon Future Engineer is opening up free online access for all to our sponsored Edhesive curriculum for both AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science courses. Students, parents, and teachers can access these courses here.
Create your own project
The classroom is an opportunity to create. Teachers take pride in the unique experience they offer their students. Make your distance learning experience unique by getting a class project funded via DonorsChoose or accessing content focused on reading, typing, math, and more through Clever’s app gallery.
To learn about other education solutions, visit the Distance Learning Hub.
*We recommend using Clever’s Amazon Business SSO integration to access the app gallery with a single login experience.
1We pulled statistics from Map: Coronavirus and School Closures and Education Statistics: Facts About American Schools to arrive at 94 percent.
