Summer is right around the corner! As teachers begin to wrap up the school year, many families are thinking about how to keep students learning over the summer. I have mixed feelings about summer schoolwork. As an educator, I want kids to continue learning over the summerbut I would also like them to rest and reset. 

I think summer learning should be simple, meaningful, and fun. Light, not burdensome. Connected to real life. Students need time to rest, play outside, be bored, and enjoy time away from school. But that doesn’t mean kids can’t pursue their curiosity or practice academic skills over the summer. Summer learning should be simple and relieve some of the burden on parents and students. 

That is where I see eMediaVA fitting into summer learning.

I have been giving some thought as to how eMediaVA could be used by families to keep learning fresh and fun.

One thing that I have been thinking about is short summer learning “assignments” that students can complete at home with parents. These would not need to be extensive. They can simply watch something on eMediaVA and respond.

Parents can use eMediaVA as conversation starters with students. Students can finish watching a movie or playing a video game, and parents can ask students to look up something that they saw in the movie or video game. For example, can a tiger really do that? Can fires and explosions actually happen in space?

Parents and children can sit down together and watch a short eMediaVA video. They can then simply talk about what they watched. This would allow students to work on their speaking skills, build vocabulary, gain background knowledge, and gain confidence answering open-ended questions. The best part? Students learn through conversation every day – learning from a short discussion is meaningful and natural.

Students can watch a short science video on animals, weather, plants, space, ecosystems, biology, and more. After watching the video, students can answer some simple questions like:

What did you notice? 

What did you wonder? 

What is one new thing you learned? 

How does this connect to something you’ve seen in real life?

This would allow kids to explore what interests them while keeping summer learning simple. There is no overwhelming worksheet or essay required.

A summer idea that would allow students to choose how they want to learn is by creating a summer learning choice board with eMediaVA resources. Some choices could be: 

• Watch a science video and draw what you learned.

• Find a history resource and write three important facts.

• Watch a video about an animal and compare it to another animal.

• Choose a career resource and explain why that job is important to society.

• Watch a place-based video or virtual field trip and describe a place you would like to visit.

• Find a resource about nature and go outside to find something that connects to what you learned.

• Use what you learned from eMediaVA to create your own mini lesson.

For this activity, students would watch a video, read an article, or explore a media resource and then teach someone else. Students could use Canva or Adobe Express templates to create a slideshow, infographic, poster, digital notebook page, or short presentation to educate others about the topic they learned from eMediaVA.

Students would have to find the most important information. They would need to use their own words to explain the topic, organize their information, and use graphics to help convey their message.https://braintrusttutors.com/how-to-organize-information/

I love this idea because students would be practicing so many skills at once!

This is one of my favorite ideas would be to have students create their own lesson after learning from eMediaVA. Students could watch a short video, explore an educational article, or review a media resource, and then teach someone else what they learned. Using Canva, PowerPoint, or Adobe Express, students could create an infographic, slideshow, poster, or digital notebook page to teach others.https://www.edutopia.org/article/putting-students-charge-their-learning/

Let’s say a student watches an eMediaVA video about ecosystems. Using Canva, the student could create an educational slideshow on food chains, habitats, or how certain animals rely on each other. If a student explored a history resource, they could use Adobe Express to create a poster teaching their classmates about an important person, event or place in history.

Students have ownership of this type of activity because they are not simply answering questions or reading about a topic. Students are creating and becoming the teachers of the type of lesson they would like to be taught. Using eMediaVA as their source of information, students can then use digital tools to teach others and show what they learned. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-ways-to-make-lessons-relevant-to-students-lives/2020/05

Whether it’s a choice board or student-created lessons, I love these ideas because they give students choice. Research shows that when students have choice and purpose, they are more likely to participate. https://achievementcharter.com/blog/why-student-choice-matters-more-than-ever-in-education

And while we, as teachers, want students to continue learning this summer, we still want summer to feel like summer!

As a teacher, I hope my students understand that they can learn anywhere and at any time. Whether they are walking to the car, visiting the local park, cooking in the kitchen with their parents, watching a 2-minute video, asking questions about how plants grow, or wondering about the clouds in the sky; learning is everywhere! eMediaVA helps teachers connect classroom curriculum to real-life experiences.

My hope for summer wouldn’t include filling out a summer packet or log. Instead, my goal would be to keep students’ curiosity alive! Watching one short video or exploring one resource on eMediaVA each week can help students practice reading, writing, science skills, creative thinking, and having discussions.

Summer should feel like summer! However, eMediaVA can help students continue learning in a simple, fun, and meaningful way.