As in most pre-K classrooms, Geneva Gadsden’s students—known as the All Stars—rotate through different stations, from dress-up corners to building-blocks areas.
But the All Stars, the Happy Owls, and other groups of preschoolers at the Whitted School in Durham, North Carolina, also take turns with Chromebooks, spending 15 minutes a day clicking through early literacy activities from Waterford.org, a nonprofit software provider.
When COVID-19 shut down schools, many pre-K programs across the country saw participation drop, or sent home paper materials for at-home learning. Not so at Whitted, where students kept rolling along with the Waterford Reading Academy at home.
“It really was a lifesaver,” said Suzanne Cotterman, early education director for the Durham Public Schools. The district adopted the program three years ago as a pilot, but expanded access to all pre-K families when schools closed. Some families, Cotterman said, couldn’t participate in scheduled Zoom classes,…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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