Rolling with the punches
With the challenges that presented themselves in 2020 with the pandemic disrupting almost everyone’s rhythms, we rolled with the punches. Even though we couldn’t meet in person, Off the Front made adjustments to make the Earn a Bike program accessible to students, teachers, and volunteers.
This year, the Earn a Bike program is back in the schools for the most part. (yay!) But we have decided to stick with our predominantly digital platform as we discovered many benefits.
- it’s now nearly impossible for students to lose their work
- less busy work and waste involved in preparing materials for hundreds of participants at multiple locations
- students can still participate in the activities if they’re home sick or quarantining
Kahoot!
This year, the majority of our activities with our participating 4th-grade students are being done through an interactive game called Kahoot!. If you aren’t already familiar with this resource, it allows students to engage together from their own devices and play a quiz or poll-like game (in our case) to test their knowledge and understanding of a topic and reinforce key ideas that we discuss during our time together.
After the first couple of weeks in the classroom, we’ve been thrilled to receive emails from a handful of our volunteers. We’re learning how much students are enjoying these games and how much they look forward to them!
Thankful
We’re thankful for the flexibility of our volunteers. They’ve had to relearn and adjust to these changes but have taken it in stride. It’s a privilege to bring the Earn a Bike program to so many 4th-grade classrooms. We’re happy to spark new interest and excitement around goal setting and creating healthy habits that can last a lifetime.