The Walking Classroom has been a great asset to both my seventh grade class and to my colleague’s class as well. This was the first year we have had to opportunity to use this technology and it has been wonderful! The students love the opportunity of being outside walking around the campus.
We have used the lessons as a way to reinforce and re-teach skills daily in the regular English Language Arts classroom. The students state that using The Walking Classroom gives them another way to understand what their regular ELA teacher has presented.
Many times, the students have exclaimed that they cannot believe how fast the lesson is over. Believe me, keeping middle school students engaged in their learning is sometimes very difficult with all the technology they have at their fingertips. We have found that The Walking Classroom is a great way to deal with that.
Not only have we been using the program for ELA, we have also been working with the seventh grade science and history teachers to help strengthen concepts in their subject areas. Currently, we are using the program to introduce concepts students will cover in those classes.
For example in science, they were learning about the Earth’s layers, so we listened to Layers of the Earth (4-#74, Complete-#133, STEM-#16). The science teacher was amazed how knowledgeable the students who had previewed the content using the Walking Classroom were compared to other students in her class.
Next year, our seventh grade team goal is for all students to be able to use this great asset. We feel that The Walking Classroom’s podcasts are a great way to differentiate instruction and keep our middle school students actively engaged in their learning.
Melissa Cole/Adam Rose
Seventh Grade Teachers
Richwood Middle School, West Virginia
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