The use of The Walking Classroom in Toledo Public Schools is designed as a drop-in program for supplementing school time teaching. We have staff from our McKinney-Vento homeless team working to implement the curriculum throughout the district. They focus on schools that have a high number of homeless students. I work with the teachers who choose the podcasts based on the curricular content they are teaching. Then, we determine when in their day the sessions best fit.
Prior to COVID-19, we had moved from me singlehandedly implementing The Walking Classroom in seven different schools. Instead, we began working in partnership with Bowling Green State University interns studying to become teachers. The interns delivered The Walking Classroom curriculum to the students. They then received feedback from current teachers about improvements in their teaching style, classroom management, etc. The teachers, interns, and most importantly, the students, all experienced benefits from using this model.
Going into the 2021 – 2022 school year, we are not able to make use of interns as of yet. I will take over delivering curriculum until such time as we can reinstate interns safely. We look forward to another great school year full of walking, listening, and learning . . . and Happy Trails!
Wendy Easler
Program Manager
Toledo Public Schools
This is an amazing model. We are going to implement one similar to your process. It is so exciting and less stress knowing that it has been so successful for the students, teachers and interns!