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How Our Onspire Software Can Help You With Teaching Online Right Now

Everyone can do with a bit of certainty right now. The conditions we find ourselves in are complicated, and even that is an understatement. With so many aspects of daily life constantly in flux, something simple is long overdue. Our Onspire software aims to make online teaching easy in a time that is anything but. 

COVID-19 has brought on change quicker than most would have liked. Schools have closed their doors and moved online, which has, in some cases, caused more confusion than progress. Fickle Internet connections, missed emails, and misinterpreted instructions are hurdles students, teachers, and staff must face every day. The conversion of lesson plans to virtual instruction is causing grief to teachers across the nation. Parents of students are worried about keeping in contact with schools to ensure that their child stays on the right track in completing the current academic year. 

Onspire is an inspired online learning program designed to make virtual education simple and accessible for students, teachers and administrators. It fuses expert-developed content with customized user-developed content to provide a unique and versatile online learning experience, all while being easy to manage. 

Teachers everywhere face the challenge of having to adjust all of their teaching online.

There are three modules that make up the Onspire software: PD3, C3, and R3. The PD3 program was created to be comprehensive, efficient, and accountable. It is designed to alleviate the administrative burdens related to the delivery and management of a district’s professional development programs. PD3 provides a variety of professional development courses in the form of instructional videos and slideshows with narration. The assessments included are randomized to ensure staff fidelity, and a PDF certificate of completion helps foster accountability of staff and administrators. 

The C3 program is inspired by 3 C’s in particular: civility, compassion, and culture. Students receive social-emotional learning through exercises that focus on identifying emotions and behaviors. Children ages K-8 are able to learn about topics that fall within the categories of the three C’s. Civility lessons teach students how to interact with the world around them. Compassion lessons help them understand their own emotions as well as the feelings of others, and culture lessons include topics dealing with diversity. 

R3 is meant to resolve, remediate, and restore. Students may sometimes exhibit problematic behaviors, and when those arise, they need remedial social-emotional lessons. Teachers, staff, and administrators, especially in recent times, may not have the time available to offer adequate emotional support. R3 is self-directed. It utilizes videos and interactive lessons with cognitive therapy techniques to help students understand what they may have done rather than simply telling them they were wrong. 

All of Onspire’s programs are secure and easy to use as well as customizable to fit every school’s unique needs. Subscriptions include a custom course creator to ease the burden of lesson planning. Teachers finding themselves at a loss for what to do with their plans for the rest of the semester can rest assured that Onspire will serve as a helpful resource in scheduling the remainder of the year’s course material. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic enforcing social distancing and online learning, it is imperative now more than ever that schools are able to adapt to meet the needs of its students, teachers, staff, and parents. Communication is one of the pillars of Onspire. It allows teachers to easily share content with the district and students’ parents, which is a key component in achieving truly successful distance education. Additionally, Onspire has options for custom remote programs specifically for parents. 

Adaptation and innovation is what Onspire is all about, and it’s what will make the difference when working together toward an inclusive and efficient learning environment. 

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Rainy Day Blues: Helping Kids Manage Their Feelings

Weathering the April showers isn’t always easy, even with the promise of the beautiful flowers they’ll bring. In this ever-changing world, it isn’t enough to rely on personal experiences when helping today’s youth manage their emotions. To truly help the kids you care about, you’ll need to see things as they do and develop an understanding of the fast-paced, interactive, and sometimes invasive nature of the universe they live in. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is like one big, rainy day. Social distancing keeps them away from their friends and the outlets they find away from home, though for children and teens today, engagement with the outside world never really ends. They are constantly connected with their friends, peers, and in some cases, their bullies. There is no “taking a break” from social interaction. It follows them everywhere they go, so long as there is a phone in their pocket.

Simply cutting off access to their devices will do little more than build resentment and distrust between you and your child, but if that’s the case, how is one supposed to help? 

According to kidshelpline.com, there are a number of ways to help your child learn how to express and cope with their emotions, but the first step is helping them identify their feelings. 

“Kids who are able to identify, understand, express and manage a wide range of feelings experience long term benefits to their mental health and wellbeing.”

Successfully identifying and expressing emotions helps children develop important social skills and leads to better performance in school, relationships, and mental wellbeing. It is imperative that children feel that they can talk to you about what they are feeling, as they may not always have the right words to describe their emotions. Figuring it out together can help them recognize the feeling in the future. 

Once they have a handle on their feelings, there are a variety of coping strategies you can help them implement to deal with their emotions. Creative outlets such as drawing, painting, or journaling are often recommended as a way to encourage self-expression. Keeping a diary or journal is an excellent way for children to vent their feelings in a way that feels safe and personal. Drawing and painting allow children to portray their thoughts and concentrate on a project, which promotes creativity, focus, and sometimes, relaxation. 

Our Onspire program can also serve as a cure to those rainy-day blues. It gives parents access to supplemental content to fill their time while reinforcing literacy skills and social-emotional learning. Children have an outlet to invest their time and energy in while also reaping educational benefits.

Now that the weather is warming up, perhaps your child would like to go outside and play. Sports are another highly recommended activity for children to manage their emotions. Rigorous physical activity promotes the production of endorphins, and is a great way to “blow off steam.” 

An article from harmonylearning.com said, “At this time, it’s good for children to have existing creative outlets that they’re comfortable and familiar with.  There will be times when they seek solace in their artwork, dance, or music as a means of dealing with their problems.”

Establishing effective, healthy coping mechanisms in children will provide them with sources of comfort and clarity that last a lifetime. While building trust between yourself and your child is a key component in getting them to be more open with their feelings, it is also beneficial for them to find an outlet they can turn to.  A combination of conversation and independent coping will help the kids you care about keep their cool in today’s nonstop world.

If you have any questions on building these skills in children, please do not hesitate to reach out. Through our Onspire software, both parents and teachers can utilize pre-made literacy-based social and emotional development courses or develop your own. Learn more and request a free trial here: https://onspirelearning.hibster.com.