When events surrounding the Coronovirus started shutting down schools and children's programs, Motivate Our Minds made a pivot so that we could continue to work within our mission to educate children and families to grow and flourish.
Our efforts to support families through this crisis became a primary focus. When children and families were thrown into a remote learning model with e-learning assignments, we were able to support our students in areas where they would need help the most. Our efforts have continued over the summer providing students and families with educational resources to keep students engaged in learning in an effort to help make the return to school as smooth as possible.
Academic Accountability Check-ins
Our main goal was to assess the needs of the family as it related to education and remote learning. Here's what we found:
65% of parents reported that their students were reading for at least 15 minutes per day outside of their classroom assignments.
68% of parents rated their student's academic progress during remote learning at a 7, 8, or 9 on a scale of 1-10.
28% of parents reported that their student does not practice math outside of their learning assignments.
56% of parents reported that their students were spending 1-3 hours per day completing their e-learning assignments.
E-learning help sessions
During the month of May, Motivate Our Minds was also able to help students stay on track academically by hosting e-learning help sessions at no cost to families. These sessions, hosted over Zoom, paired a student with a mentor who then helped the student work through some school work. During the month of May, MOM was able to provide over 44 individual e-learning help sessions to help keep students accountable academically.
Food Giveaways
Motivate Our Minds is situated in a known food desert. Thanks to the generosity of local organizations and corporations, we have been able to support the most vulnerable population by hosting food giveaways for those who need it most. Since March, we have provided food to over 700 family members touched by our community.
Reading Camp
At Motivate Our Minds, our primary focus in the past few months has been literacy education and enrichment. We are concerned that many students, including those within the Whitely community, are spending little to no time engaged in reading. One way that we were able to help fill in the gap during the month of June was by hosting a reading camp.
Reading Camp was based on the popular PBS kids TV show, Super Why. This partnership with Precious Hearts daycare and WIPB offered a summer learning opportunity for early childhood age students in the Whitely community as well as across Delaware county.
Reading Camp was a fun and engaging way for students to practice essential literacy skills. Through Reading Camp, Motivate Our Minds provided over 889 hours of high quality, hands-on literacy engagement for students ranging in age from 4-8 years old. Thanks to a generous donation, each student received a new book to take home at the end of camp. Click here to read the full story.
Academic Enrichment Activity Bags
Thanks to our partnerships with the Back to School Teacher Store and WIPB, Motivate Our Minds has been able to keep students learning remotely. These activity bags are designed to be fun and engaging with a variety of hands on activities that can be completed at home. Since April, Motivate Our Minds has distributed over 250 of these activity bags to students in the Muncie community.
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