Here’s what RE@L’s Director of Learning, Randy Nelson, has to say about RE@L’s pivotal, new Learning Product, 1Up On Vaping™:
As we approach the waning days of one of the most tumultuous school years in our history, we pause for reflection on the 2020-2021 school year. The school year has required educators to simultaneously address two public crises.
By any standard, the onset of COViD has completely interrupted our education lives. For the safety of children and families, most schools found themselves straddling some form of face-to-face and virtual school while other schools have moved to a completely virtual delivery.
For educators, this pandemic has reminded us that our curriculum was never meant to serve both a classroom and virtual models of delivery. We have learned – sometimes painfully – that just because we are effective in our classrooms, it doesn’t automatically translate in to the virtual setting even though the curriculum is the same. No matter the standards, no matter the curriculum, it’s the teacher’s creativity that breathes life in to the written curriculum.
As a result of the pandemic, schools will never be the same, but that does not mean they cannot be better. As educators, the time is NOW to both grieve the past and come alive with the possibilities that CAN BE in our future. After all, it’s the creativity of the educator that brings our written curriculum to life in ANY setting: traditional, hybrid, or virtual. Our work at RE@L is similarly dedicated to developing these creative and engaging online experiences!
At RE@L, we are embarking on a long-term process to bring our most recent learning tool, 1Up On Vaping™ to scale. Designed to help our educators creatively address a second crisis amongst our students: an epidemic of student vaping. Recent reports tell us that as many as one of every four students has chosen to vape! That’s a stunning number and a real concern! Click on the graphic above for Minnesota’s Governor Walz’ comments on ‘Tackling the Vaping Epidemic.’
RE@L has a history of bringing engaging learning solutions to our many, unique K12 learners. 1Up On Vaping™ has been developed by some of the original team that delivered The Oregon Trail™. Comparable to that ground-breaking westward simulation, the student-navigated interface of RE@L’s 1Up On Vaping™ places the student as the main character of an interactive graphic arts story.
As the main character of the three chapter story, the student learns new and reinforcing content about the dangers of vaping while making real-time game-like decisions to navigate from the beginning of the story to the end.
More than 1000 middle school students from across the nation have been piloting 1Up On Vaping™ over the past several months. Watch this RE@L blog space over the next several weeks for important testimonials from teachers and students alike:
Rebecca Main
May 23:
Rebecca Main, Health and Physical Education Teacher from Cyber Village Academy in St. Paul, MN provides important teacher insights about her experiences with 1Up On Vaping™ during her recent pilot of the tool.
June 6:
Students from Rebecca’s Cyber Village Academy in St. Paul, MN share their thoughts about 1Up On Vaping™.
June 20:
June 20:Lucinda Ranney, Health and Physical Education Teacher from Lodi, WI will share with us her experiences with the 1Up On Vaping™ tool during the past school year.
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RE@L is proud to feature these great educators and students in our upcoming RE@LBlogs.
Want to know more about RE@L’s new 1Up On Vaping™?
Check out our 1Up website here or contact Randy Nelson, Director of Education, at: rnelson@realexperiencesatlife.com
