You’re probably wondering how you pull off an online after-school program? Well, I’m going to tell you. It takes a lot of adjustment, creativity, and a sense of humor, but you can make it work. CASE online was a different CASE, but we were able to do something that benefited students in many of the ways that our normal programming did.
I have a life-long fascination with translation, and I’ve tried it quite a bit myself. When you are translating from one language to another, you know you can’t get everything across. You have to make decisions on what’s the essential bits and ensure that those make it into the new text. That’s how I’ve thought about CASE online. We are translating the program into a digital environment. Not everything was going to make it, but we had to ensure that the most important elements got across.
The first element that we wanted to make sure was present in our digital environment was a healthy social atmosphere. This seemed all the more pressing because of the social isolation that many students were facing. In order to do this, we used both Google Classrooms and Zoom to make sure that CASE online provided a healthy online social venue. We had live Zoom times 3 - 4 times a week.
During these times, we played icebreakers (a staple of our normal programming) that helped students get to know each other. We had times where students could share their artwork or other creative projects. We also had “Thursday Game Time” where we played games through Zoom--games like Pictionary, Balderdash, and even a virtual escape room. These provided a time to laugh with friends, be encouraged about their work, and interact in healthy ways with their peers.
The second element was our emphasis on character formation. Just like we did during the school year, every week we emphasised a character trait. We had students talk about how that character trait could be useful during this current moment. The great thing about focusing on character is that character can always be practiced regardless of the situation.
The third element was academic and skill development. We did this by offering a weekly challenge. The winner of the challenge won a gift card. Students wrote poetry, designed food trucks from cardboard, and even came up with beats using items around their house. These challenges provided ideas about how students could use the resources they had available to them to be creative and learn new things. We also did a weekly dance time. Students learned new dances through Zoom, and they were taught the importance of keeping active during this time. The dance times, which I regularly attended, were a blast, and it was hilarious to see everyone dancing over a Zoom call.
Bringing CASE online was a huge adjustment. Translating the magic of CASE to a digital environment wasn’t easy, but it’s a lot of fun. Just like in real translation, it helps you reflect on what’s the most important elements in what you are translating. With work, creativity, flexibility, and collaboration, I believe we were able to translate the most essential elements of CASE into the digital environment.
C.A.S.E. is a program of the Nashville After Zone Alliance. The Nashville After Zone Alliance is a network of coordinated after school programming for Metro’s middle-school students. NAZA is a partnership among the Nashville Public Library, MNPS, and other existing youth-serving groups. It is modeled on successful efforts in other cities and is organized around geographically-defined zones.
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