We’re excited to share the new VAI Educator’s Studio. The Van Andel Institute for Education worked with scientists to identify the top seven skills kids need in order to be successful: collaboration, communication, creative thinking, critical thinking, curiosity, perseverance, and self-direction. Then, they created resources and activities to help teachers build these skills. You can find all of the resources and activities they created in their new membership site that helps build these skills for only $19.99 for a full year! It’s perfect for grades K–8.
We asked 4th grade teacher Cara Vega from Woodbury, New Jersey, to try out VAI Educator’s Studio with her students. Read on to learn why she thinks it’s one of the most practical and engaging resource sites she’s ever used. With years of experience as a special educator, Cara knows the value of low-prep, high-impact tools that keep students engaged, making this platform a perfect fit for her classroom.
For which grade levels and subject areas do you think VAI Educator’s Studio is best suited?
VAI Educator’s Studio is best suited for students in grades K–8. It can be easily integrated into any core subjects like math, science, technology, ELA, and social studies. You can use the resources and activities for morning meetings and structured brain breaks. You can also use the STEM-related inquiry activities and project-based learning ideas to engage students, making it easy to satisfy learning goals and classroom engagement. So no matter what you teach, you can fit in one of the resources that helps build the seven skills for success: collaboration, communication, creative thinking, critical thinking, curiosity, perseverance, and self-direction.
This resource can blend well with any other required standards. The main purpose is to provide opportunities for students to work on the seven skills for success. These skills are important to teach students, but often there isn’t enough time to embed them, or a curriculum does a subpar job of including opportunities for students to work on these habits. Then you, as the teacher, are left searching Google for hours.
How does building success skills help achieve curriculum standards?
Although specific skills for success are not explicitly written into curriculum standards, they are an integral part of learning success in every subject. Here’s how they correlate:
Why is it worth paying for?
I have been using this site for only a few weeks and I have already used it as a resource many times. One of the most important reasons for me to use this site is because I will pay one price for so many resources that I can count on being organized, easy to use, and effective. Otherwise I would find myself spending a lot more money and time looking all over the internet, and often being disappointed after downloading the activity or resource.
How did you use VAI Educator’s Studio in your classroom?
- Daily SEL Activities Calendar: I have used the Daily SEL Activities Calendar a lot because it gives thorough and meaningful lessons in a way I hadn’t considered for my morning meeting. It’s a quick and easy way to stay planned and ready every day of the week.
2. Timely Topics: The Timely Topics are wonderful for when you want to do something that celebrates a special day or holiday during the month. I did the Haunted House activity for October, where we built houses out of marshmallows and toothpicks. In November, there was a fun activity that honors the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
3. Potatoes of Positivity: The Potatoes of Positivity was such a fun activity that emphasized shouting out the positives happening in our classroom. I printed out the adorable potato images and we used sticky notes to write our positive experiences in our classroom. Then, I displayed them and told students that throughout the week we can add more sticky notes to the potatoes. The kids loved it, and after recess they were asking me for sticky notes so they could shout out positives they saw during recess and lunch. This was such an easy and cool way to enhance our classroom community and give students a chance to give shout-outs to one another.
Which activities did your students like best?
My students loved “Emotions Charades” because they really enjoy acting. The emotion cards I found used words like hostile, inspired, optimistic, and content. I loved that it gave my students a way to increase their vocabulary and the cards did not rely on common emotions like happy, sad, and mad. Emotions Charades had two pages with 32 feelings on each. It was easy to cut out the cards and put them in a bucket for kids to choose from.
I also loved the “Mindful Simon Scripts.” They provided me with an easy-to-read script to get my students’ minds and bodies focused on their breath and energy level. This activity can be used over and over again because it only takes about 10 minutes and was a great reset activity after recess or another overstimulating event.
By doing activities like this, I was surprised that all of my students were engaged. Even the kids who are typically shy loved being able to guess the emotion or write down positive experiences they saw for the Potatoes of Positivity.
How would you sum up your overall experience?
I loved having all these amazing resources right at my fingertips. As a busy teacher and self-proclaimed type B person, I loved that the resources were readily available, easy to implement, and I didn’t need much prep time. I would absolutely tell teachers it is well worth the money to pay for this membership to give you great resources for building important skills.
How easy was it to use and implement VAI Educator’s Studio in your classroom?
It was very easy to implement. I specifically used it for morning meeting. I needed the activities to be quick and have limited material requirements. The Games and Activities tab was the perfect place to look because all of the slides and links are laid out for you. I was able to sift through the activities quickly and find what I was looking for by filtering through the grade band level. This is a very low-prep, high-reward type of resource because it saves educators time but makes a big difference.
Watch Cara’s video about her experience with VAI Educator’s Studio:
Teacher Picks is a sponsored program available from We Are Teachers. All opinions shared in the review are honest and based on the teacher’s direct experience. To learn more about our guidelines and review process, click here.
