5 Remote Learning Reinforcers for Middle School

Are your students struggling to maintain momentum during remote learning? Tactful use of reinforcers can help keep students on track! Read all about my students’ top five remote learning reinforcers in this blog post!

1. Virtual Field Trip

My students ABSOLUTE LOVED field trips when in-person learning was available. Unfortunately, the era of COVID-19 means in-person field trips are unavailable. Luckily for us, technology makes virtual field trips available. Here are some popular virtual field trip destination among my students:

• Zoos: Some zoos have live camera feed from their animal enclosures linked on their websites. Students can choose which animals they want to visit.
• Aquariums: Similarly, some aquariums also have live camera feed from their tanks available for 24/7 viewing.
• 360 Cities: 360 Cities has an enormous collection of 360° panoramas. You can visit virtually any city in the world (pun intended)!
• Access Mars: Access Mars allows you to explore the surface of Mars with your students!

2. Yoga

Students are spending more time sitting and being on their electronic devices than ever these days. As such, any chance to move, stretch, and exercise their bodies are highly desirable for them.

I am a certified yoga instructor, so I like to personally lead yoga in my classroom. YouTube™, however, has a lot of good videos for students to follow along as well!

3. Show-and-Tell

Students crave social interactions during these times of isolation. They are specifically interested in sharing their beloved objects, pets, and family members. In order to keep the class on track, I like to use show-and-tells as a reinforcer. To do so, my students have to work together and keep each other accountable for completing synchronous and asynchronous school work.

4. Lunchtime Hangout

Lunchtime hangouts are another popular social interaction option for my students. It was a routine that we have established during in-person learning: students can earn to have lunch and hang out with me by completing school- and homework. During remote learning, I continue to use the lunchtime hangouts as reinforcers to encourage students to participate in synchronous remote classes and complete asynchronous school work.

5. Zoom Games

Zoom games can be effective brain breaks during remote learning. Click here to read another Simply Special Ed blog post on five of my students’ favorite Zoom games!

Will you try any of these reinforcers with your students? What are some of your tried and true remote learning reinforcers? Let me know if the comments!