Teaching remotely isn’t easy. It often involves way too much screen time and way too little physical activity. And, that’s assuming your students have the technology to access your teaching.

As teacher Jennifer Dunn put it, “At least 50% of my students do not have the ability to participate in an online learning situation from home. Either the lack of a device or access to reliable WiFi kept me from connecting with my students throughout the last nine weeks of school.” 

The Walking Classroom is providing alternatives.

What is The Walking Classroom?

The Walking Classroom is a nonprofit program that gets kids out of their seats (and away from their screens) and walking while learning about topics in English language arts, science, and social studies. Kids listen to kid-friendly, custom-written educational podcasts while they take a brisk walk. With oxygenated brains, they not only learn more, they also retain the information longer. (Read the study.)

In addition to the core content, each podcast includes a health message as well as a character value that’s woven throughout the narrative. And, each podcast is supported by a full lesson plan with discussion questions and a comprehension quiz, and a ton of additional free supplemental resources— things like downloadable worksheets, online games, virtual field trips, and more. The Walking Classroom also offers free online training for parents and educators implementing the program at home, in a classroom, during out-of-school time, or in a virtual setting.

“When teaching from home, I was so thankful for the availability of the podcasts. I regularly used the quizzes in Google Classroom to have fast results.” — Julie Zamarripa, teacher, CO

Learn more about how the program works on our website.

Using The Walking Classroom both in class and remotely

The program was originally designed for classroom or out-of-school time environments, but it is also a perfect resource for remote learning at home.

As school districts scramble to determine what school will look like this fall, The Walking Classroom has been hard at work as well, coming up with concrete guidance on how the program supports:

• In-school instruction with physical distancing
• Remote learning (with or without internet access)
• Hybrid learning (in-school instruction with physical distancing and remote learning)

Attend our webinar on implementing the program in all of those environments.

Used as designed, the program naturally allows for physical distance between students as they walk—either at school or at home. 

“I am so excited to have The Walking Classroom, especially as we talk about cutting recess time next year due to social distancing. I can still get my kids out for exercise but in a fun way where I know they will keep the distance.”— Kathleen Butler, teacher, CA

Two options for listening to podcasts

Our new mobile app (with 191 topics) will enable many more students to access the podcasts on their own devices, while our preloaded WalkKit audio players (with 167 or 61 topics depending on the program) are perfect for kids who may not have Internet access or devices to use at home. With a WalkKit, students have all they need to access a school year’s worth of podcast topics — no Internet required.

• See the full list of podcast topics on our mobile app
• Listen to sample podcasts on our mobile app or our website

How do kids benefit from The Walking Classroom?

The program is proven to increase learning and retention, improve moods, relieve stress, and more. In addition to the benefits of improved learning and mental health, kids love learning in this new, fun way. It enables teachers to differentiate instruction for their students.

Kids also love the format of the podcasts, which is typically two kids out walking with their teacher and discussing the topic. There is humor, a kid-friendly discussion of the topic, a health message, and a character value all woven into each podcast and covered in the lesson plan.  

More from educators using The Walking Classroom

“As we investigate how school will look for the upcoming school year, it is almost a certainty that there will be a need for some form of distance learning. I would love to be able to allow students who are not able to connect to the Internet to learn by something other than another packet of worksheets. I want to make sure that my students do not fall behind and have the same opportunity to reach their potential, regardless of their life situation. I think that The Walking Classroom can help me achieve this.” — Jennifer Dunn, teacher, KY

“With all the distance restrictions and such, my district is encouraging the use of outdoor spaces. The Walking Classroom will be perfect for this!” — Katie Auerbach Facundo, teacher, CA

“I liked that you offered the podcasts to kids at home doing distance learning. My students used it and really liked it.”— Diane McClenathan, teacher, CA

“With COVID-19 as an issue, I will use The Walking Classroom to replace contact activities in my curriculum.” — Holly Peters, wellness coach, TX