Remote learning and working are the new “normal.”
What does that mean for the young ones, 5 and 6 years old, who were about to start their educational journey in kindergarten? While adults may have a difficult time adapting to the remote world, children have an even greater challenge ahead.
But not all hope is lost.
Ben Cogswell, a tech-savvy Bardin Elementary School kindergarten teacher, has a plan and he’s sharing it across the web.
In his third year of teaching at Bardin Elementary, things took a rapid turn when a district-wide school shutdown was announced. However, it switched a lightbulb on in the Salinas teacher’s head — social media is the answer.
“I was worried about communicating with my families,” he said. “I really thought about what families use most, social media. What’s the platform that most adults use —Facebook and YouTube.”
Cogswell created the Facebook page, Kinder Rockets, which rapidly grew in popularity and now has 1,356 followers and 1,103-page likes.
“It started out just kind of keeping connected, sharing things, sharing videos. It was another way for parents to access me and it really turned into the public face of my classroom,” he said. “I wanted to create a space not only for my students, but there are people all over the country who are having trouble . …if I could provide this content for free, that I’m already doing for my students, that’s going to be helpful for somebody else.”
Family time
Originally from Colorado, Cogswell moved to California for undergraduate school and met his now-wife Jenny during graduate school. The couple has four children. His family is a huge part of Kinder Rockets’ online popularity.
The Cogswells family works together every day to create fun and engaging content for their Facebook and YouTube platforms. With three sons and one daughter, the whole family is involved. Jenny is a music teacher and creates new songs every week. The kids also make guest appearances or help behind the camera, which is their daughter’s favorite thing to do.
The Cogswells have even gone so far as to create fun interactive videos like “Wear Your Mask” to promote safe COVID-19 kid-friendly health measures.
Kinder Rockets goes live on Facebook to book time and music events every day at 7 pm
Ben’s advice to educators who may be having a hard time lesson planning or who are less tech-savvy is: “Try to engage your parents, and look at them as co-teachers in your class and just think about how simply you can use your phone . Learning is everywhere and now is the time to really point that out.”
Making the world a better place
“I got a Facebook message from a teacher in Texas that was saying, “Hey look this is a little Kinder Rocket doing your activity right now. Thank you so much for helping,” Cogswell said.
His goal is to help and provide as much free content as possible to be able to teach his students and others.
“One of the reasons that I always wanted to be a teacher was I always wanted to see what I could do to help make the world a better place,” he said. “Maybe it’s naive to still think I can still do that after these years, but that’s why I do it. I’m just trying to help make the world a better place.”
Kinder Rockets Facebook page comments are proof that Cogswell has made a difference in many parents’ and educators’ lives.
“Passionate kinder teacher with extraordinary tech skills. “His lessons for my son’s kinder class are engaging, all have a detailed instruction video, and a step by step demonstration,” Anna R. Martinez-Maciel wrote.
“Ben is a passionate and innovative educator. He is constantly looking for new ways to impact his students and community,” Martin Gutierrez stated.
“Ben is a master educator and ed-tech innovator. He cares about his students and their learning. Kinder Rockets are ready to launch!” Lee Metcalfe Howell wrote.
Cogswell was quick to acknowledge the help he’d been given along the way.
“This is not just me that is the Kinder Rockets, it’s a group of people that you don’t see. It’s just been really nice. Some people like authors have come on and have been on read alouds and given their time for free or they’ve sent books,” he said. “People have donated by buying Kinder Rockets shirts because they know they’re gonna get some kids some Legos. It’s the community that makes it special. I just happened to be there and be a part of the ride.”
Cogswell lesson planning, videos, and much more are all up on Kindrockets.org for free and a GoFundMe page is up and running to support a summer bridge video series for entering kindergarten students, funds will help with technical equipment and fun props to expand the creativity.