Eight weeks ago as the devastation of COVID-19 hit Australia, we sat in the isolation of our office (before social distancing even existed) listening to teachers, the media and our governments talk of the extraordinary concept of “home-schooling” for close to 4 million young Australians.
As teachers rang and emailed to cancel their MiniBOSS incursions for the remainder of the term, the reality of the task facing teachers started to emerge. At our very last meeting, sitting side by side (hard to imagine now) we wondered, what could we do to support schools, teachers and of course the students, our MiniBOSSES.
We felt for the students and parents who were all facing a very different school term ahead and particularly for teachers and how much pressure they were under trying to plan for the unknown.
As we said our goodbyes, we set a date for our first ever ZOOM meeting, which we titled…
How can MiniBOSS help teachers?
We found ourselves using every enterprise skill we aim to teach during our incursion programs. We were problem solving, finding new ways to communicate, being ultimately creative and as flexible and adaptable as we could, and of course using our new digital literacy skills, the new critical currency!
We wanted to help support teachers in delivering great opportunities for students to explore, develop and activate their skills and capabilities, so we did the only logical thing…… we decided to turn our office into a film studio and MiniBOSS TV was born!
From an office to a film studio!
On the 6th of May we launched the first few episodes of MiniBOSS TV:
“Create IT” (Part 1 and Part 2) followed by “Crack IT”. We are adding more episodes weekly and feel we are getting more creative ourselves as we go!
MiniBOSS TV are free virtual incursions for teachers and parents with the aim of supporting teachers during this uncertain time. It was important to us that we created something that took the viewers back to the classroom, was really fun, and created a sense of togetherness.
The feedback has been fantastic! Luci, one of our year 3 MiniBOSSes gives it “a 9 out of 10” and Cooper one of our year 4 MiniBOSSes says “he wants to watch it every day because it is really funny and weird”.
MiniBOSS TV highly engaging activities are presented in approximately 15-30minute sessions through TV episodes. They focus on helping young people explore key skills like creativity, problem solving and flexibility in a really fun way.
We hope MiniBOSS TV puts a smile on your face and the faces of your MiniBOSSes during this unprecedented time and we can’t wait to see you all back in the classroom soon!
To find out more about MiniBOSS TV or to register for FREE visit www.miniboss.com.au