Joy and Connections Are Making Learning Matter for Alabama Students in Afterschool
- Tracey Carter
- Aug 4
- 5 min read
A conversation with Drake Roberts, Assistant Program Manager for Alabama Virtual Institute, on how AVI is making joy part of the curriculum.
“When I think of catalysts for passion within afterschool learning, I think about what the presence of joy and fun offer when it comes to student participation.” That’s how Drake Roberts, Assistant Program Manager for Alabama Virtual Institute (AVI), describes what happens every afternoon. He wants the kids and adults involved in the program to take away joy.
AVI is a hybrid afterschool program. It has virtual teachers and fellows who teach STEM, social-emotional learning, and movement lessons for afterschool. Each virtual teacher zooms into several different sites across the state. Each site has in-person teachers who guide students through the activities they learn online. This program answers the needs of many who need childcare in areas where it may be hard to find. According to the Afterschool Alliance’s fifth edition of Alabama After 3PM, “approximately 4 in 5 Alabama children are missing out” on afterschool care. The children participating in AVI get to experience an enrichment program where they grow in academic, social-emotional, and movement skills. Students are very involved in every aspect of this program. Teachers virtually and in person help to support these students during their learning. They are making connections wherever they are learning.
Power of Connections
Drake explains that the key is to meet students where they are. “Each site has a different version of afterschool. They may be in a classroom, church, or a gym. All of that leads to a ton of different variables. Despite being across county lines and learning through a computer screen, there is still relationship building. You have to be genuine,” Drake believes. “It works because relationships are real; it’s not just learning. We are making sure we know their names, so they know that they have value.” It’s not just connecting with the adults that matters; it is also connecting with other students. The program “is giving kids five more adults to care about them and giving them peers to relate to. They have ideas that go across county lines and realize people are having the same interests and challenges as I am.” When connections are solid, it brings joy into the lessons.
The Importance of Fun
AVI uses fun to engage the students as they learn how to create and build through hands-on STEM activities. Drake hopes those activities are what the students want. “If there is one thing that I believe would be desired by students afterschool, it is joy.” Students are excited when the music turns on. Some have choreographed dance moves while others may stay seated. However, both are still dancing. The students then take that energy to create and use curiosity to make a product each week based on the lesson. The lessons also include social-emotional learning topics, and they do have time to get up and move. Drake feels that “fun is meant to be at the center of all of this. Ultimately, fun is not just what brings students back each and every day. It is what brings all of us back each and every day.”
Teachers also love the program. Many teach in the classroom during the day and log on to AVI minutes after the school dismissal bell rings. Drake believes: “If it’s not fun for the teachers, it’s not fun for the students.” AVI makes this happen through a consistent framework. Drake credits the AVI framework for giving teachers freedom to have fun and real connections with students. The teachers are usually dancing right along with the students.
Why This Works
AVI shows that even when people are separated by screens, joy and connections are still happening. Drake still looks at kids being able to share dreams with other kids that they may never meet in real life. He thinks those shared similarities are so important: “We talk about how connections build opportunities, knowledge builds opportunities, shared knowledge bridges gaps between communities.” He points out that AVI is adding another way for students to connect, and they realize that students in other communities will have something in common with them. “AVI works because the lives that are a part of this matter. We bring life and a microphone to these stories.” Drake’s belief in connection and joy is what keeps the program going. It is students being fully engaged despite only being on different sides of a screen.
Benefiting Alabama Afterschool Students
Drake explains that what is happening with AVI is benefiting all students. The program looks at academic, social-emotional, and physical learning. As Drake said, it’s also about fun. Some of that fun is in the form of gamification. Students have the chance to play a game to show their knowledge. There are several benefits to gamification in afterschool learning. “5 Benefits of Gamification” includes: helping cognitive development, aiding in physical development, increasing the level of engagement, aiding in accessibility, and not being limited to a classroom.
That’s why it’s a perfect fit for afterschool. “Gamified systems can promote autonomy, competition, collaboration, and feedback,” according to “A Meta-Analysis of Gamification’s Impact on Student Motivation in K-12 Education”. While playing an educational game, students are not only competing with students at their site, but also with others all over the state. That competition may be fierce, but there is still a lot of learning.
Since that learning also includes social-emotional learning, it benefits students in lots of ways. During a session, students will work through a social-emotional lesson that has them work through a certain aspect and talk about their learning. The article “The Role of Afterschool Programs in Supporting Social and Emotional Learning” points to research that supports what AVI is doing and why it is working. One reason given is that social-emotional learning works in afterschool because the “flexible structure…makes them particularly suited to support SEL [social-emotional learning], especially through high-quality peer and adult-child interactions.” Drake explained earlier how AVI is making that happen daily. The article attributes the “less structure, interest-driven nature” of afterschool programs like AVI to providing “opportunities to develop ‘soft skills’ not always addressed during the school day…” That joy and connection that AVI is bringing into afterschool sites is benefiting students in ways that will benefit them personally, in school, and for their future.
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