Our offices, like most others, have been closed because of the COVID-19 crisis. We miss welcoming groups of eager students to our vibrant learning events. But that doesn't mean we’ve been inactive. In fact, Mouse has played a frontline role in meeting the emergency educational needs of our city.

Responding to a call from the NYC Department of Education after schools closed, Mouse has:

• Trained more than 6,000 teachers in online teaching methods
• Helped more than 156,000 NYC students get access to online learning
• Digitized youth programs like the Emoti-Con NYC Youth Digital Media & Technology Challenge, Design League, and the NYC Summer Youth Employment Program
  
• Increased access to Mouse STEM and computer science content on Mouse Create and launched Mouse Open Projects

Read about each of these initiatives below and in Mouse CEO Larry Lieberman's guest blog for CSForAll.

Mouse Online Learning Training for Educators

The sudden school closing crisis in NYC forced students and their teachers to tackle learning and teaching online. This would have been a difficult task even in the best of times, but the suddenness of events created a crisis: 75,000 NYC public school teachers needed to be trained and supported in delivering instruction in an entirely new medium. Many were using these online tools for the first time.

With a decade of experience in developing and deploying remote learning tools, Mouse rose to the occasion. Since March, Mouse has been delivering live teacher training workshops to over 6,000 teachers and has created an online library of online learning trainings that NYC teachers can access as needed.

Click here to learn more about Mouse trainings with Google Classroom, Drive, and other online learning tools.

Mouse Create Full Accounts and Training for Educators

Mouse Create is a free tool for all schools and youth serving organizations to access creative STEM and computer science curriculum, regardless of school closures or re-openings. In response to school closures, Mouse is offering free Full Memberships to Mouse Create for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year and by request from Title I schools for the 2020-2021 school year.

For Mouse Create workshops on remote STEM and computer science education, educators can sign up here on the Mouse events page under "Onboarding Workshops."

Educators can sign up for a Mouse Create Full Membership account here.

Virtual Alternatives to Mouse Programs

Mouse’s year-long after school technology innovation program, Design League, will now be held weekly online.

Mouse’s NYC-wide annual student project fair, the Emoti-Con NYC Youth Digital Media & Technology Challenge, has transitioned into a virtual event to celebrate and showcase student ideas and prototypes developed throughout the year.

Visit https://virtual.emoti-con.org to watch the awards ceremony video and join Mouse to congratulate and thank the over 326 NYC teens who stepped up, worked hard, and shared their inspiring and creative projects, all while stuck at home.

NEW: Mouse Open Projects Resource for Free Online Activities with No Account Necessary

Mouse has created a new curriculum resource, Mouse Open Projects that allows students to get started on Mouse’s learning content without signing into an account, educator guidance, or materials. We created this resource to help all learners, regardless of their situations, to keep engaging with STEM and computer science in school or at home.

Mouse Open Projects has projects that educators can find on our online learning platform, Mouse Create. Click here to see all the courses and projects that Mouse Create has to offer.

Keep in touch to learn more about how Mouse is refocusing our work in response to school closings. This blog post is updated weekly with the latest news.

From our Mouse Family to yours -- stay safe and stay engaged!