🚀 Summer Starts Here: Membership Insights, Top Classes & Educator Tools
✏️ Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week
This week, we’re honoring the incredible educators who make learning come alive every day on Outschool. From all of us—thank you for blazing trails, sparking curiosity, and shaping the future.
💛 Want to join the celebration? Visit the Wall of Appreciation →
Introducing Together Time Classes for Toddlers + Caregivers
We’re excited to launch Together Time, a new Outschool class format designed for learners ages 1–2 (12-35 months) and their caregivers. These live, interactive classes provide a unique opportunity to support early development and foster connections between toddlers and their caregivers.
If you have experience in early childhood education and love designing sensory-rich, movement-based, or literacy-inspired activities, this is your opportunity to lead the way.
Together Time is ideal for educators who enjoy creating hands-on, play-based experiences and facilitating meaningful moments between caregivers and young learners.
What Makes Together Time Unique:
- Caregiver attendance is required. Both the caregiver and toddler appear on the roster and must visually check in and participate on camera together
- A Parental Guidance statement is required. Explain how caregivers will engage in class.
- Use the current class creation flow, but select the Together Time option directly below the age range picker.
🎉 Special Launch Promotion for Families
To help drive early enrollments, we’re promoting Together Time with a special giveaway:
Families who enroll in an eligible Together Time class by May 17 will be entered for a chance to attend a virtual concert with beloved children’s musician Jack Hartmann on May 20.
This promotion is designed to spotlight your classes and generate momentum in this new category.
🎨 Add your class and bring Together Time to life for families everywhere.
🔦 New Partnership: Outschool x Lumi, Powered by Colin Kaepernick
We’re thrilled to announce a new partnership with Lumi, an innovative, AI-powered storytelling tool developed by Colin Kaepernick. Lumi helps learners bring their stories to life through guided prompts that support identity, voice, and literacy—making it a powerful addition to any classroom.
This tool is currently in beta and not yet available to the public, but Colin and his team are inviting select educators to explore it early. If you’re excited about the intersection of AI and creative expression, this is a unique opportunity to shape the future of learner storytelling on Outschool.
💬 May Educator Survey
Each month, we check in with a brief survey to better understand how you’re feeling and how we can provide you with more effective support. This month’s Educator Pulse Survey includes the usual questions around overall sentiment, plus a couple of optional questions about a new idea we’re exploring.
Your feedback helps shape the future of the platform, and we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks for sharing your voice with us!
Business & Marketing:
🍂 Back to School 2025: What Worked in 2024 and What to Plan for Now
Even though summer is just around the corner, now is the time to start thinking about your fall offerings. Looking back at what families gravitated toward during the back-to-school period in 2024 can help you plan strategically and position your classes for success in 2025.
📚 Subjects and Topics Families Loved Last Fall
In 2024, families consistently turned to classes that helped learners get back into a school-year mindset. The most popular subject areas included:
- English – Especially classes focused on creative writing, reading comprehension, and language arts.
- Arts – Drawing and visual arts were top choices, providing a creative outlet and routine for learners.
- Life Skills – Topics like social skills, executive functioning, and study habits helped learners prepare emotionally and practically for the school year.
- Math – Foundational math concepts, pre-algebra, and skill refreshers were in high demand.
- World Languages – Spanish remained a strong favorite, as did French and American Sign Language.
These subjects aligned well with what families typically prioritize in the fall: reinforcing academic skills, reigniting curiosity, and establishing routines.
🧭 What Class Formats Worked Best?
When it came to how families engaged with classes, two formats stood out:
- Enrichment or Club-style classes offered consistency and a sense of community. These formats work especially well for social learning, creative projects, and interest-based topics.
- Multi-week courses helped learners build skills over time, particularly in academic subjects.
💡 Tips to Plan Your Fall 2025 Classes
Based on these insights, here are several ways to align your upcoming classes with what families are likely to look for:
- Lean into Core Subjects: Reinforce foundational subjects like math, reading, and writing in a way that feels fresh and fun.
- Create Community with Clubs: Weekly or biweekly clubs focused on drawing, gaming, writing, or life skills are a great way to support learners throughout the season.
- Support Transitions: Focus on content that eases grade-level shifts—think social-emotional learning for younger learners or academic ramp-up for middle and high schoolers.
- Use Seasonal Framing: Refresh existing classes with fall-themed descriptions or goals that tie into back-to-school transitions.
SAFETY CORNER:
No Zoom link sharing. To keep all classrooms safe,
- All users must enter classes only by using the Green Start Live Meeting. Sharing Zoom links with learner families jeopardizes classroom security and is against Outschool safety policies; sharing Zoom links could result in a safety STRIKE.
- If a family has difficulty or if there are technical problems with the platform, please direct them to support, who will assist with troubleshooting and a refund if necessary.
- Should you suspect a learner has used or shared a ZOOM link, remind the learner to enter through the classroom button and contact safety to reset that link.
- Remember: when you report security violations, our team can support you if there are any negative repercussions because you enforced safety policies.
Sharing Personal Information:
As the school year closes, teachers may be asked to provide evaluations or recommendations to outside 3rd parties or meet with parents about school progress. Outschool wants to help you help your learner families’ safety, so please review Outschool’s revised policies for sharing Personal Information for Educational Purposes.
“Together Time” Safety:
In preparation for the launch of adult-child “Together Time,” teachers should:
- Follow all standard safety protocols for check-in, including visually ensuring that an adult checks in with their child for “Together Time.”
- Ensure that children are never left unsupervised; an adult must be participating with a child on camera.
- Refamiliarize themselves with all “ZOOM Features for Teachers.” (With young learners, teaches should be well-versed in quickly using the mute and camera-off functions to protect learner privacy and ensure a quality class.
- Reasonably enforce Outschool’s standards of being fully clothed with a top and bottom. Be prepared to turn off video, hide recordings, and report any inadvertent privacy incidents to support, so video can be deleted to protect learner privacy in the case of any clothing mishaps.
- Review Safety Policies, Community Standards, and our Golden Rules in the Outschool Safety Video for Young Learners.
Platform Updates:
Automatic Class Updates Are Now Available to All Teachers
All teachers and organizations now have access to automatic class updates. After each class, we automatically create a class summary using the teacher’s portion of the Zoom transcript and send it to parents. This feature is already helping families stay more connected to their child’s learning and supporting improved attendance in group classes. You will have 4 hours to review, edit, or skip the update before it is sent. If parents reply, the message will appear in your Conversations tab.
You can manage automatic class updates from your Marketing tab. You can also continue sending customized messages for individual learners using the AI Teaching Assistant. These families will not receive the class update email.
Thank you to the teachers who were part of the early rollout. Your participation helped shape a feature that supports both you and the families you teach.
Professional Learning Opportunities:
Upcoming Live Sessions
Unlock the Power of Nearpod in Your Outschool Classroom
Discover how to elevate your teaching with interactive lessons using Nearpod—and learn how to claim your exclusive $400/year discount. Join us live on May 9 for a quick demo and practical tips!
🚀 Join Us for EdVenture – 3 Days of Powerful Professional Learning!
Get ready for EdVenture—a 3-day virtual event packed with engaging, energizing professional learning created just for Outschool educators! Each day features sessions designed to grow your skills in business strategy, instructional practice, learner engagement, and more.
Our first EdVenture kicks off this June, and we’ll keep the momentum going with additional 3-day events in July (16–18) and August (12–14)—so mark your calendar! Can’t attend live? All sessions will be recorded and shared the following week so you won’t miss a thing.
🎓 Don’t miss this chance to grow, connect, and get inspired.
👉 Register now for June EdVenture
📅 And don’t forget to save the dates for July and August!
Get Started with Outschool in Under 30 Minutes!
Our on-demand Outschool Orientation gives new educators the tools and insights to succeed. Educators who attend often sell their first class faster!
Watch at your convenience to learn how to navigate the platform, set up an engaging virtual classroom, and create memorable learning experiences.
