Weird Enough Productions, an education technology company founded by the strategic communications and theatre arts alumnus, is making its lesson plans and activities free for teachers, students and parents as schools close in response to COVID-19.
Tony Weaver Jr. 鈥16, founder and CEO of Weird Enough Productions, is connecting teachers and students with a host of free online educational resources as schools across the country suspend in-person instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Weird Enough Productions is an education technology company that uses the power of storytelling to create positive change, giving a voice to underrepresented minority groups and encouraging young people to 鈥渆mbrace their quirks and get hype about being themselves,鈥 according to its website. The company鈥檚 Get Media L.I.T. program pairs its flagship comics series, The UnCommons, with lesson plans and curricula focused on media literacy, digital citizenship and social-emotional learning.
Weird Enough Productions has partnered with educators to reach about 40,000 students in classrooms nationwide. With schools across the country closing facilities and shifting to online learning as COVID-19 spreads, Weaver wanted to do something to help the education community navigate a difficult and uncertain situation. He has made a version of the Get Media L.I.T. platform free for teachers, students and parents to access at home for the remainder of the academic year.
鈥淪chools provide a lot of resources that kids don鈥檛 have access to at home, and one of those key things is literacy tools,鈥 Weaver said. 鈥淲ith two-thirds of students in the U.S. not being able to read on grade level, when you remove them from the only place where they have defined and pure access to literacy materials, it can create a sticky situation for them.鈥
Students, teachers and parents can visit and click 鈥淪tart Free Trial鈥 to access the lesson plans.
Weaver graduated from 黑料不打烊 in 2016 with degrees in strategic communications and theatre arts. He was included in the Forbes 鈥30 Under 30 Education 2018鈥 list and was honored as Young Alumnus of the Year at 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Distinguished Alumni Awards the same year. Earlier this year, he was featured in a Coca-Cola ad titled 鈥淗istory Shakers鈥 recognizing six black leaders for their roles in shaping modern history.