School districts are working now more than ever to provide the best support for teachers and students in distance learning. The spread of the coronavirus is very real, but it is helping us prepare for future shut downs as we all try to provide a quality education away from the classroom inside a school building.
Years ago, I began using blending learning for students between traditional practices and digital ones. This means I would provide some instructional tools on-line while instructing lessons in school. It was not a “flipped classroom,” but I would dabble in these practices.
Based on my experiences with mixing traditional and digital practices, I thought I would share some good tips on how to best try out digital learning for remote purposes.
Prepare parents AND students for Remote Learning
One of the most important things teachers need to do is to teach parents how to help their children at home. This is a new concept to most teachers because we are used to instructing students. This is a new concept for many children. They won’t know how much time they should spend on your assignments. Make sure assignments are explained clearly with guidelines and expectations.
Have a schedule laid out with expectations
Name your assignments in a google doc or pdf file for parents and students to clearly see your vision for the week. These should include days, subjects, and possibly links. It even helps if your entire grade level team is on the same page, but that isn’t always possible. The more streamline, the better for parents.
Keep students connected with their classroom community
We are all being expected to stay away from anyone other than our immediate families. This is very hard for all of us and our students are no exception. Try to provide your positive classroom culture through prompts using Zoom or Flipgrid. Ideas are listed below:
a. Scavenger hunt around the house (find a something blue, fuzzy, stinky.)
b. Show and Tell
c. Two truths and a lie
d. Would you Rather?
e. What is your favorite spot in your house and why?
Student Check-ins
A pitfall that teachers might experiences during this time of remote learning is not giving good feedback. We know that feedback is so important, so how can we check in with our students? Platforms such as google classroom make feedback and easy things to give (again prepare parents and students on where to find this) Email is another great way whether it be the parent or the student (depending on district guidelines for email accounts) Keep it positive, factual, motivating, and helpful. Don’t forget that parents are being the remote teacher and as teachers we are just providing the tools and curriculum so help parents out too and be sensitive to their needs!
For example:
Content Area:
Ava you are making good progress this year on fact practice using ____________ (reflex math, freckle, ixl) I see you are 60% fluent. This means you are over half way there. You have learned over a 1,000 facts this year between addition/subtraction/multiplication/division. WAY TO GO!!! Keep working hard to achieve the next milestone of 70%.
Work Habits:
Dear Mr. and Mrs._____________,
I noticed that Ethan turned in the ELA assignment without filling out the google document inside the assignment. There are questions to reflect from inside that document.
If it is easier, I listed the questions below for him to respond to and he can reply by sending back.
Teach kids etiquette for on-line learning
It is important that students learning the expectations and routines of online tools such as zoom. Just like the classroom, they need to be taught and practiced before learning can happen. I will continue to update the list of expectations per platform below. Please feel free to click the links and use.
