5 Simple Tips for Teaching Online

Keep it Short

15 to 20 minutes otherwise students will start to tune out.  No different than in the classroom :) 

Record Yourself

Its important that your students feel 'connected' - Be a part of the recording! Not all students will be able to be online at the same time as your 'class' but still need to see you!

Step-by-Step Instructions

Students learn in multiple ways!  Make sure you reach all your students by posting task instructions in the recording as well as linked to your online classroom that they can 'read'.

User Friendly

'Open' programs such as Google docs are accessible to ALL. Everyone does not have the same access to the same technology.  Some of my students had to use their smartphone or only had a PC but no microphone or webcam.

Engaging

hook your students with some fun, engaging interactive activities.  My students just loved the classroom vocabulary game Knoword, and Drawasaurus

Covid 19 & Teaching Junior High

 OMG!  I am so exhausted.  I thought that when schools transitioned to online learning last March I had never worked so hard in my teaching career.  Do NOT get me wrong teaching online was mentally and physically exhausting.  The exhaustion resulted from being in front of a computer 5 six hours a day, attempting to create engaging learning tasks that students would enjoy and possibly be interested in learning from home.  One of the major issues was technology!  Many students were attempting to learn from home using their phone.  Maybe students had access to a computer but it was being shared with their siblings and they could not be online at the time my classes were scheduled.  Others were online but could only communicate through a chat box as they did not have a microphone or webcam.

Then there was another technology issue.  Programs.  Word docs don't transfer to Google docs easily - the formatting gets messed up.  Or if teachers posted a pdf assignment students could not type on it.  Teachers were sharing, sharing and sharing.  Someone (I wish I could remember who it was) came up with a solution to the pdf issue.  Text boxes.  We edited the pdf documents so that students could type in a text box.  This was a great solution but time consuming.

OK, I do not need to relive March to June.  My eyes have now recovered. I had some rest in the summer and am now back in the classroom.