Thursday, August 13, 2020

2 Things to Do Right Now (Part 1)


Who would have ever thought at this time last year that we would be living in a completely different world that we could have ever imagined.  We've been working on moving towards blended and online scenarios in our classrooms, but suddenly last March we were thrust into a completely virtual teaching and learning environment.  Teachers are flexible, resilient and hard workers so we banded together and we all survived the spring of 2020.  I know as May drew near, we all had high hopes of being able to return to a more normal version of school this fall, but it does not appear that will happen.  Here in Texas most teachers are being tasked with teaching both in person while at the same time providing asynchronous learning for their at-home learners.  On top of that, many schools have decided to start out completely virtual while others could end up remote at any moment if COVID-19 rears its ugly head on their campus.  Right now fear and anxiety are running rampant making it hard to figure out just where to get started. 

Over the next couple days, let's take a look at 2 things you can be doing right now to set yourself up for success when schools starts no matter how that may look.  We'll start with the first one today.

A top priority no matter how school looks should always be creating strong relationships with both your students and their families.  In this day of COVID, having that strong relationships and support from families will be such a benefit.  The problem is, how do you make this happen when you might not have an opportunity to meet your students and parents in person.  One easy solution for this is to create an introductory video of yourself.  In the video, tell them any pertinent information about yourself that you want to share, information about your class and how to contact you.  Your video can be as simple as using your phone to record yourself or you can make it more complex by showing some accompanying slides on your screen and recording a screencast video with your picture in it.  

Check out our tutorial on Screencast-O-Matic to learn more about screencasting. 

If you want to take this up one more notch, consider using a tool such as Flipgrid.  By using Flipgrid, you can add your introductory video to the grid and also have your students add their own introductory videos to the grid.  This will help everyone put a face and a voice with a name and help to start building that online community.  You can even continue to use Flipgrid on a regular basis by asking a question of the week so that students are getting a steady dose of interactions with others where they get to see a face and hear a voice.  To learn more about getting started with Flipgrid, check out their Getting Started page.

You can also add in some synchronous activities such as a virtual Meet the Teacher time where you could invite parents and students to log in to Zoom or Google Meet to speak with you live.  This would be a great time to share expectations, give students and parents a tour of your LMS and answer any questions.  If you have families who are not able to join live, you can also record your session so that they can watch it later.  This is even helpful for families who were there live in case they wanted to rewatch a portion later to help answer a question.

Once school gets started and students start their online learning, a great way to help foster that relationship is by always trying to insert yourself into the online course as much as possible.  For example, when providing instructions for an assignment, consider adding in a video of yourself where you explain the directions to the students.  This will help students who are struggling to read, but it also helps students to see your face, hear your voice and get a deeper understanding of what they are supposed to do.  Another idea is to offer live office hours via Zoom or Google Meet a couple of times per week.  This is a great opportunity for students to ask questions or even just spend some time talking with you.

Even though it is more difficult to build relationships in the online environment, it is definitely possible.  Continue to think of ways that you can make connections with your students as you navigate the online world together.

What are some ways that you are going to be creating relationships in the online classroom?  Leave us a comment below.

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