Teaching is a difficult job at the best of times and educators have certainly had a fill of difficulties during the last twelve months.
As someone who taught for so long, given my expertise and where we are at now with remote learning, I thought I’d share a short post with some mindful, focused and helpful approaches to help you get the most out of your time with learners whilst online.
- Be present. Live lessons are a huge topic of debate at the moment. I prefer to think that the best way is to have ‘present’ lessons. With my parent hat on for a moment, the thing that my children miss the most is having their teacher present to be able to check to make sure they are on track. You can do it in other ways too such as meeting and greeting at the start of the lesson. This sort of thing is really important in real life and helps develop stronger relationships with your learners. You can do this virtually by asking learners to have their cameras on at the beginning of the lesson (mic off) to check they are present too.
- Use chat. Chat is a great means of communication. Being present doesn’t mean you have to be on camera all of the time and young people are used to messaging each other. Join them in their world. You shouldn’t expect perfect spelling or grammar, just as you don’t when you’re using WhatsApp or whatever, but for ease of communication, using the chat features of your platforms are an easy way to connect with learners. You can more easily prioritise and switch between conversations by using text chat too, thus providing more support with children not vying for your attention with their voices.
- Leave time between lessons. I understand that there isn’t a corridor walk between sessions as in remote education you’re just at home, but children (and you) need a few minutes between lessons to just clear your head and get yourself in the game ready for your next session. Even if you’re Primary and still working with the same group. It might just be to load up resources or to pop to the loo – either way, factor in a bit of a break to allow for headspace to take place, regardless of whether you’re Primary, Secondary or FE. It will also allow you when ready to start your session to have that introductory conversation.
- Don’t try to do too much.We know from Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction and Cognitive Load Theory that memory is limited, therefore trying to cover too much in an online lesson is unlikely to lead to successful learning. It’s difficult enough being in a home space for learners to behave as if they are in school ready for learning, by keeping things simple you are more likely to be successful in supporting learning than you otherwise might be.
- Avoid distractions.There are ways you can help to keep your learners focused when they are viewing you on camera. Many teachers will be sharing a video of themselves from home so try to have a plain background behind you. We all know how inquisitive children are and if they can see your bookcase behind you or your netball trophy from when you were in Year 10, these are all things that will distract learners from their core business of learning. If you don’t have a plain background location, why not try using some of the features found in your technology tool of choice for being on camera with learners. Blur your background. Put a virtual background behind you. There are many ways to achieve all of this and for the more adventurous of you, with many platforms, you can even use a green screen.
- Remember the 20/20/20 rule. This means every 20 minutes looking up away from your device screen at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. This gives eyes a break and helps them to return to their natural position.
- Sit properly. Working statically at a desk is something that many in business do daily in their offices but it isn’t so important when in school as young people and teachers are so active. When working with an online class it is important to ensure that you consider ergonomics, so for example, sit in an upright position. Keep both feet flat on the floor, spaced apart trying to keep your knees at a 90-degree angle – this is more easily achieved when you have a chair which has an adjustable height. Use a desk or table, don’t just work with your laptop on your lap as this will, over time, put undue pressure on your lower back.
- Be accessible. This doesn’t mean be present, this is about using the many accessibility tools that are available to you. For example, did you know that you can turn on subtitles in PowerPoint which will even do a live translation? Sharing tools such as Immersive Reader with your learners and asking them to use it inside their popular tools such as Edge, Teams, Word and OneNote will give additional accessibility options to your learners. If you’re not a Microsoft school there is an unofficial Immersive Reader extension for Chrometoo which many learners will find useful.
- Be smart. I always share that if preparing a lesson where you’re using technology is going to take you longer to prepare for than the lesson itself, you probably shouldn’t do it. We are in a place and space at the moment where your choice of using technology isn’t really an option, however, I believe this rule still holds true. By using some of the smart tools that are available to us as educators to help reduce our workload. One such example is using audio options in your tools to leave verbal feedback. This not only makes your feedback more accessible to most learners but also provides the opportunity to do so in a timelier fashion – you can almost always say more, more quickly than you can type or handwrite it. Many tools you use will have these features available to them or a Chrome extension which will facilitate it.
- Keep it simple. Technology gives us the opportunity to do things that wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for that technology. That said, now isn’t the time to be going for the often gimmicky approaches to using technology – supporting our learners in online classes needs to be focused on what works and hopefully, the above approaches will resonate with you and help you to keep it simple and help your learners, families and communities continue to make progress while learning takes place online.
We’ve created an infographic of these tips that you can see below, or view and print out here.
Thanks for taking the time to read this article!