Make Online Teaching Work During School Closures

Make Online Teaching Work During School Closures

Tricks of the Trade for Teachers Transitioning to Virtual Learning

If your school is like many schools across the country currently, it might be closed for a few weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some tips that can help you lead a successful online class so that your students stay as current as possible.

1. Remind your students that they will probably take at least one completely online course when they get to college and that this is good practice for that.
2. Share how and on which platform you will communicate, whether through email, Zoom, Google Classroom or Hangouts, Remind, GSuite comments, Canvas, etc. Let them know what to find and where.
3. Let students share videos to stay connected as a class. They can post videos to platforms like FlipGrid. This will go a long way towards helping everyone still feel connected since they can see faces and hear voices.
4. Give students a tracker that keeps them on task for moving through their CodeHS course.
5. Provide simple checklists each week to guide your students and families to what needs to be completed in order to keep up.
6. Hold office hours in either a Zoom room or Google Hangout so that students can pop in with questions as they arise. Aim to have an hour per day and rotate the times throughout the week so students can access at different times if they need to. Post a schedule at the beginning of the week so students will know when you will be online.
7. Use quick videos or screencasts to walk students through content or items where you feel they will need extra support. Don’t worry if your videos are not Pixar quality! Your students just want to see and hear from you.
8. Keep things light to quell any frustrations students may have over learning completely online.

Additional Tips for AP Classes:

• Continue to share and point students to resources in AP Classroom.
• Keep students apprised of College Board updates.