When we heard that we would be on temporary online learning, my biggest worry was how to protect and preserve the community that we had built in my classes over the 8 months that we were together. As a language teacher, my #1 priority was to continue to build that community while teaching content. So I spent the entire first weekend and probably next week reviewing best practices as described by other language teachers who were also moving to online/remote learning or had been teaching blended/online learning all along.
I also reached out to my own students to get a better understanding of what they would miss most about being in class, what they would not miss, what challenges they had at home that could prevent them from being able to have a synchronous class each day (connectivity, caring for younger siblings, lack of a quiet space, crowded living conditions, psychological effects of learning at home). From that research, I developed my own "online classroom" that would work best for me. So here is what I came up with.
1. Person to person interaction is fundamental. This applies to introverts and extroverts.
-When teaching, screen share with your camera on.
-There is a lot of non-verbal communication that happens during teaching; facial expressions, hand gestures, other body language, if your camera is on, they see some of it.
-Set up smaller groups in which students can collaborate. And check on those small groups frequently.
-Use a variety of grouping strategies so that the students can work with their friends from time to time.
2. Be yourself and give students the same opportunity. Don't be afraid to unleash your creativity.
-Do what you are comfortable with doing and in your own way. Trying to re-invent yourself 3/4 of the way into the year does no one any favors. This would apply to the beginning of the school year as well.
-Create lessons/activities that give students choices or a variety of ways to express themselves.
-I have learned how to make videos for my students, using language in an authentic way.
-And in this way I have in some ways become a better teacher.
3. Not everything needs to be graded.
-Learning and mastery still happen when you simply give students feedback on how they are performing.
-Students will perform best if the activity is meaningful, even if it is not graded.
4. Reach out to the greater teaching community for ideas and help. Also share your ideas.
-There are close to 1 million language teachers in the US, and all of them are doing some pretty cool things in their classes right now.
-Sharing your ideas may help someone who is struggling and you can also get feedback on how to improve or even better confirmation that you are awesome.
5. Online teaching/learning whether synchronous or asynchronous takes more time.
-Planning lessons or recording videos take on average twice the amount of time as delivering a lesson in person.
-For some students it is difficult to process what they see in a video without it being in written format and for others they need to be able to hear the message several times.
-You will have to repeat yourself. It is not necessarily because they were not paying attention. It could be processing style but it could also be connectivity and home environment factors as well.
-Most students learn best by being able to see, hear, write and speak about content. Doing all 4 of those takes more time both in and out of class.
6. Be gentle with yourself. You are doing the best you can and they appreciate it.
Here are some of the apps and activities that I am doing in my classes to promote community and mastery of the standards in my classes.
1. WebEx - I have students grouped in small groups of 3-4. I change the groups regularly and sometimes allow them the choice of who they will work with.
We also recently did our Global Simulations on WebEx. I grouped students ahead of time and they circulate through the various "services and merchants" to "buy" food in a variety of stores, to "open" a bank account, to "mail" a letter and a package to a friend, to "recommend" a book, to "order" food in a restaurant and to reserve a room in a hotel. These were student to student conversations where one student was the customer and the other was service and then they switched roles.
2. Flipgrid- This allows students to record their voice in response to a prompt.
3. Goose Chase. In my French 1 and AP class we have done a virtual Scavenger Hunt where they have to make videos, take photos or write text in response to a prompt.
4. Cooking videos - There is a tremendous amount of content that can be taught simply by teaching students how to cook. I have a worksheet that I have them complete as they are watching the video and then we go over it in class. Here are 4 cooking videos that I have made for my students. It is really important that videos are no longer than 3-4 minutes and that students have an opportunity to listen to them several times. Ideally they should be as short as 2 minutes and be engaging. Longer videos are hard to focus on for long periods of time.
Whatever you do, just keep doing it. You are amazing!
