There is no question that distance learning has teachers digging into their bag of tricks. The biggest difference is that we now need to engage students using a digital classroom without the benefit of being in the same physical space. You may be reaching into your top hat and coming up empty. It's OK. You're not the only one.
In the past couple of weeks of foraging through this new way of educating and engaging students I have found the following tricks to be helpful:
Morning Announcements
If you have a Google account, you have a YouTube channel. It can take 24 hours to set your channel up, but it is an excellent way to get your students to log in and engage in the day's activities and assignments. There is a small learning curve, but the end result is worth the effort.
There is a bit of nervous energy with doing anything on video. It exponentially grows when doing it live. Take a breath and do it anyway. Your kids won't care. Be human, and let them know you're human. My first live, I made it clear that I had no idea what was going on and I was trying to learn the platform. They were very understanding. We can only learn through experimenting. Sometimes it's a hit and sometimes it's a miss. But, it's all good and it can only get better.
I go live every day at 9:00 AM for the morning announcements. Before I go live, I send a reminder to my families via a digital communication tool between school and home. (For example: Class Tag or Class Dojo.) I make sure to share the direct link to my channel.
The first couple of announcements weren't that great. I wasn't 100% confident in what I was doing. I was sleep deprived and mentally exhausted. I was scrambling to come up with what kind of content needed to be broadcast. But, it was (and continues to be) worth it.
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First Live: no make up, messy bun. But, I got it done!
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At this point, morning announcements look something like this:
I go over the "Task Chart of the Day". I remind them where to find assignments and links in their Google Classroom. I also answer questions that may have been broad-based the day before.
I also give students and families updates on any changes or district-wide announcements. This can be especially helpful for families who have children in other buildings and need to hear the information from a person rather than a written memo.
Going over the day's agenda give students a launch point for the day. If students do not watch the announcements when I am live, they have the option to watch a replay when they login for the day.
Spirit Weeks! We have done one each week and plan to do another one this week. My goal is to keep Spirit Weeks going throughout distance learning. It gives the students something to look forward to, my team loves the pictures and engagement, plus I use the themes to dress for the morning announcements!
Before I end the announcements I do a "Today in History" fun fact. My daughter has been helping with that portion of the announcements. There is a bit of time and research to get this segment of the announcements organized, but again, it's worth the time and effort. (Keep reading to see why...)
When I am done with announcements, I save the recording to my channel so students and families can replay later.
GoGuardian
After announcements, I head over to the platform my district has in place to chat and troubleshoot with students. We use GoGuardian. It allows me to see everyone's computer screen as well as offers chat messaging. There are other facets to GoGuardian that work well for teachers and administrators. But, from the teacher perspective, the ability to see screens and chat in real-time is immeasurable.
When I get into GoGuardian I send an announcement to the whole class that I am there. I let them know if they have questions to feel free to ask. Oftentimes, students will respond back with a "Good Morning", or a "Hi, Mrs. Fritcher!". I make an attempt to reply back every time someone offers a friendly greeting even if it is a simple ":)". I had to explain the sideways smiley response a couple weeks ago; the students had no idea what it was!
The chat option allows me to help students (and sometimes parents) while they have their screen open. Whether it is a parent or the student, it is a comfort and relief to know that I can navigate with them in real-time to make sure they are getting through the material.
Fourth Grade Forum
My team added a social classroom into our Google Classroom. We named it the Fourth Grade Forum. This is the social place. It's where we share photos of students doing projects, pics of students participating in Spirit Wear, offer "This or That" questions, post Today in History fun facts and/or trivia.
The Forum has become a surrogate for the lunch room and playground. We stick to the same rules as we would in any school space. But, it is wonderful to have a spot that isn't driven by instruction. Many times I have noticed students going into the Forum immediately after morning announcements (and sometimes before!). It's the only place students have posting privileges. We do monitor the posts and have deleted some. Students will adjust to the rules quickly if the expectations are set from the beginning.
To keep the conversation going, I try to post a challenge trivia question related to the Today in History fun fact. I let them know during the morning announcements to head over to the Forum to answer the trivia question. If I find an interesting YouTube link that elaborates on the fun fact, I link it to the question. Friday's trivia question was about the Pony Express. I was able to find a short 4 minute video. If students watched the video, they were able to answer the trivia question. Or, if they did a Google search, they could answer the question as well.
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| On any given morning, my kitchen table looks like a trash heap. |
ZOOM
It seems as though everyone is either in Google Meet or Zoom. We Zoom. My students love it. With that being said, it's not that great for delivering instruction. After a week of hits and misses with internet connectivity, my team decided to use Zoom as a social tool (sprinkled with content). We will be delivering the bulk of instruction through screencasts and YouTube links.
The value in video conferencing is the face-to-face; the instant connections of speaking and listening to one another. Our fourth grade has put together a small group Zoom schedule that will give everyone a change to connect and speak Monday through Thursday. On Friday, we will be holding content-specific Zooms so students can chat and ask questions about what we have been learning. We are still hammering out details, but it looks promising!
CONNECT, CONNECT, CONNECT
The more you can funnel students using times and places, the more structure the students will have, the more engaged they will be. My students and families can expect announcements at 9:00 every morning. It helps them with a sense of order and normalcy. It's a small piece of stability during a very unstable time.
Guide them to the spaces they will need to visit. Let them know where they can find you. Include information, stories, and links to things that serve no curricular benefit but are critical in keeping them connected to you. Make your digital classroom as welcoming a space as your physical classroom.
Just as our physical classrooms become the safe havens, you can offer the same with your digital classroom. Don't get so deep into delivering instruction you lose sight of a greater purpose you serve in the lives of some of your students.
Don't get discouraged if something doesn't go as well as planned. Give yourself grace if you link something incorrectly or you forget to post an assignment. We are all human. Students will understand. They are happy with you just showing up.
We are being asked to dig deeper into our bag of tricks than ever before. I am confident we can do it. Now, has anyone seen my rabbit?