As we approach week 13 of the semester, I am able to reflect and think about different resources we can utilize in the future as educators. Being able to get some experience teaching virtually was really great, although challenging at times. In this post, I'm going to discuss a few resources that I wish I knew about prior to teaching online. Hopefully we will be teaching in-person and will only have to turn to virtual teaching strategies when needed.
The first challenge I was faced with while teaching remotely was placing students into groups. When writing my lesson plans, I incorporated some activities that required students to work in small groups or pairs. The students were all in-person, so these strategies are mainly for traditional teaching and learning. Mr. Rider from Stuarts Draft gave me a really good tip for placing students into pairs or groups. He said to use two playing card decks and have each student keep a card with them during class. When the time comes to group students, use the second deck to pull a card out and match it with a student in class. Another great strategy that I've learned about is using TV or Movie characters and randomly passing out pictures of them to each student. The students then have to walk around the classroom and find their partner by matching up their characters with one another. For example, Spongebob would go with Patrick and Harry would go with Ron.
The students I taught at Stuarts Draft LOVED Kahoot and were very honest when sharing their feedback with me on the different activities I had them do. I learned that the students really enjoy online games or activities that engage them in a virtual manner. After completing this virtual experience I did a quick google search to learn more about digital platforms or games that I can incorporate into my lessons. I found an article titled, "10 Zoom Games for your Virtual Class", and learned about Zoom's Whiteboard feature. I never knew this was an option on zoom and it is really effect if you are trying to visualize your words to better students' understanding. I will definitely use this feature if I am ever teaching through zoom to draw items such as a mind map of terminology or factor to be considered when solving a problem.
Teaching remotely was challenging at times but overall a great experience to learn what the students enjoy the most while they are in the classroom. I've attached 2 articles to the bottom of this blog that I found useful for determining ways to group students or to engage them on Zoom. I hope this blog post provided you with some insight on virtual teaching tips and please feel free to share advice or comments down below, thanks for reading!
Lauren :)
Grouping Students: https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2018/11/13/25-ways-grouping-students/
Zoom Games: https://mycalcas.com/2020/09/10-zoom-games-for-your-virtual-class/
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