Add a Little Sparkle to your Online Teaching
Updated: May 21, 2020
By now, either through an intentional practice or through hit and trial schools have realized that online teaching cannot replicate school and it cannot be a syllabus completion task.
Students have demonstrated that they by far, have higher competencies when it comes to finding innovative excuses to escape from teaching. This could range from giving a poor rating to a teaching app to lead it to be removed from play store, or name themselves "reconnecting" or sync screens to bounce DVD logo all over the screen to confuse the teacher. Sadly there have been cases of students using profanities and abusing teachers. Cases of teachers and students suffering from burnout, parents grappling with issues of shared devices for dividing time between working on their own tasks and their children’s learning.
In this post I share a few suggestions through the magical A3E formula to keep teaching enjoyable and learning engaging and empowering.
Approach:
Your approach will define why, what and how of the task that you do. Whether you wish to get over with a chore and tick off the number of lessons covered or whether you want your children to engage in authentic learning experiences.
The key is to opening these locks lies in the approach you take as an educator. You should not try to replicate the school timetable or teaching but prioritize what needs to be taught now and focus on deep student engagements on key topics.
Keep your content and sharing CCP (Clear Crisp and Precise).
A3E-The 4 ESSENTIALS to ADD SPARKLE to ONLINE TEACHING
These 4 simple steps will not just add sparkle to the online teaching but give you a breather too. These are applicable in all scenarios and for all age groups, ranging from K-12 schools up to adult learning.
The first step however will always be deciding on the key topics that cannot be missed out as they are an important step of the learning ladder and connect to what will be taught next.
1.Access---We have our preferred mode of accessing information---some enjoy reading, some prefer listening and some prefer visuals.
For all learners to enjoy and learn in the way they learn best, you can design and share the content in a readable pdf or word document, a video or a PowerPoint with voice recording or a podcast.This will help all your learners to access content across devices. It might seem a huge task to you at first, but then there is no gain without pain. Take small steps and build up this repository around the most important topics. Sift the topics and work on the ones that are connected to the next stages learning .
2.Engage—Keep your audience engaged let the share their learning by using various tech tools.
Let them use different paths to showcase their learning. Use a variety of methods to gather responses, ranging from chats, polls and whiteboards to students creating podcasts, making videos or sharing by writing on blogs, forums. This is the best time to bring in various modes of expression.
3.Enrich—Do not let either the GSP’s or the field trips stop.
Invite friends or parents to share expertise with children, let the children go on a virtual field trip. Make virtual connects with students of other schools across borders-within your country and globally. This is the best time to have children and adults connect virtually and collaborate, share projects.
4. Empower—get the collaboration back and don’t fall into becoming the sage on the stage .
Let the students take the lead and try to build in experiences for Authentic Group Work --- Divide tasks and let each one have a role in the teaching process . Let them be the experts—so design the roles in the group—Communications manager, Subject Expert, The Social Worker, The Digital Expert, The PR agent.
Just keep it simple, get creative , play around with the tech tools available, ask peers who are more tech savvy and updated to help you out. Don't forget to trim the syllabus--stay as fun loving and creative as you are in the in person teaching scenario in the physical classrooms.
You can access my video explaining the A3E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPaTLjaed6o&t=722s
Sharing an infographic that I found on Canva. Good suggestions should be shared with all.
