Hi there, my name is Mike. I am a veteran high school teacher with 20 years+ teaching experience. Although “distance learning” for K through 12 students during the Coronavirus Pandemic has widely been shown as inferior to in person learning for a variety of reasons, online learning is definitely here to stay. This summer I find myself once again teaching online and thought I would share a quick list of tips for teaching online, updated for 2024.
1. Red Team/Blue Team your Online Platform/Learning Apps
Never assume that your online platform does what you think it should do, or what you want it to do. Cybersecurity firms use a technique called red team vs. blue team to get a 360 degree view of the vulnerabilities of their software. One team attempts to protect critical information, the other tries to hack it. Teachers can use this tactic as well by creating both a teacher and student account.
Its always a good idea to at least scan the software ahead of time before students start using it, this gives the teacher a chance to catch any issues, which there inevitably will be, ahead of time. This way, when students ask questions about the platform via email, the teacher has enough familiarity to figure out what they are talking about. This can save a lot of time and frustratiom for the teacher and the students.
Texting Guardians/Parents is King These Days
I have ten or so students on my roster that never checked in after Day 2. I started by emailing them. I got a few responses…then I called…got one response….then tried texting to all contacts listed and Bingo, almost all students were accounted for. In one case, it was a subling that reached out to a younger sister, for most others it was a guardian or parent. All in all, well worth it to text.
I did not do it this time, but you can setup a seperate phone number through Google Voice so that your actual phone number is not being displayed to students, not that it has ever been a problem for me., although it certainly could be.
3. Get Lots of Excercise
Online teaching tends to demand lots of time in front of a computer. In an ideal world, after each 90 minute session, we would have 90 minutes screen free time. This is not super practical, but I definitely feel my nerves on edge after a long session on the computer. To balance this out, I have been making sure I ger a lot of excercise. I have been going to the gym 2-3 times a week and working out at home 2-3 days a week, then playing baseball on Sunday.
On days when no ome is home, I relly enjoy going to the gym for some actual human interaction as well as getting the excercise in. From there I can grab some lunch, run errands, or just head home and relax. The Gold’s Gym where I live has a great pool and spa area, so it is like a sort of like day everytime I go. It is quite enjoyable!
4. Be Prepared For A Lot of Tech Issues and Excuses
Online learning leaves lots of “gaps” for things to go wrong. I had a student get mysteriously dropped from our online health class to be registered for a completely different class, African-American History. No one at the company or the school had any explanation why this happened, but all of the student’s progress was lost. Luckily, I had recorded most of it in the gradebook ahead of time.
Compounding this is students making excuses about not knowing class was in session, how to login to the online platform, apps, etc. Since the teacher has little ability to verify these issues, unless guardians and parents are there in person to look over their student’s shoulder, it can be quite frustrating. This is why having a flexible but firm grading policy pays dividends in these situations.
#4 – Don’t Forget to Take Roll
In the physical classroom, everyone knows roll call is one of the first things to do. Online learning often consists of simply marking everyone present for asychronous learning with more traditional methods for synchronous learning. It is easy to forget, but very inportant for schools to get their ADA (average daily attendance).
#5 – Don’t Procrastinate Contacting Parents/Guardians
I think there is such a thing as jumping the gun on contacting families. I like to give students the chance to fix their problems and communicate with me, but with online learning, there is so much that can be wrong. Phone numbers and emails may have not been updated, students may be out of the country or sick, they may be having technology or family issues.
In the physical classroom, assuming the student comes to class, teachers have the best source of information sitting in class. Through effective relationship building these issues tend to reveal themselves in daily interactions and get addressed quickly, however, with online classes, the amount of information the teacher gets about their students may be much more limited and based on what observations can be drawn from the students work habits. It is critical to reach out as soon as there is any sign of trouble to ascertain the nature of the issue and find possible solutions. The sooner the issue is identified the sooner it can be resolved.
Final Thoughts
Above all, don’t kill yourself grading and assigning things. You are the captain of the ship and you need to be able to instruct effectively, respond to a lot of potential emails, work a more tedious seeming job than what you are accustomed to. It is vitally important to take care of your own wellness and not get too stressed out about online teaching or at least balance that stress with healthy momemts and activities!
Teaching is almost always a marathon, not a sprint. If you allow your personal capacity to diminish, it could imperil the entire crew.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading The Lifelong Education Blog! I hope you have found this list useful and/or interesting! Likes, follows and shares are always appreciated!
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What are your thoughts on this?