Lessons from Virtual Learning: What can we use in our everyday classrooms?

Teaching during a pandemic is like building the car as it drives down the highway. But there are hard and fast lessons that can come from pandemic teaching. Virtual learning is here to stay, and teachers can take the lessons from the COVID-19 teaching experience and move forward with hybrid learning.

Maintain an online classroom space

It’s hard to create an online classroom on the fly. So don’t put yourself in that position again. Even if you favor traditional learning, there are many reasons to maintain an online classroom space.

Model skills and behaviors in the hybrid, remote learning class

Having an online classroom space like Google Classroom, Canvas, or Schoology can create better dialogue between stakeholders. Teachers, students, and parents can see what was done in class each day. It can eliminate time-consuming communication issues. Simply give all parties a link to your website so that (most) questions can get answered there.

Allows classes to go seamlessly between in-person, virtual, and hybrid option

We don’t know what the future holds, but we see some version of online schooling is here to stay. Whether it’s sickness or a weather day, there needs to be a way to go seamlessly between in-person, virtual, and hybrid learning. When you maintain an online classroom, you gain the flexibility to quickly do many versions of school.

Provide additional support to struggling students

Your Google Classroom can become an additional resource for students that need it. They can now access materials to review from class. It is also an excellent resource for co-teachers and special ed teachers who may need to access your course materials.

Continue collaborating with colleagues to divide and conquer

Virtual learning taught us to lean on our colleagues. Keep sharing resources, so you’re not making everything for your class by yourself. TeacherMade’s Co-Teacher Feature is perfect for teachers who would like to collaborate on online assignment creation. It allows you to create online assignments and invite fellow teachers to collaborate. It’s ideal for teachers who teach the same thing as you or special ed teachers that need to differentiate assignments.

Develop a video library that students can use

While teaching, hit record on an especially important lesson. Over time you will collect a video library of lessons that students can revisit. Often repetition helps students learn, and by having access to your lessons to use anytime, students can have that repetition on-demand. The added bonus of cataloging your lessons on video is that you will eventually have a fully functioning online class.

Use less paper

Virtual learning saved teachers and schools paper. You might have also noticed how much time you gained from not standing over a copy machine. Virtual learning pushed us to go paperless, but is it possible to have a paper-free classroom? Absolutely.

With the introduction of Chromebooks and other devices, teachers can now collect work virtually. Students can take notes on their devices, participate in formative assessments, do graded assignments, and even take tests and quizzes. The opportunities are endless. TeacherMade gives you the flexibility to convert any worksheet or handout that you want students to write on or complete.

Communicate what you and your students will accomplish each day

Students like to know what they are doing each day, and beyond that, students learn more when they do. Virtual teachers are excellent at communicating what will be done each day, the goals, and expectations. They have to articulate this because they are not physically with students. This level of the organization should exist in traditional classes as well. Explain your goals for each day, give an itinerary, and explain expectations. You will be amazed at how well your classes can reach these benchmarks when students know where to aim.

Practice giving positive feedback online and off

When you were teaching virtually, you probably made a point to give feedback on assignments, maybe through Google Doc comments or even email. You had to do this because you couldn’t talk to a student in passing like a traditional classroom. But why stop this practice? Continue providing feedback whenever you can. Assign work through apps that make giving feedback easy. Two great options for this are Google Docs and TeacherMade. TeacherMade allows you to type feedback directly into graded work. TeacherMade enables you to repurpose paper worksheets, so it’s the perfect online substitute for traditional worksheets.

Give students options

Everyone likes to have options. But teachers have a hard time creating options inside the classroom. It can take more work to generate assignments. Technology can ease some of this work. For example, you can assign practice problems in the form of an online worksheet via TeacherMade. You can also give students the option to give a written response in Google Docs or even provide them with an assignment inside Edpuzzle. This gives your students three options that all accomplish the same thing. Your students will appreciate your respect for their autonomy as well.

Stay flexible with apps like TeacherMade

Choose tech tools for the classroom that make your life easier. Virtual learning taught teachers to adapt the right online tools for their online classrooms. TeacherMade converts all your existing documents into interactive digital assignments for your students. With built-in self-grading functionality, you can get back to what you do best– teaching.