Due to the spread of Covid-19, school shutdowns have again become a reality. Teachers are once more having to teach virtually via Google Classroom or Zoom for up to two weeks at a time. Due to this, students have to go back to learning from home while watching a computer screen. As an educator, how would you keep students engaged and participating in lessons, virtually, without having to call them out by name? Share at least two strategies that you feel are helpful in keeping students engaged while teaching them virtually. Have you observed any teachers (teaching in your discipline......music, Spanish, chemistry) as they taught their students virtually? How successful were those lessons? What made them successful or unsuccessful?
The way that I would keep my students engaged virtually is by doing activities, like sharing a video on the screen and having them comment on it. Also I could break them into groups so they can talk with their classmates about a certain topic that I give them.
ReplyDeleteI have observed teachers as they taught their students virtually and many times the lessons were not as successful due to the lack of students not participating or being engaged. And I feel that was mostly also because of their cameras being off, the teacher was not able to identify if the students were actually paying attention to their class or not.
- Laura Cardona
Teaching virtually can be very difficult. Some ways to keep students engaged could be including their room or items around their house. For instance for a music class, ask the students to get a bowl and a spoon and have the kids use them to play rhythms. Another way could be to use padlet or a jamboard that requires the students to be engaged and they can draw and put anything they want.
ReplyDeleteWhen observing teachers virtually, a why they kept kids engaged was using an online program to play the piano. It worked for the most part but some kids were not entirely engaged.
Sarah Morris
I personally have only witnessed one science class that was held virtually. I believe the lesson itself was a prerecorded video where the teacher was performing a lab alongside the students. The teacher informed her students that they can either collect the materials themselves and perform that lab alongside her, or to watch her perform the lab and take notes as to what was occurring. In theory, being in a virtual setting, I believe that this is the best that a science teacher can do. However, I would not prerecord the lesson. This is because I believe it would be benefit the students better if I were there to assist them directly, rather than calling them separately or assisting them through email. Another way I could keep students engaged, within a lecture class, I could have the students break out into separate groups and have them go over as much of the lesson as possible, regroup after a certain amount of time, and then discuss the lesson as a whole group.
ReplyDelete- Anthony Petrosino