Best Practices with Remote Teaching

Best Practices for Teaching Online

We all hear the terms “best practices” in our weekly or monthly staff meetings, right? But what happens when we are instantly all thrown into online teachers or remote instructors? What are the best practices for this unprecedented time that we are in? How do we keep everything afloat? I purely believe that the term best practices is based off research, so what I want to share are some guidelines that have helped during this time and are currently being researched..like in real life 🙂 We have to discuss the best practices for teaching online.

Focus On Pedagogy During Online Teaching

Our classroom dynamics have dramatically shifted over the last six weeks. We were instantly thrown into an online classroom setting. I don’t know about you guys, but in Florida, we were gearing up for Spring Break and then BAM. Here we are. Our teachers didn’t all have laptops. Our school was not equipped for distance learning. Here’s what we did have a handle on: offering solid instruction in a variety of ways. Changing from a traditional classroom to a virtual classroom, that doesn’t change. Focus on delivering solid content FIRST. What instructional strategies are you using to provide students content? What instructional strategies are you using to show the best practices for online teaching?

It’s important to keep in mind our instructional delivery methods shouldn’t change. By this, I simply mean, make sure we are introducing the skill, providing chances for discussion, practice opportunities and finally assessment. This is imperative to show understanding of best practices for remote teaching.

Define Virtual Classroom Expectations for Online Teaching

In the first few weeks of school, we establish our routines and expectations. Even though you were likely forced into online teaching, it’s important to make sure your expectations are clear and concise. During this time, it seems like the first week weeks were survival. Now is a great time to post your expectations if you have not already done so. Are students able to navigate through your course without any issues? Do students and parents know where to find your content or extra resources?

Be Available For Your Students

In this unforeseen time, students might panic if something doesn’t go exactly how they expect it to go. For that reason, if a student knows how to reach you and that you are available, it provides them with a great deal of comfort. When teachers remember that relationships are key to ANY type of classroom success, that is overall the best secret to distance learning and how to maintain a successful classroom. Students need to feel like they are the priority to their teacher. Unfortunately, this is harder than normal. Usually, we go to work, we take our own children where they need to go. However, during COVID-19, we are ALL in the house. I mean, every last family member. All day everyday. Need I say more? By the way, you aren’t alone. Teachers all over are expressing some of the same concerns in our Facebook Group.

Provide Explicit Feedback to Students

Just like in the regular classroom, online learning is no different in this area. Students desperately need feedback and probably faster than they normally do. Our society is so “instant” these days. Everything happens “instantly”. That’s a hard battle for teachers instantly thrown into online teaching. My suggestion is to use assignments that are automatically graded like google forms.

Use A Weekly Agenda

One tip that’s really worked for my students is having a weekly plan. The teachers post these in lieu of a newsletter. I created a simple template that you can. try here We print our agenda’s each week. As the kids complete their tasks, I check them off. So far, this is helping me and them. I’m able to work while they do school work and I just check in on them as I need to.

Use Engaging Materials

As soon as COVID. started, we had to total switch our model. We went into a Google Classroom set up ASAP. Our teachers needed engaging phonics activities and I’ve worked hard to make sure they had that. Long A was really fun because by this point, I’d figured out how to make things moveable in Google Classroom. What a GAME CHANGER that was.

The biggest tip I wish I would have known in the beginning is tell your kids each and every time to MAKE A COPY of the file.

We are still able to use our intervention binders, too! We are just uploading the slides we need for that week and WOW! If you haven’t use an intervention binder yet, check out how helpful they’ve been to us over the years.

The teachers in our Facebook group are also sharing a ton of ideas. Come join in on the conversation.