Adjusting to remote learning has been difficult for teachers and their students. However, when it is done right, a cloud-based classroom can be just as effective a learning environment as a regular classroom. Below are 4 tips for keeping your students on the right path while they’re learning remotely.
Change Your Planning Strategy
Making the transition to remote teaching or even a hybrid model with both remote and in-person teaching is not as simple as just doing what you normally do and sharing it remotely. Remember that your students no longer have the benefit of the classroom environment and many are finding the adjustment difficult.
When you are planning your lessons, remember to take into account your students’ circumstances. For example, many teachers are using this opportunity to teach their students about independent research and study. You might want to dedicate some of your teaching time to teaching students how they can find the information that they need to complete work on their own without relying on you or their parents to find it for them.
Adapt Your Communications Strategy Accordingly
Clear communication with students is always important for teachers, but it is even more important now that they often aren’t even in the same room. It is especially important that your written communications with students are clear. It’s easy to speak clearly when you are talking with student’s live and they can ask clarifying questions. But when you are setting assignments or passing along information via text, you need to make sure that any potential questions are answered.
Use the Right Platform
There are several tools and platforms that teachers can use to teach their students remotely. In most cases, your school will make this decision for you. However, if you are in a position to make the decision yourself, or you have some input in your school’s decision, this is something you should think about very carefully.
Lots of teachers have settled on Zoom because that’s what everyone else is using. But there are much better choices out there. There was blended learning software before the Covid-19 pandemic, but blended learning has gone from being a small niche to a standard approach. Now, you can find blended learning software online with ease. Classroom.cloud is an excellent example of the kind of classroom management platform that you want to use. Not only does it come with all the features you need to teach effectively, but it also integrates with Google Classroom and offers multi-platform support.
Keep Your Students Motivated
One of the biggest challenges for students right now is staying motivated. Not only are they missing out on the encouragement they normally get in the classroom from their teacher, but they are also missing out on break times with their friends. Not only this, but children no longer have the clear delineation between their home and their school; the school has come into the home.
Keeping your students motivated and letting them know when they are doing a good job is more important now than ever before. As long as you approach it in the right way, there’s no reason why you can’t teach remotely just as effectively as you would in person. Stick to the points outlined above and you and your students can thrive.