You don’t have to be techie to engage students virtually. Tech free virtual student engagement still benefits students and is stress for the not so techie teacher. Here are some ways you can engage students without using tech. See how I am helping teachers create amazing virtual classroom. Here are a few of my personal favorites.
Have Themed Days
Come up with a fun theme for each day of the week, like bring your pet day or pajama day. You could even do themed weeks, like college(signing) week or inventors week. Older students, they could research 5 pontineta colleges they’d like to attend. Theft could share something about each college each day. On the last day the students could present something that represents the school they choose, this would be similar to signing week in high school. Younger students could participate in an inventors week students could research and discuss inventors.At the end of inventors week have students create an invention and share it with the class.
Take Advantage of Google Classroom Stream
Encourage your students to share shoutouts and pictures on the google stream.This is another place you will need to be sure to have specific rules for. Make sure you discuss digital citizenship with students so they know what is appropriate to post. You are the moderator of the stream so you can always delete anything inappropriate.
Invite a Guest
Invite someone to join you on your google meet. It could be a principal or a parent stopping by to read a book. You could reach out to local businesses or museums to present presentations to your class. You will probably need to get admin to approve visitors to your classroom meets.
Use Break Rooms
Breakout rooms in google meets are so fun and students feel mature when you let them and a team go into a breakout room to solve a problem or work on a project. The great thing is you can pop in any room at anytime.If you are using break out rooms be sure to have rules specific rules for the breakout room and
Create Hands-on Activities
These will take some preparation but they are well worth it. This is a really fun way to engage students but be sure to present the steps slowly to avoid cognitive overload. If you plan on doing this you may need to plan a few weeks ahead. Once you decide what you are making you will need to contact the parents so they can make sure they have the items on hand. For example if you’d like your student to create a Lapbooks, they may need scissors, paper, glue, and construction paper.
Play Games
Guess the covered picture is a fun game to play during your virtual class. Print off a picture of something the students like,maybe minecraft or FNAF. Then cover the picture with numbered sticky notes. Take off a sticky note throughout the lesson until the picture is revealed.Scavenger hunts are the best! Play scavenger hunts to get students involved and pumped for class.You can find fun scavenger hunts all over the internet.
Silly Rewards
This goes back to when I was teaching students in China. One of the things my students loved were silly rewards. Silly rewards can be as simple as a sticker in your face every time students get an answer right. One teacher used a stamper and stamped her face every time the student got the answer right. I don’t suggest this but the kids thought it was hilarious!
These are just a few ways you can engage students without using tech. Have themed days, take advantage of your google classroom stream, invite a guest, explore breakoutroom, creat hands on activities, play games and and give silly rewards.
