Virtual teaching is here to stay. Covid has rewritten the landscape of education. Most schools are skipping snow days and replacing them with virtual days. Some school districts are adding regular virtual days to their school calendar. All over the country schools are now setting up permanent e-learning academies that coincide with brick and mortar schools. Virtual teaching is also creating new opportunities for teachers. in order to be ready for these new opportunities we need to flex our virtual teaching muscles. These are a few tips on how you can flex your muscles now, so when those virtual opportunities come around you’ll be ready. Learn all my virtual teaching gems in my course.
Prep Your Space for Virtual Teaching
This is the first thing you need to do. There are some simple things you can do to prepare your space for virtual learning. Be sure to keep the supplies you need close at hand. Make sure you have adequate lighting. Ensure that you are at eye level with your students. These tiny things make a huge difference.
Understand How Students Learn Virtually
This is probably the most important thing teachers need to know about teaching online. What research has taught us is that learning online is not the same as learning in person. Using the same processes teachers use in a brick and mortar classroom to teach virtually simply don’t work. This can cause students to experience extreme cognitive overload. Not only do we need to keep students engaged but virtual teachers must understand how they learn. In my course, Better Virtual Classrooms I teach how students learn virtually and what steps virtual teachers need to make to ensure virtual success. Showing up and teaching like normal will only waste precious teaching time.
Learn to use Technology Fluently
Practice makes permanent. You will need to practice your tech skills a lot. Just as we teach our students their alphabet and math facts we need to practice our tech skills on a regular basis. You don’t want to be in your virtual class trying to figure out the tech as you teach your class. This is frustrating for you and can also cause loss of student engagement in class. Being able to use technology fluently will ensure you can present a seamless virtual class.
Evaluate your Technology
Figure out which pieces of technology would most benefit your students. Think about what you are going to teach and figure out what technology pieces are best for the job. Instead of teaching students how to use a million pieces of technology, focus on a few that can accomplish multiple things. For Example, teach students to use Microsoft Word or Google Doc they don’t need to learn to use both. These programs basically do the same job. Teaching too many pieces of technology results in cognitive overload.
These are a few ways you can flex your virtual muscles. This can help you become a better virtual teacher or prep you for virtual teaching jobs that can put more coins in your pocket. In my course, Better Virtual Classrooms I teach you all this but soo much more!! Join our the waitlist here so you don’t want miss out on these extra coins!
