This is the fourth in a series of blogposts about remote teaching. As I've said in my previous posts I am by no means an expert in any of this. Although I'm fairly confident with technology, this has all been a major learning curve for me, but I'm happy to share what I've learnt in the hope that someone might find it useful. In this post I'm focusing on some of my top tips for teaching a live lesson via Microsoft Teams. 1. Display a 'holding slide' at the start of each lesson (see example above).
I've seen lots of fantastic examples of these on Twitter lately and I created mine using Canva (free for educators). It only took a couple of minutes to make, as I just used one of the many free templates on Canva. I include my expectations, any reminders (e.g. vocabulary tests or Seneca deadlines), as well as a little activity they can do while they’re waiting for everyone to join. At our school we've just started tracking attendance to the live lessons, so I display the slide at the start of each lesson as I'm letting students in from the lobby and doing the register. 2. Don't forget to press record. I record every lesson so that students can re-watch it later if there’s something they didn’t understand, or if they missed a lesson. 3. If you want students to send you their work, set a task on 'Assignments' I'll write another blog about this in more detail later on, but it's been an absolute game changer for me. Gone are the days of receiving 30 emails from a class of 30 students, having to download 30 attachments that I would then mark and email back to each student with their feedback. Assignments give you the option to set students a task with a deadline and to upload a document (e.g. a worksheet) for the students to work on. Each student gets their own editable copy to work on. They can then share this with you when they've finished. You can mark it in 'Assignments' and send it back to them. I really like having it all in one place and only wish I'd started using it sooner! 4. Sharing links If you want to send students to other websites (e.g. Learning Apps, Flippity) copy the link into the meeting chat for students to access it easily. I also convert links to a QR code and display this on the PowerPoint slide. 5. Typing... Annoyingly with Teams you can't see if a student is typing, therefore you don't know whether anyone is typing an answer to that question you've just asked. Get them to click the 'hand up' icon or quickly type "typing..." into the chat. 6. Progress One thing I've found difficult about remote teaching is not knowing how quickly students are working through each task. One idea shared on Twitter by Caitríona Egan and Caroline Heaney was to type a comment into the chat for students to react to when they've finished. E.G. "Give this message a thumbs up when you've completed starter activity". 7. GIFs / Emojis Make use of the GIFs and emojis by asking students to let you know in the chat how they're feeling about a certain topic and how easy they're finding the content. 8. Gauging understanding One way to gauge students' understanding is to ask a multiple choice question then write A B C and D in the chat. Students select their answer by giving it a thumbs up. You can have the questions prepared ready on a PowerPoint slide. One idea from Lindsay Skinner is to cold call by asking all students to type their answer in ready, then if you call their name they press enter. 9. No googling Another tip I saw shared on Twitter was to share an image of a text that you want them to translate. They'll be less likely to head straight to Google Translate if they have to type the paragraph out themselves instead of simply copying and pasting it. I'll be posting another blog soon, about a variety of websites that you can use alongside Teams, so keep your eyes peeled for that. As always, let me know how you're getting on in the comments below or on social media. If you find my posts and resources useful please consider contributing to my cuppa fund. Dannielle x
3 Comments
Anne Laurent
24/1/2021 12:21:06
Great tips easy to implement.
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15/3/2022 00:53:17
I like what you said about downloading certain attachments to aid with the main coursework. It seems that the teaching landscape is shifting from in-class to virtual. Hopefully, all teachers are getting training for this new platform.
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AuthorYorkshire lass living down South || Part-time teacher of MFL || Proud wife, and mummy of the best boys || Sharing MFL teaching ideas and resources || Creator of @morganmfl || Author of 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding MFL Lessons. Archives
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