Part 2 of 2
After ten days of jumping into online teaching and wading through the quagmire of "How to's.." and "Do's and don'ts"...I can say we have learnt a few things! Of course, we continue to learn each day.
Here are some of my thoughts on teaching remotely, also including Microsoft Teams:
- Try not to post on weekends or after school working hours.
Do you go to school on weekends and at night? - Teach everyone to use “REPLY” to reply to a post.
Otherwise you have 50 conversations as replies to one conversation at the very top. - Keep regular working hours with regards to contact and communication with students.
You will find yourself working all hours of the day and night because of the ease of accessibility. It's not a good thing! - Do not engage with students after school working hours unless absolutely necessary.
They need to know when to disconnect, and so do you. - Insist on online forum etiquette from your students.
Lack of physical interaction creates a sense of "power" behind the keyboard and students may start talking to you like do when texting their friends, I don't think this is acceptable. - PDF everything unless it must be edited by others.
Safer, faster, much more compatible. - You can protect your Files section by making it Read Only in Sharepoint.
A little bit more effort required here but worth it if you want your work protected. - Use Assignments for sending and collecting work.
Everyone or individuals can be sent tasks/assessments and you can see who has handed work back or has work outstanding. - Investigate available apps in Teams to make teaching, engagement and feedback easier.
There are SO many great apps available in Teams, check out Polly! - Videos are a useful tool for instruction and also for assessment.
Students seem to engage better with video, for lessons and for learning. - Use the Formatting tool when typing important messages or announcements in a Conversation window.
The conversation window becomes a very large message battlefield after a while, you need your messages to stand out clearly. - Get feedback from your students.
Ask them how they are doing, what are their frustrations or successes. It can help guide your online teaching style.
