BONUS EPISODE: 5 Things to KEEP Doing During Distance Learning

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Hey, teachers. If you have a classroom and a commute, you're in the right place. I'm your host. Rachel and I want to ride along with you each week on your ride into school. This podcast is the place for busy teachers toe want actionable tips, simple strategies and just want to enjoy their job more. Let's go. Hello and welcome to the classroom Commute podcast. I'm Rachel, your host, and these days are commute might be just going from our bedrooms to our computer screens. But I am still here for, and I'm glad that you are here for it as well. Last week on the podcast, I gave some simple tips for making distance, learning simple. And I want to make sure if you did not catch that episode that you head back because I put a ton of things there for you in the episode, including some video tutorials to help you out with some technology issues that I know a lot of you are struggling with right now, and I've received tons of emails of people saying how helpful those were. So if you have not checked those out, be sure to I also have links to some freebies that I put in our members resource library, that air specific four distance learning. And if you are not a member, you can join for free at classroom nook dot com, florid slash podcast forward slash 16 and I'll get you all signed up because I've got tons of things to share with you. And I think they'll just really make it easy for you as we're doing this distance learning thing now as we think about where we are now in the school year with distance learning. Ah, lot of the focus is on the things that we can't do with our students. We can't physically be them, be with them in our classrooms. And so I think the tendency is to focus on those things that we can't dio. And the reality is things definitely do look and feel different. And certainly the way we are teaching our students has most definitely changed. And you might be feeling disappointed that this is the way that your school year is ending and your perhaps even grieving that loss, and that's okay. But as stressful as this time is for us, our students have also been thrown into this new normal and could be feeling overwhelmed as well. So it's important for us to provide as many normal sees as possible for them. So despite all the things that we can't dio, I want to highlight five things that you need to keep doing for the sake of keeping things as normal as possible for our students. So let's dive right in the first thing that you need to keep doing with your students. Despite distance learning is small groups, just as you would in the classroom. Create a rotation schedule that will allow you to rotate through small groups of students, and these small groups could be used for a variety of things. Perhaps you want to keep your guided reading or math groups going and use these small groups for instructional time. Maybe you just want to use it for a check in time where students can share things that they're doing at home or just a time to chit chat with their other classmates. Maybe you're going to teach other skills grammar, spelling all those things that you would normally do many lessons for. Maybe you could do them in small groups that air Taylor to the students that are in that group. For whatever reason, you would normally meet with the students in small groups. You can continue them using things like Zoom and Google Meets or the other platforms that you may be using to meet live with your students. But I think it's important that we still strive to meet with small groups and provide that individual or small group instruction that we would in the classroom. And really, if we're using something like Zoom, it really wouldn't be a whole lot different than if you were meeting with them around your small group table. And these small groups don't have toe last for very long, just like they may only last for 20 to 25 minutes, or even shorter in your classroom. That's what you can do on Zoom or Google meets or other platforms. The second thing that you should continue doing during distance learning is read aloud. This is something that's simple, that you can keep going and keep it as part of your learning routine with your students. The's could be pre recorded, read aloud or even live on Facebook or zoom. Students still need to hear that modeling of good reading, and they may not be getting it at home, as parents are also trying to work from home. So still, keep those read aloud is going, and they could be for instructional purposes. Maybe you're going to use a read aloud for something that they're learning in their distance learning activities. Or it could just be for entertainment purposes like you might read a chapter book after they come back from lunch in the classroom. These could be ongoing chapter books or even picture books, whatever you may have on hand at home. But keep your read aloud still regular, whether it's pre recorded or live on Facebook or something like Zoom. The third thing that you need to continue doing is to provide feedback for your students. Think about how often you provide feedback on a daily basis multiple times to your students when you're in the classroom. That still needs to continue, especially now, because students don't have that one on one contact with you on a daily basis. So you need to provide feedback whether that's through your small group, zoom calls, or maybe you send emails out or even put comments in Google Classroom There's a feature there when you go to review an activity that they have submitted in Google classroom. You could put a comment there so that you can tell them if they're on the right track or if that they need to re look at something. You can even make phone calls to talk to students and provide feedback in that way. And it could be instructional feedback or could just be a way to check in and say hello and provide feedback in that way. The fourth thing that you should keep doing during distance learning is to keep a learning schedule just like you would in the classroom. We have our schedules for our students. We need to provide students with a simple schedule that they can keep at home. For example, Souness maybe can come to expect that on Monday morning you will have posted a math video in Google Classroom that they need to watch and then do an activity with or on Tuesday they will always have some sort of writing assignment for the writing piece that they're working on or Wednesday's you do read aloud at 10 a.m. On Facebook live Thursdays. You meet with small groups for 20 minutes, and they know the time on Zoom that they need to pop on and meet with their small group. Keep that learning schedule going. This is especially helpful for students who may have parents at home that are working, and they're keeping a schedule so the students can also keep their own schedule as well. And the final thing that you should still keep doing during distance learning is to keep celebrating student successes and winds. If you have a fun way that you celebrated successes in the classroom, carry that into your home teaching as well. Whether you do it over Zoom or just individually to students via email or phone call, you maybe every Friday or even more often features something great that a student did that week. Send notes home to students either virtually or snail mail and let them know that they are doing a great job. Gives shout outs as often as possible, especially now, because students need to hear that they are doing great. So let's review the five things that you should keep doing during distance learning. The 1st 1 is to keep doing your small groups. You can meet through Zoom or Google meats and keep meeting with five or six students. Or however you would do it in the classroom every week so that students have that individual instruction with you. Keep doing your read allows whether it's pre recorded or live on Facebook or zoom. Keep providing feedback to your students and let them know how they're doing on what they're completing at home. Keep a learning schedules that students know and come to expect certain things throughout the week and, most importantly, keep celebrating your students successes and winds, especially in this time so that they feel that sense of normalcy as we complete out the school year in this a normal way. And lastly, before I let you go today, if you have not headed over to the Members Resource Library to grab those video tutorials as well as all of the other free resource, is that air specifically four distance learning. Make sure you do that. You can go to classroom nook dot com for it slash podcast forward slash 16 and if you're not a member, you will be able to go ahead and sign up right there and grab all those freebies that I know that teachers are saying are very helpful. And I hope that they will be helpful for you as well. All right, guys, have a great week, and I will be back next week with another episode of the classic commute podcast. Take care.