Education, as we know it, has changed in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Children still need to learn, young adults, need to continue their further education and so do adults too. A sudden change in how we educate has sprung creativity in abundance thanks to dedicated educators who have gone above and beyond when it comes to helping those they teach to learn.
Despite the upheaval, people seem to be forging a new way to learn. As an educator, being able to give your students the learning experience they deserve in the face of adversity is something you should be striving for. Whether you are a teacher in a mainstream school, a private tutor or you run a home education programme from your home.
So how can you help get the most out of distance, in school or at home learning?
Monitoring Students
This is always paramount no matter the setting or situation. If you aren’t keeping track of your students’ progress, how can you know for sure what they are learning or if they are hitting the targets they need to for their age group or syllabus? A classroom management & distance learning solution can help you assist and monitor students in a new way. Assist with problems and monitor for any issues in and outside of the classroom and know exactly what is going on in the school environment.
Encourage Participation
FOMO (fear of missing out) can be a great motivator for some students. Letting them know how others are doing and what progress people are making can be an incentive for others to get on top of their workload so as not to be left behind.
Set guidelines clearly so students know exactly where and when they need to show up and what you expect from them during this time. Procrastination is your enemy here and we all know children of every age can be prone to putting it off and leaving everything until the last minute.
Keep it Simple
It can be tempting to have your students bouncing around between learning platforms to get the best and most comprehensive learning experience they can outside of the classroom. For many students, this can be unsettling and the familiarity of logging in to one place when not in the classroom to get the work, is much easier.
Keep any instructions simple. Have everything laid out for them in simple, easy to follow terms so they don’t become confused if they can’t quite follow what you are asking of them.
Create Touchpoints
Everyone can become disillusioned when not seeing people face to face. You may talk to them via your online classes or behind a screen in the classroom but those little moments of the day that you possibly took for granted before COVID-19 will be missed even if people don’t know they are missing them.
Interact with your students via mail, email, calls or texts individually. The thought that they know you care and are interested in how they are coping with this new world will mean more to them than they will probably say.