Mel's Teaching Corner

What Can  Vocaroo  Be Used For?   Vocaroo ( https://vocaroo.com/ ) is a tool that can be used to create podcasts. To begin, a podcast is a digital audio file that can be sent to your audience. So, why do you want to consider using podcasting for instruction? To begin, you are very busy. Imagine if you can reduce the number of emails you need to send, or imagine if you can reduce the number of times you need to repeat instructions. A podcast can be used to give instructions about an assignment, or a process that you want the learners to know about. All you need to do is copy the link into your learning management system, or in the chat box of your virtual classroom. Your learners will have the instructions at their fingertips that they can pause, rewind and replay as needed. This frees you up to focus on areas of your instruction that can really help students, such as teaching a student how to do something. Next, you can use podcasting to send announcements to yo...

Interacting with your students in a virtual class can be difficult if you do not have the right tools. In fact, this is a common complaint I see among teachers. For example, Zoom is a great resource to meet with students, but you can only share a screen, use the polling tool, and use the chat. The Zoom resources are meant for webinars not teaching a class. Also, there are resources, such as Blackboard Collaborate, which allow you to use whiteboard tools, polling tools, chat, app sharing, etc..., but great options like this cost money. What do you do when you want to interact with your students for free? Also, how do you interact with your students using platforms, such as Zoom? One option that you could use is  https://www.whiteboard.chat/ . In this platform, you have access to the following: Polling Tools: You can ask students practice questions. This allows you quickly check how students are doing with the material. Do you need to spend more time on a certain topic before moving ...

Do you ever have an idea that you want to implement as a simulation in your class, but you can't find what you want online? If this is the case, you can create your own "Simple Simulations" for any subject. You could create a simulation for solving math problems, you could create a story with moving parts, you could create a virtual lab, etc... The options are endless. For example, check out the Chemistry videos below to see what can be done. To be able to create your own simulations, you will need to start with a plan.  What do you want on each slide? What text will go on each slide? Do you want a moving part on each slide? Will there be any links on each slide? Once your game plan is developed, you will need to create GIF's for each moving component you will want in your simulation. If you are unfamiliar with how to create a GIF, you will want to check out the video below. Once you have your GIF's created, you will need to add your GIF's to the correct slide...

What should you use for your class? Should you choose Zoom, Microsoft Teams and/or Google Meet? To begin this conversation, you first need to understand how to use these tools. Check out the following videos: How to use Microsoft Teams How to use Google Meet How to use Zoom Now that you know a little bit more about these three platforms, how do you choose? To begin, Zoom is great for meetings with your staff, or a meeting with students, but it is not as interactive as Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. How do you choose between Google Meet and Microsoft Teams? To answer this question, you need to ask yourself the following two questions: Do I use Microsoft or Google for creating my materials? Does my school have a preference? Overall, if your school uses Microsoft and you create most of your materials using Microsoft, choose Microsoft Teams. If your school uses Google and you create most of your materials using Google, choose Google. Yes there is a price tag depending on what you are loo...

I started Twitter back in 2015 because my boss told me I needed to join a Twitter chat. Shortly after, I stopped using Twitter because I had so many things on my plate. I was at a new school, the state standards for science just changed, I needed to get to know my students, I needed to get to know my colleagues, and I needed to develop my curriculum. Needless to say, I had a lot going on, and I didn't need Twitter on my plate. Although this was the case 5 years ago, I have recently started using Twitter again, and I love it now. Through using Twitter, I have found some awesome resources and ideas for my class. Twitter offers a world of great ideas if you have the time to find information that is useful for you. So... Is it worth the time? Yes and No. Twitter can be a great tool for you to use to find resources and ideas, but you need to make sure to follow the right people. You will want to choose people that post quality material, such as @melshep34, @MrsParkShine, @GTeacherPodcas...

When teaching online, you will have students that will not show up, who will show up to a live class, but not participate and/or who will not do school work. It will happen, but there are ways to draw them in. Check out the following video for ideas of how to contact your students: There are several ways that you can contact your students, but what will the situation look like when you reach out to the student and/or parents? How will the call home go? Scenario 1: There is no answer, so you will leave a message. Then you will call again, send texts, and email the student and guardians, but you will have no luck. Make sure to document ALL of your attempts. After 5 attempts (in 2 weeks), get the administration involved. It may become a truancy problem that the administration needs to be aware of. Scenario 2: The parent will answer (or call back). They will insist that their son or daughter is online all day doing work. They have seen it. What now? Ask the student the following: "Are...

Google Sheets has a variety of uses, but I love using Google Sheets for data. When you are collecting data on students, you can keep a variety of information in Google Sheets. Also, this data can be shared with the administration and/or other teachers. For example, imagine having a school wide Google Sheet for every student at the school. You could use Google Sheets to report plagiarism issues (See "School Plagiarism Policy" below). If a student is plagiarizing in one class, they are probably plagiarizing in another class as well. You could share a Google Sheet with every teacher, so each attempt of plagiarism is accounted for and can be followed-up with the schools plagiarism policy. note the number of times you attempt to call a student and/or guardian and the outcome of each attempt. Also, if six teachers call 2 times a week, the family may get very annoyed, but, if you could look at a Google Sheet to see if any other teacher has tried to contact that student, you could av...

When teaching virtually, it is important to find ways to connect with your students. Music is a great way to build connections. Students love to listen to music, and they always have an opinion about a song. When teaching virtually, you can play music at the beginning of the class while students are logging into your class. For example, if their last class ended at 10:30 AM and your class begins at 10:35 AM, you could play music for those five minutes. When the music goes off, it means class has started. During this time, students will talk about the songs, and you can engage them in a conversation. Also, this is a great mind break for students between classes, and students will log in early to engage in the music and conversation.  When choosing the music you will play, it is important to find kid friendly music. For example, you don't want swearing in the music because you are teaching at a school. Kid friendly music is key. You can find kid friendly music on YouTube and/or Pando...

There is an ongoing discussion about how face to face teaching is the only way to teach, but it is not true. When you go to school to become a teacher, you learn that every student is different and students learn differently. Some students need hands on activities, others learn better with an auditory approach, and some need to see pictures, graphs and data tables. Students are different, and they learn differently. That is OK. So...how does this relate to face to face schools or online schools? Well, what works best for one student may not work best for a different student. I have taught face to face, synchronously (online), and asynchronously (online). Each type of teaching/learning has its pros and cons. Here are some pros and cons to each type: Face to Face Teaching/Learning: You get to see each other in person, and you can read a students body language which can help drastically when determining what the student needs. Also, you get that in person connection, but there are cons as...

Do you ever want students to get immediate feedback as to whether an answer is right or wrong? You can use Google Sheets to do this for number and short answer questions. Example 1: In this example, if a student gets the term correct, the cell will turn green, but, if the student gets the term wrong, the cell will turn red. The student knows they need to go back and re-look at the terms and definitions if the cell turns red. Example 2: This shows a students work for a math problem. If a student gets the work correct, the cell will turn green, but, if the student does not have the correct information in the cell, the cell will stay red. How Do You Set This Up? Watch the video below to see how you can use conditional formatting in Google Sheets to set this up. Quick feedback can really help guide your students regarding right and wrong answers. You may not be able to give detailed feedback in Google Sheets, but the students will know right away what is wrong and what is right, and they ...

Have you ever considered using student moderators in your virtual classroom? If no, you may want to reconsider. Student moderators can be used for a variety of reasons: You see a student not participating in class. You could ask that student to help you identify questions in the chat box to help you in class. By giving students a little responsibility, you will see them rise to the occasion, and they will be more focused in class. Also, this will help with the students mastery of the material because they will be actively participating in class. You have students that are excelling in your class, but they are getting board. If this is the case, you could ask them to run a breakout room in your virtual class. They can share their screen, talk to other students, teach a portion of a class, run a small group session in a breakout room, etc... This will help your high fliers pay attention in class because they will be busy helping students. Also, this will help your high fliers identif...

Have you ever considered giving students the opportunity to reflect on what they have accomplished? Giving students time, in class, to see what they need to do and what they have accomplished so far can help your students. How does this work? Create a Google Form for your students to complete. Example Google Forms Grade Check Ketchup Day After you have the Google Form created, make sure to send it out to your students. Your students will check their grades, see what they have completed, see what they need to do, see if they can retake anything, etc... This truly gives students the opportunity to see where they are at in your class. After your students complete the Google Form, you can look over the Google Form results. These results can be a starting off point for you when you talk to your students. You could set-up five minute appointments for students each week. For example, instead of hosting class on Fridays, you could give students work time which is very helpful when teaching onl...

Teaching online for the first time can be difficult. There are so many bells and whistles that could be used to enhance your class. Also, people are constantly telling you that a specific tool is a lifesaver, so you feel like you need to use that tool. That is not the case. When teaching online for the first time, you should take it one step at a time. If you try to do it all, you will burn out. Think of it this way. When you taught face to face for the first time, did you teach your class, have the perfect lessons, did you volunteer to coach and be apart of a couple of clubs? My guess is NO. The same goes with teaching online. You don't need to do everything in the first year. Check out the video for some advice.

When thinking about the way things were done in schools in the past, I think about this video where the teacher is moving through the material, and hoping the students fill in the blank during his lecture. The students are disengaged and not interested in the course. Even if you were an auditory learner, this would be a difficult class to sit through. Lectures are okay to use within the classroom, and they are quite useful, but not everyone learns the same way. There are times to give short lectures, but you will want to give examples, provide videos, have practice, etc… As a teacher, you should teach multiple students, not just one student. As educators, we need to provide multiple formats. Students can learn through visual learning (seeing and reading),  auditory learning (listening and speaking), and kinesthetic learning (touching and doing). Because students learn differently, we need to provide those materials to better help them. For example, when reviewing for a test, y...