Many teachers have unexpectedly gotten a taste of teaching online in the past few months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As the 2020-2021 school year approaches, many teachers are still unsure whether they will be in their classrooms with students or logging on for more virtual teaching. I am one of the lucky teachers who did not have to figure out how to change all of my lesson plans and adapt to online teaching overnight, because I have been teaching at a virtual school for a couple of years now. I admire all of the teachers who worked incredibly hard this spring to make it happen and who have been spending the summer prepping for whatever may happen this fall. Your commitment to your students amazes me as I hear what my teacher friends have accomplished, and browsed Instagram to find all of the innovative ways that teachers have reached students during these unusual circumstances. With that in mind, I wanted to share a little bit about what I have learned as a full-time virtual teacher as I enter my third year in this setting.

Working From Home

One of the strangest parts of teaching online is working from home. When I was getting my teaching degree I definitely pictured decorating my classroom, laying out cool seating arrangements, writing on the whiteboard with my terrible penmanship, and seeing dozens of teenagers everyday. I don’t do any of those things now, and I absolutely miss those little things. But here are some perks I have come to enjoy while teaching from my home-office:

• I can cook a hot meal for lunch.
• Temperature control.
• The bathroom is always clean and available.
• No commute – saving time and money!
• I can work from anywhere with internet. I have taught from the rain forest in Costa Rica, coffee shops, my patio, etc.
• My dogs are super cute office buddies.

Working from home absolutely takes some getting used to. I have fallen into the trap of waking up 2 minutes before I need to log on several times, so it takes some discipline to stay focused.

Check out my back-to-school blog post from last year to see what my usual, non-rainforest home classroom looks like: https://rosiethehistoryteacher.blog/2019/09/03/happy-first-day-of-school/

Lesson Planning

I’m not going to lie, online lesson planning took me a while to wrap my head around. It just seemed so different from all of the hands-on, interactive things I was used to doing with my students. After spending some time observing other virtual teachers at my school, I was able to find techniques that were fun and engaging, for both me and my students. Luckily I considered myself to be pretty tech savvy already, so I didn’t have a huge learning curve with using tools like Google Forms or Kahoot, but I did need to adapt things like museum exhibit projects and collaborative activities to be fully virtual.

One perk of my virtual teaching is that my daily schedule allows for a bit more flexibility/time for lesson planning than my traditional schools have. In all of the brick-and-mortar schools I have taught/student-taught/subbed in, it was very typically to have a 6 or 7 period day and have one of those class periods for planning time while spending the rest of the day teaching students. Now I typically have 2-3 hours of regular live lessons per day and the rest of the day might include 1:1s with students, small groups, IEP meetings, department/staff meetings, and planning/grading/emailing/calling time. It is nice to be able to set aside a block of time one afternoon to build a really cool lesson without having to rush, stop working on it to teach, only to finish working on it after school. Now I do all of my lesson planning during the school day. It is pretty mind-blowing.

Live Lessons

Here is an example of my schedule of live lessons from last year to give you an idea of what my day can look like:

• Monday: 2 one hour-long US History sessions, 2 thirty minute credit recovery office hours
• Tuesday: 2 one hour-long US History sessions, 1 thirty minute home room session
• Wednesday: 4 thirty minute small group remediation sessions, 1 hour-long enrichment session
• Thursday: 2 one hour long US History sessions, 2 thirty minute credit recovery office hours
• Friday: 2 one hour long US History sessions, 1 thirty minute Career/College Readiness session

Of course, every virtual school and every virtual teacher’s day will look different, this has just been my experience. (Honestly, when I learned that some teachers were supposed to teach live on Zoom for 7 straight hours per day during the pandemic, I felt sick. That is super unrealistic for both teachers and students.)

During my regular live lessons I structure things similarly to the way I did in my physical classroom. Start with a warm up, go over any announcements, jump into the day’s topic, end with reminders and an exit ticket. During the actual lesson I like to include a variety of different activities to keep students engaged. I do some lecture, students read aloud, they write on the “whiteboard,” quick check for understanding using the polling tool, breakout rooms for collaborative work, videos, etc. All throughout the class I monitor the chat box to answer questions and engage students in discussion. Not every student is comfortable getting on the microphone, so it is great to see them get involved through the chat! Some students participate a lot and are great class leaders. We have tons of fun, inside jokes, and really get to know one another through participation. Other students seem to log in and walk away.

Reaching Students Who Aren’t Engaged

This can be a challenge in brick-and-mortar classrooms just like it is in my virtual classroom. Students have so many other things going on in their lives outside of academics that can cause them to lose focus or motivation. As I mentioned, it seems like sometimes I have students who log in, I see their name in the participant list, but they never respond or interact during the class session. I always try to draw them in by greeting them warmly by name, and sometimes that does the trick! I have also had students let me know that interacting in the chat or getting on the microphone is too uncomfortable for them, and that they feel better just observing and getting the content that way. Sometimes kids are just having an off day. Other times they are truly not there.

I also have students who do not attend live lessons, for a variety of reasons. They are working asynchronously and some of them engage with me by email and are very diligent about studying and doing their coursework. For example, I had a student who was an amazing athlete and competitions took her around the world. Often being in different time zones, at matches or practice, or in the midst of travel, she was unable to attend live lessons. However, she had the benefit of watching our recordings and completing her studies on her schedule. I love this flexibility for my virtual students!

For students who don’t attend live lessons and don’t complete coursework, I have to do a little more detective work. This involves emailing, texting, and calling the student and their learning coach. Sometimes I need to reach out to their other teachers or counselor to gain more insight on students that are hard to reach.

Relationships

Building relationships with students and colleagues is definitely different in a virtual setting. When I started teaching at a virtual school, it was already the end of October so I had missed the back to school professional development. My interview was over the phone, so I didn’t meet any colleagues in person until state testing in April, which is also where I met a few of my students in person.

With the live lesson platform that we are currently using, most students don’t get on the camera or microphone a whole lot. This means that I often don’t know what my students look or sound like! It is very possible that I’ve walked by a student in the grocery store and had no idea. I’m hoping that our new platform will mean more video time for students! However, we do build relationships in class. We get to know one another and check in on what’s happening in everyone’s lives. Students often have classes with some of the same people throughout the day so they help each other and are a great source of encouragement. Building relationships virtually is different, but entirely possible!

To Conclude: Virtual Teaching is Real Teaching

Virtual Teaching Products and Resources I Love