Remote teaching – how to keep learners' attention Do you want to communicate effectively during an online lesson? The British Council's Graham Stanley shares advice from his book Remote Teaching. Make eye contact by looking at the camera lens Look directly into the camera lens rather than at the screen. Learners will feel you are looking them in the eye. This is most important if you use an external camera that is plugged into your computer, and especially if the camera is some distance away from the screen. If you have a fixed webcam on a laptop, the camera is just above the screen, so it will be less noticeable if you look at the screen rather than the lens. Check your screen presence Test the camera to make sure you are not showing half your head or facing the camera at an angle that is too low or too high. Face a window or other light source, rather than having the light behind you. Don’t just be a talking head Stand up or move closer to the camera, when appropriate. Use gestures and facial expressions Think about your posture.
This YouTube Channel Has Celebrities That Read Aloud to Kids and I Love It One of the greatest things to come out of us being at home this week has to be seeing people band together to finds ways to keep us and our kids entertained. My favorite thing that I have seen this week is celebrities reading aloud to kids on YouTube, entertaining us on Instagram, posting fun stories on Facebook. StorylineOnline is a YouTube channel where celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Chrissy Metz, Kristen Bell, Wanda Sykes, Sarah Silverman and many more read stories that your children will love. Each video also has moving illustrations from the book to keep your children even more entertained. Kristen Bell reads Quackenstein Hatches a Family written by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and illustrated by Brian T. Jones Oprah Winfrey reads The Hula-Hoopin’ Queen written by Thelma Lynne Godin and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton Rami Malek reads The Empty Pot written and illustrated by Demi Sarah Silverman reads A Tale of Two Beasts written and illustrated by Fiona Roberton Sparkle Stories App
Polling for Meetings Overview The polling feature for meetings allows you to create single choice or multiple choice polling questions for your meetings. You will be able to launch the poll during your meeting and gather the responses from your attendees. You also have the ability to download a report of polling after the meeting. This article covers: Prerequisites Host user type must be LicensedWindows Desktop Client Version 3.5.63382.0829 or higherMac Desktop Client Version 3.5.63439.0829 or higherLinux Desktop Client version 2.0.70790.1031 or higherThe meeting must be either a scheduled meeting, or an instant meeting using your Personal Meeting ID Users on the iOS or Android mobile app can participant in polling, but hosts need to be using the desktop client to manage polling. Note: Only the original meeting host can edit or add polls during a meeting. Enabling Polling For all members of your organization To enable the polling feature for all members of your organization: For members of a group Creating a Poll
Free Distance Learning Plans for K–2 Students and Their Families Help kick-start learning at home with these easy-to-use, customizable packets. Many teachers tell us they're new to remote instruction, but it's our K–2 teachers who are coming to us urgently with the following question: How do I turn my classroom into a distance learning environment when students have little or no experience using digital tools independently? The answer isn't a simple one. To help, we've developed three new fun and friendly packets for grades K–2. 1. 2. 3. 4. We know these guides are no replacement for a real-world back-to-school night, but we hope they can help you establish a healthy, positive culture of online learning with your K–2 students and their families. Kindergarten Packet 1st Grade Packet 2nd Grade Packet Article Top Tools by Grade and Subject for Learning During School Closures Hand-picked tools for every scenario, all well-suited for use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moving Your Classes Online #1 | World Of Better Learning Published 13 March 2020 To help support all teachers who now have to teach from home due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we have created a series of blog posts with expert advice on how to move your classes online. To begin, here’s a message from Eric Baber, Director of Professional Learning and Development, introducing the blog series. Moving your classes online: getting started It can be a daunting experience when you’re suddenly required to move all your face-to-face classes online with little or no advance notice, as has been happening to a number of teachers in various places around the world over the last month and more. Opening online channels of communication The first thing you need to do is think about what might be the most efficient way to contact your students. What is the best way to communicate with students? It’s important to emphasise that there is no one right answer to this question. 1. (Email? It’s good to start with what you’ve already got and build on that. 2. 1. (Email?
Text Features Worksheets: Free Printable Scavenger Hunt Activity Captions. Diagrams. Fact boxes. Informational texts have the potential to teach readers so much—but many kids don’t pay attention to the special features found in them or fully understand how to use them. Help your students practice nonfiction reading with a scavenger hunt activity that uses our printable, text features worksheets and free samples of Explorer, a National Geographic magazine for students in grades K through 5/6 that builds vocabulary, reading skills, and science knowledge. 1. Distribute the informational text features worksheets to your students. Grade K: Young Explorer Scavenger Hunt Printable: Scout Edition (Kindergarten) Grade 1: Young Explorer Scavenger Hunt Printable: Voyager Edition (1st Grade) Grade 2: Explorer Scavenger Hunt Printable: Pioneer Edition (2nd Grade) Grade 3: Explorer Scavenger Hunt Printable: Trailblazer Edition (3rd Grade) Grade 4: Explorer Scavenger Hunt Printable: Pathfinder Edition (4th Grade) 2. Young Explorer: Scout (Kindergarten) 3. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1.
Online Teaching Part 2: Practical Tips for English Language Lessons | OUP Getting started When it comes to planning your first lesson remember ‘less is more.’ Since it’s likely to be the first online lesson for you and your students, things will probably take longer than you think. As good as online teaching is at bringing people together, there are often little niggly issues, but don’t panic as this is quite normal. For example, some can’t easily connect to the room; students can’t hear you and so on. If it is the very first lesson, then dedicate most of it to getting to grips with the platform. Online teaching activities to include As your students are likely to have a coursebook, don’t be afraid to use it. Teaching grammar or vocabulary can be done using the coursebook, whiteboard or a PowerPoint. Managing student feedback One of the trickier things is checking answers or doing feedback. If you’re going to do pair work or group work then put the students in breakout rooms. Managing expectations for your first online class Like this: Like Loading...
How to Find Great Learning Resources for Your Students During School Closures From using video to project-based learning, get recommendations on the best tools for virtual learning. Schools across the United States and the world are closing due to the coronavirus pandemic and the urgent need for social distancing. This leaves teachers and schools scrambling to figure out how to keep kids learning at home during this time. Whether you're used to teaching with tech or not, transitioning to virtual learning is a big undertaking. So many variables will determine your specific needs -- from your students' ages and access to technology, to the goals and expectations your school district has outlined for you. While you're ultimately going to know which tools are best for you and your students, we're here to provide inspiration and support. Getting Ready for Virtual Learning Communicating with Families Core Subject Resources Using Video Collaboration and Discussion Student-Led and Interest-Based Learning Free Resources
Ideas for adapting group lessons to working on Zoom As has happened in much of Europe, Poland has now closed schools, universities and other places where people might gather in the hope of reducing the spread of coronavirus. Our school had its last normal lessons on Wednesday, with Thursday and Friday dedicated to training our teachers how to use Zoom. We start teaching on Monday 16th, so my total experience with Zoom so far has been in the training process. However, I wanted to share what we’ve done and some of the ideas we’ve had for our adapting our standard EFL face-to-face lessons, in the hope that others will be able to build on this. Useful links International House World arranged a live session run by Shaun Wilden on Tuesday 10th, in which he introduced us to Zoom. I’d also recommend Ceri Jones’s posts on the Cambridge University Press blog: Other useful posts: There’s a very active hashtag on Twitter called #coronavirusteaching, which you can view without having a Twitter account. I posted this tweet: Technical arrangements Chat box