Teacher Development: Starter Kit for Teaching Online

Imagine a work day spent at home in your slippers, teaching students without the headaches of monitoring who's chewing gum, who showed up late, or who's sending text messages in the back row. We've got to confess it sounds dreamy, if a bit far removed from the altruistic drive that probably got you into teaching in the first place. (Is that so wrong?) But shelve the guilt -- online teaching also serves much higher causes. If you're interested in taking your teaching skills online, there are several ways to go. No matter which path appeals to you, below you'll find some tips on how to get started as an online educator and what challenges to expect. Back to Top Steps in Your Virtual Quest First things first: Take an online class. When you do this, however, make sure you're getting a quality experience. Then follow up with some research. Teaching Entirely Online If you want to teach classes that are completely online, here's your next step. Be prepared for challenges. Professional Development

Group Work Strategies to Ensure Students Pull Their Weight The idea for sharing this post came from a session I recently conducted at the annual teaching conference organized by my university. A pedagogical conundrum was raised by a colleague whose enthusiasm and question stayed with me and inspired me to write this post. The question posed by this colleague is relevant to all instructors who have ever used group work to assess their students: How should one deal with the issues that arise when members of a group are not picking up their share of the responsibilities during a group work project? The benefits of group work are well recognized (e.g., as are the reasons students don’t like working in groups (Taylor, 2011). We have all had groups that operated magically, when group members brought out each other’s strengths and helped each member shine; but we have also had groups that failed miserably when members did not get along or did not pull equal weight in completing a group project. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Huang, L. Huang, L.

edutopia A simple visual accompanied by a short, succinct prompt. Not every math standard boils down to such a visual though, so often I use mathematical models, patterns, or matching exercises to catch kids’ attention. The idea of the hook is to allow students to investigate the concepts within the daily lesson in a straightforward manner through a low-floor, high-ceiling problem that generates conversation. Sometimes there is no visual component. For example, I gave my students this series of equations: This hook invites students to investigate properties of powers. In the example above, you could ask students to write a fourth example of the rule, write the rule in their own words, create an algebraic rule for the property, or define negative exponents. To Struggle Is Good When a hook hits the right level of challenge for your students, it lands with a thud. And sometimes that’s it. In the time that students work on a hook, I have the opportunity to gather terrific formative assessment.