Millions of students are resuming their studies in traditional classroom settings. Teachers, parents, and students alike can breathe a sigh of relief from the return to physical classrooms. Although recent reports have shown some students benefiting from remote learning, it’s important to note that this isn’t the case for all students.
Students who are enrolled in class and those who are not must be treated equally by teachers. It’s reasonable to assume that you’re an expert at teaching remotely after having done so during the height of the epidemic. To ensure that students succeed in a remote learning environment, there are still a few key steps you need to take
Advocacy and Easy Access
Remote learning is preferred by some students and their families, particularly for reasons of health and safety. However, many others have difficulty with technical issues, motivation, and outside distractions.
Programs like the Emergency Broadband Benefit programme and PCs for People are helping teachers deal with these common issues, but more resources are being made available to them. A successful school year is still possible if students have access to adequate resources and technology.
Laptops and tablets, among other necessities, should already be available in your school or district, if not. Many other aspects of accessibility may have been overlooked, however.
Pupils with Special Considerations
During the pandemic, some students may have fallen through the cracks because they needed extra help.
A recent study by accessibility non-profit Understood found that 72 percent of parents became aware of their child’s learning differences while remote learning. In the same study, 63% of parents with a child who thinks differently say their child is a year behind and will never catch up. This is shocking news, and it underscores the necessity of providing easy access to resources for students who require them.
Assistance with Expenses
For families, remote learning can have a significant impact. For parents, taking time off work and footing the bill for laptops and other learning materials is often a requirement of remote learning programmes.
Your district, on the other hand, most likely offers some form of financial assistance to those in need. When it comes to highlighting these resources, it is more important than ever that you do so.
Some of your district’s financial support initiatives may be highlighted by hosting a few family nights, which can improve family engagement and raise awareness of these programmes.
Create an Attractive Setting
You can better control the physical space and create a positive learning environment if you’re teaching in classrooms. However, it is difficult to replicate the same learning environment when teaching remotely.
Before the semester starts, part of your communication with families should highlight the necessity of a positive learning environment. Student concentration and engagement will improve if lighting, seating and other aspects of the homeschool environment are properly maintained.
A Consistent Flow of Information
Teachers who are good at providing useful feedback are exceptional. However, it can be difficult to maintain an effective feedback loop when students are being taught remotely. They may receive less attention than they need and struggle to learn new information as a result of this practise.
Providing students with Zoom office hours or breakout groups can improve the quality of remote feedback. Additionally, according to Dr. Jennifer Pieratt, you should set aside a day each week to provide students with feedback in the form of descriptive comments on their work.
Regardless of the method you use, your goal remains the same: you want to increase the frequency with which you communicate with your students in order to make sure they are paying attention and retaining the information you are trying to impart.
Learn how to organise a lesson plan
Your lesson plan should keep students engaged throughout the entire class. If a group of students is having difficulty paying attention in class, it’s easy to notice nonverbal cues that something is wrong. However, it is much more difficult to check on students’ engagement when teaching remotely. Increase the number of formative assessments in your lesson planning to increase student engagement.
Teachers use formative assessments to get a glimpse into their students’ heads. It’s common for teachers to incorporate a short freewriting activity at the conclusion of each class in English Literature, for example.
When students know that an assessment will be given at the end of class, they are more likely to pay attention to what they’ve learned.
How Distance Education Will Develop in the Future
Many of us, it seems, will continue to work from home in some capacity in the future. You must advocate for your students’ learning more frequently when teaching remotely, no matter what your opinion is on the subject.
