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Hey there! It’s Allyson from OnlineTeacherAllyson.com where stay-at-home moms come to learn how to teach online so they can earn an income from home even if their kiddos are in tow. Today we are getting into the hot topic of what are online teaching strategies? A lot of new online teachers wonder what they can do to help make their classes more interesting and so today I am bringing to you six of my favorites! They’re either free, almost free, or pretty cheap. You can start right away or you can start tomorrow it’s really up to you. PS – This is also a YouTube video! If you prefer to watch, the video is below. If you prefer to listen, the podcast episode is at the bottom!
Songs
My first strategy is songs. If you’re teaching on a platform a lot of them have songs already! I always sang with my kids. I was also teaching very early in the morning so it helped me stay awake, but I had my microphone! I use this for a couple different things. I used it for singing to let them know to sing, I also used it as like it’s whose turn it is to talk. Especially if you’re doing a group lesson it can be like you know a Talking Stick kind of deal. I would say “Okay, it’s so-and-so’s turn.” and they would talk and I’d point my mic to the camera. It’s kind of an icebreaker for those little kids who were a little bit nervous! It’s a little toy for them and it helped them with songs.
Pay Attention to Copyright
A couple words of caution. If you are teaching on a platform like Outschool or if you are teaching independently and creating your own lessons, you do not want to use songs that are copyrighted. You can get in trouble for that and the platform can get in trouble. Some suggestions I have are to write your own, or find some copyright free songs: like Old MacDonald Had a Farm. Without looking it up I don’t think it’s copyrighted because it’s so popular – or Happy Birthday. You kind of write a song to that tune so it’s a familiar tune you’re just teaching content with it. That is one way to do songs other than using the songs that the platform already has. When I was on VIPKid I taught a lot of level one, which is the very basic brand new babies, and there were tons of songs: hello songs, goodbye songs, letter name, letter sound songs, as well as songs to go with the vocabulary words we were studying. So I didn’t have to create anything for that. But I could practice counting by twos with Old MacDonald, practice counting by tens, or my multiplication facts – you kind of get the gist with that.
Props
My second strategy is props. I love props! They’re a great way to kind of break up the class and keep their interests especially if your kids are younger. Like I said I had my microphone. I will also have my letter flash cards and they each have a picture on it. I would use the letter name, the letter sound, the picture, we’ve used everything in my teaching area. Another really big one you probably want is a whiteboard. This did not cost me a lot of money. It was a big sheet board you can buy at Home Depot and they’ll cut it down for you. So, this isn’t a great white board. You can tell by looking at it it doesn’t erase perfectly, but it gets the job done. It’s an extra way to help, especially if you don’t have a whiteboard within the platform – it really just kind of depends. Sometimes it’s just easier to write on than it is to fiddle with writing on the computer. So that’s another thing you can do.
Use What You Already Have
Some other things: I would just raid my son’s toys and I would bring in what I needed to bring in for the lesson. So if we were talking about cars or dinosaurs I went and grabbed his cars and his dinosaurs. If I needed a reward, I have lost it, but I used my Cricut machine and I got sparkly cardstock paper and I cut out some stars. I would just hold them up, some teachers had something behind them where they could put them. I had something else up here. I had my alphabet cards up here once upon a time, but I was using so much that I just took them down. But some people would have something behind them they could stick them to – they were magnetized so the kids could always visually see their stars. Rewards are a really fun way to break it up too. If you’re interested in that, I have a really old video about it. I can go ahead and make a new one but I will tag that old video and some of them included just using the Whiteboard with fun games and activities as well.
Worksheets
So your third one – this one is really iffy – is worksheets. I don’t love worksheets because I don’t love worksheeting them to death. Worksheets aren’t fun! They don’t always even necessarily show what the kids know. It’s just kind of a way for you to get a grade, and as an online teacher doing the extra, you probably don’t need the grade. So there are some things you can do. One platform I really love for worksheets is Canva. If you are a teacher with a school district email address you can get the Pro version for free. If you don’t get the Pro version you can still use it there’s just some templates and some graphics that you have to pay for. Now it is something I pay for because I use it for my content for you guys! I create my sheets I email out to you, I use it for my thumbnail, so I pay for it. But if you’re using it for an online classroom style I don’t know if I would pay for it monthly. What you can do is you can get the free trial and you can create what you need, and then save it to your computer. Use it that way and only pay as you need it. Another great thing I love for worksheets is a book called Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites by Marcia Tate. When I was a classroom teacher, it was my very first year, my school district had her come in and talk with us. She just kind of did like an in-service day with us, and I was enthralled with her! The way she took worksheets and made them fun, and educational, and a way for them to remember the information is mind-blowing and it’s something I’ve never forgotten. I have her book. It’s a little book. It’s not a lot of money so look her up. I will link it in the description box. She was fantastic! I would definitely recommend spending the little money to get her book because it is well worth it. I know there is a time and place for worksheets, you just want to make it as good as possible, right?
Body Movements
Number four, body movements. This is so important for kids online because it’s screen time, right? Screen time does not have the greatest rap. As a mom I totally get it! I don’t want my son having more screen time than he needs, but I feel like this is productive screen time. He’s learning something, he’s talking to kids, he’s finding his joy in life! Some ways you can incorporate body movements: you could have them show their understanding – I’m actually going to get to this a little later in this video – they can show their understanding with their thumb, with their fingers, I’ll talk about that in a minute. You can also have them just stop and touch their head, you can do deep breathing exercises to help settle them. Or you can create entire classes on movements like PE classes, yoga, dance, whatever you’re into! One platform I really like, you can use it as a mom or you can use it for your classroom, is GoNoodle. They have videos the kids can wiggle around to and help them get their wiggles out. So anyway you can use body movements sometimes I’ll say okay show me your understanding: is it big understanding or is it little understanding? And I’ll make my body really big to show it’s really big and I’ll make your place small to show it’s really small and the kids know to do it along with me. I also changed my voice inflection to get really loud – within reason. So that’s that’s different ways to use your body. It kind of changes their brain and it’s a way for them to use it, too. It helps bring them back on track. I love body movements for when they’re very distracted because it’s a way to get their wiggles out, let them have fun for 30 seconds, and then you’re back to it. You might need to do it more than once, especially with the littles because we know their attention span is shorter. We can make it work. As you teach more you will learn ways that you like to encourage them to use their body. Having them get big and small for their understanding might not be for you. So you’ll figure it out as you go along, and you’ll keep learning, and you will find you as an online teacher. That will come with it.
Exit Tickets
Number five, exit tickets. There’s a really easy one on Google. If you have the ability to use it, it is Google Forms. When you’re creating it there’s a choice for an exit ticket. What I really love about Google Forms is it will grade for you. If it’s multiple choice and you don’t have to have an open-ended question. With Google Forms if you’ve ever filled one out you know you sign in with your email address or your name and then you plug it in. So let’s say we’re doing an exit ticket for math and I have given them three math facts and they’re multiple choice. So they click their answer and they submit it. You as the online teacher can go in and it’ll create a spreadsheet of all of the responses. You’ll be able to see “Oh, Timmy got them all right, but Sally needs some more help.” It’s a great way for you to check their understanding really quickly. You don’t have to do any grading and it’s digital! You might not be able to use Google on everything. It depends on your platform – it depends on where you are teaching.
Quick Exit Ticket Checks
If you can’t do it, I really like what I call a scale of thumbs. So thumbs up you’ve got it, you’re confident. Thumbs down: so many questions, teacher help me please. And the thumb in the middle means “I’m almost there!” As they get going they start putting thumbs at like 75%. I call this Scale of Thumbs because they know it’s a quick way of showing understanding. Another one is fist to five. So fist being zero I have no understanding. Five, I can teach it to someone else, I am an expert, I’ve got it! It’s a great way for them to kind of self-assess. You can also do traffic lights, red, green, and yellow. It might require them to have something so if you’ve created it or if you just tell them shout out the color. Again get creative with it, However you like to do it! Those are just some quick ways to check their understanding. It can be at the end or it can be throughout. I really like to use this throughout. This is why I like their cameras on too because I like to read their faces. I can tell if they’re really confused and I can tell if they’re getting it. That confused face fuels me as a teacher to try harder because I know they’re not there.
Checks for Understanding
My last one, checks for understanding. These are the ones you do throughout. So an exit ticket is your assessment for the day. It’s not necessarily a test, it’s just your assessment as a teacher. Checks for understanding are throughout. How are you doing with this content? If we’re multiplyingI could do the scale of thumbs, I could do fist to five. I could also have them explaining it to me. “What does it mean to multiply with an area model?” We’re doing this in my math classes so it’s really fresh in my brain and I use their explanation to gauge their understanding. A lot of times they’re really hard on themselves. I have this one student, she can do an area model like a pro she has got it. But when it comes to explaining it, she cannot. So I really use it to kind of gauge their understanding because I see her work and I see her doing a great job but when it comes to explaining it she doesn’t have the confidence. Some of it’s also her math facts and that’s a big thing you’re going to notice if you teach math. When I was a kid there was a huge emphasis on math facts. I was learning my times tables in second grade! I am teaching fourth graders that are still skip counting for everything and doing the repeated addition. So that is one thing you will notice.
This Is Just A Start
All of this to say, these are not the end all be all online teaching strategies. As an online teacher you’re going to find the strategies that work for you you’re going to drop some of these. You’re going to pick up some new ones! These are just some I really like that are easy to implement as a brand new online teacher. They’re free or they’re almost free. Like I said, I raid my son’s toys. If I don’t have a prop I don’t stress about it unless I find it’s really important. Then I might go get it. But don’t stress about it if you don’t have to because online teaching should be fun! I want to be fun for you. I don’t want it to be any more stressful than it has to be. I know the beginning can be stressful. My first class, I had been a classroom teacher for a few years, and I was still really nervous because the delivery online is different from the delivery in person. So I know you will be stressed. I want you to know that it will go away and these are just some strategies to help ease some of that stress that you can plan in easily and quickly and your kids are having fun. All right so that is it for today. I hope you are having the greatest week ever and we will chat soon! Bye!
