Contributions by teachers from the UK and ROI including Robert Moody (Mat Shields), Wendy Winnard, Linda Hannon. Imogen Gibb, Peter Banks.
1. Keep your resources ready and prepared
Make sure you’re prepared for the lesson. Make sure you have the right settings. Matt states, “I make sure that I am the only one who can present and delete chat messages.” And I mute emojis. Students are also asked to keep their voices muted unless they are invited to speak. Make sure you have enough resources available to distribute. OneNote syncs can take some time when using Microsoft Teams. Matt recommends that you sync them the night before. He also suggests that you distribute a backup via your VLE to those who are having trouble accessing the Microsoft Teams Class Notebook.
2. All you need is patience: Don’t expect the unexpected
‘You can’t do your normal lessons remotely,’ says Matt. Matt says, “You can’t do your normal lessons remotely.” Students will appreciate you being patient as they recognize this is a unique situation. You need to be patient as you reset passwords or resend materials. Matt says, “I can’t count the number of times that I have done this.” Let it go. Peter says that it is a good idea to stick to what you and they know for younger students. ‘Pace yourself. You might try adding something new each week. This is not a race. It is survival time. NEU guidelines as well as your school’s policy on livestreaming are important. Wendy advises that you screen share and turn off individual video feeds. Peter agrees with Wendy’s screen sharing advice. Share your screen with the pupils to show them where they should go. Get them to screen-share with you and the rest of the class when they have an issue so that you can help. I have even had students show me their new tricks and tips.
3. Tag team
Imogen explains that there are two teachers per team at my school. “This ensures that there is protection in the discussion areas and that a teacher can be monitored and fed back to their work if they become ill.
4. Spreadsheets can help you harness the power of spreadsheets
Excel can be used to organize your life. Linda says she set up a spreadsheet that included a tab for each class and a tab for homework. It helps me to see who did the work and then I can feed this on to form tutors or heads of year.
5. Microsoft Teams
You can assign tasks to students in Assignments. Rob says that students write their answers in a different color so I can clearly see them. Rob says that he then gives feedback on incorrect answers. It’s not enough to just check the right answers. The feedback box in Assignments can be found separately and is easily accessed.
Setting up work – and expectations
Imogen says that you can provide instructions, link to helpful resources, and give deadlines. This is useful in setting expectations for students about how much they will accomplish in the given time. Rob says that this has been helpful in limiting the potential for people to get too ambitious and setting a baseline to encourage others. This has been very well received by our students.