Many schools and districts across the US have made the decision to keep students and staff safe by moving to remote learning for the period of time between Thanksgiving and mid-January. For some areas in the country, this is no different than the type of schooling that has been occurring since September, and for others this is a big change from seeing students in class every day to seeing them each day on screen only.
Remote learning can be challenging, yet by paying attention to a few key areas you can mirror the warm, welcoming learning environment you created for students in the classroom. Ensuring that students continue to participate in learning activities and experience growth and success academically is the top priority. By focusing on relationships, rules, and reinforcement, you can create a learning environment that will support your students and leave you feeling positive about your online teaching.
Relationships
When students move from in-person to online, it is important to take time to help students establish positive online relationships with their peers. Online and in-person relationships have differences and the lack of face-to-face interactions can create conditions for relationships to grow or diminish, depending on the attention given. To help students build, or maintain, positive relationships, support your students in learning about one another and take time to continue to learn about them as individuals. Spend the first few synchronous meeting times leading activities that allows students to identify similarities and provide space for students to talk in small groups. As you listen and learn about your students individually, write down notes and circle back to students about the things they value, allowing yourself an opportunity to connect. Place a heavy emphasis on relationships, teaching students how to navigate the difficulties of online relationships. By spending time on shoring up relationships, you’ll increase the amount of interaction between students, resulting in higher levels of engagement from all.
Rules
If you have been teaching in a face-to-face setting since September, you most likely recently reached that sweet spot where students were familiar with the routines of the classroom and were able to act with autonomy and understanding. Moving to remote learning will set students back – the change feels big and it may feel to students like the rules are not applicable to this new learning environment. Spending time discussing and teaching how rules may look different in the online environment is essential. Have the classroom rules available to project via a document you can display on screen frequently. Begin by working through each rule to see how it will look, sound, and feel in the online learning environment. Encourage students to think about what the rule looked like during in-person learning and how it might be similar or different online. Taking time to revisit the rules and notice what remains similar and what changes for the online setting also supports students in recalling the rules and identifying how they apply in various situations. Providing this opportunity to discuss the rules allows students to continue to feel invested in the rules – and to the class community they are building.
Reinforce
One of the most effective ways to help students transition to online learning is to take time stating what your students are doing well. Naming the positive learning skills you see students exhibiting in the online environment by giving a whole class shout-out will help students to identify these positive behaviors in the future. Keep your comments short, positive, and authentic by specifically naming what they are doing and connecting the action to a rule, such as, “During this activity, everyone was listening to their group members. That is one way to support and respect our classmates!”
In addition to identifying whole-class successes, send private messages to students that highlight their growth and achievements you witness throughout the learning. For example, “You had a lot of ideas about how fractions are used every day! Your ideas encouraged your classmates to share too!” Supporting individuals with specific comments will encourage them to continue on the path they are on and provide them with feedback on what actions are leading to positive results.
Finally, consider sending messages to families, both about their child’s growth and reinforcing the conditions the families have set up to facilitate learning at home. By taking time to reinforce the behaviors that are contributing to positive outcomes within the online learning community, we allow students and families to see that the learning is maintaining positive momentum!
As you move into remote learning, remember that taking time to create a positive learning environment where students have strong relationships with one another, know the rules, and receive regular reinforcement for efforts is critical to success. It is ok to take time to ease into the remote setting, knowing that spending the time now will yield bigger results in the weeks to come. You are not skimping on academics by focusing on creating the conditions for success, you are laying the foundation for which the students will thrive in this altered learning environment.
Written by Sarah Fillion and Dana Januszka for Positive School Solutions 2020
