Online Teaching and Learning: The Importance of Repeating Yourself.
You’re a few weeks into teaching now. What do you need to remind your students about?
We tend to go over policies and expectations at the start of the year and then never revisit them. Remember, every teacher that your students/kids have, likely have slightly different polices and procedures, making it hard to remember and keep everything straight. If you post/talk about your processes and procedures once and then never again, it’s likely that most of your students don’t know them.
*note: for those of you teaching your kids at home, this goes for you too.*
There will be pain, in the beginning, however, it’s up to you to decide if there is some pain at the beginning that leads to growth and understanding, or pain that presists and turns into, frustration, anger, and failure.
Pain points
Below are a few pain points that my students and I encounter every year. It doesn’t mean that I haven’t posted and explained it, or that they haven’t tried to listen and understand. It means that it takes time and repetition to learn new things.
1. If a student doesn’t submit their assignment correctly, I make a note, include the video that shows them how to submit their assignment, and send it back. This might seem crazy. But if you don’t catch this in the beginning, assignments will be submitted in all sorts of ways all year. If you have a formatted way for how students submit their work, my guess is that you have a reason why, so help them to follow it.
2. When and if students submit work late. I give them grace for the first 4 weeks, however, each time, I also re-share the late work policy. This makes sure that they have time to understand the platform, me, as the instructor without losing points, while also making sure that they see and understand the late policy for when it goes into effect.
3. Keep updating your FAQ page and then re-share it with students, parents, and guardians. If a student or parent asks a question that you know others are going to ask, respond to them, and then copy and paste that response to your FAQ page. This is going to save you a lot of time and frustration. To help you get started, here are the questions that I currently have on my
Sample FAQ questions:
- Do I have to take the AP exam and/or submit my portfolio to the college board?
- What happens if I can’t hear you on Zoom?
- What happens if zoom freezes?
- What happens if I can’t come to the class call?
- Do I have to have my video on during class calls?
- What should I expect class calls to be like?
- Can I resubmit my work if I don’t like my grade?
- Can I use work that has a copyright in my work?
- What is appropriation?
- Can I submit late work and still receive full credit?
- What materials do I need for class?
- Do you have tips on staying organized/creating a schedule?
- How do I use Google Classroom?
- How do I submit assignments in Google Classroom?
- How do I check my grade in Google Classroom?
- Are there assignment due dates?
- How do we communicate when I have questions?
Everyone is busy, there is information coming from all directions. Do not assume that they saw it the first or the 5th time. Do not assume that they remember where to look for it.
After creating your FAQ, you’ll want to make sure to reshare it, and or copy and paste responses from it to students and parents. This also helps to ensure that your responses are consistent.
Share your FAQ
- Post it in your LMS
- When you post your weekly summary/preview, highlight relevant parts of the FAQ
- When you post instructions to join class calls, post the information that is relevant.
- When students submit late work, copy and paste the late work policy as part of your feedback.
- Send it as an email to parents and guardians
- Post it on your class or school website
- If you have a class Instagram account, post parts of it there as needed for people to review and see.