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I go back to school next week! The last 2 weeks I taught a summer bridge for 2 hours a day for incoming freshmen. I learned a lot. I’m obviously not an expert after teaching online for just 2 weeks (not even close). But here are some of my observations from live virtual teaching:
1. Logistically, have more than one computer if you’re able to. I had one computer for my Zoom class and another computer off to the side for attendance, checking my email for students having trouble logging in, and anything else I needed. Multitasking is hard.
2. Also logistically, I kept a notebook in front of me at all times. I wrote my agenda on the notebook and essentially my lesson plan. I don’t need to do this when I’m teaching in the classroom, but I found this necessary to remember my goals for the day.
I also use the notebook to write students’ names down, keep track of who is talking, who I may want to check-in with, etc. I don’t need to do this either when I’m teaching in the classroom, but it’s a lot harder to do so in a Zoom call.
3. Started every Zoom with a check-in and ended with a check-out. This is a practice our whole school uses and I love it. The check-in questions are low-stakes and I’ve done them a few ways: a student answers then invites another student in or what I ended up liking better...
I would call attendance and instead of saying “here,” students would answer the question. For our check-out question, I usually had students type it in the chat box and then took volunteers to expand on what they wrote about. The check-out was typically about that day’s topic.
4. Utilize the chat box! Anytime I referenced something or students needed to do something, even though it was available in Schoology, I always pasted the link in the chat box as well. It’s easy to get lost, make things easy for them and have links readily available.
5. Use breakout rooms if you’re able to just as you would use small groups in the classroom. I bounced from room to room. Some rooms were silent and needed a lot of encouragement and help from me, some thrived and had a lot of discussion.
One thing my colleague @KaitlinNSmith1 suggested and I ended up trying was assigning each group member in the breakout room a role, like note taker, discussion leader, and spokesperson to share out to the whole group. This ended up working out really well and was a cool strategy!
6. Be flexible and understanding. Many students won’t turn on their cameras. Some may prefer to only use the chat box instead of using audio. It’s okay. Students can still be engaged without video/audio even if that’s not your preference.
7. Another colleague of mine (not on Twitter) said she played music during working time—whenever students were writing or doing a part of an activity that didn’t require discussion. I loved this idea and ended up implementing it the last few days.
I asked students for song suggestions in the chat box and played their music as they worked on their identity slides. They loved it. And I did too! I learned some new music and it really helped build community.
8. Whenever there was asynchronous work planned, I gave about 10 mins for them to get started on it during our class. This allowed them to start the work and be able to ask me any questions live about what they are working on before they work on the rest without direct support.
9. Collaborate and learn from your colleagues. At the end of each day, our bridge team met for 30 mins to debrief. This was so valuable to share our highs and lows and learn from each other. I’m really lucky to be in a collaborative environment.
If you don’t have that at your school, seek it out on online communities. Hello, Twitter!
10. I opened up my class about 10-15 mins early for students. Usually it’s silent. But the last day, students were actually talking to each other!! About anime!! It was amazing. They even shared their social medias to each other in the chat; they’re making friends!
11. Things take longer online. If you have an ambitious agenda, be prepared to adapt and take items out or change them if needed. Teachers already do this all the time so just continue to do this. Just keep in mind that pacing will be harder than ever.
12. Kids will be in and out because of WiFi or other issues. This goes back to being flexible and understanding.
13. Get student feedback often. I asked students a lot how they liked certain activities or certain strategies. They were happy to share their thoughts. They also were really understanding when things flopped or didn’t work out well. They get that this isn’t easy.
14. I gave them breaks. 2 hours was a lot of time to be on the computer. I put in breaks for them to stop, stretch, get a snack or something to drink.
15. Chaos will happen and it’s okay. Many times my dogs would start freaking out about a squirrel outside. The solution? I usually stopped and got my dog to hold on my lap. This was exciting for both my dog and the students 
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Just as you would want your students to be flexible and understanding when chaos happens in your own household, be the same for them. We are not in a classroom. Life will happen.
I think those are all my observations I have for now. Teaching for these 2 weeks felt like a good trial run. I was really struggling some days and it was hard, but I do feel like each day got a little easier and I started to navigate it all better.
This is not the ideal situation. Not even close. But I think it is possible to build community online. It might take more time or look differently, but it can happen. I also think it’s possible to learn online. So while I’m nervous for the new school year, I’m also hopeful.
