Online Teaching Reflections

Early on in this blog series I wrote about how I planned to stick to an asynchronous model within a synchronous timeframe. This included only using Zoom conferences for student questions spontaneously during the lessons when needed. See link below.

Starving for the opportunity to interact live with the class, I held a short Zoom conference to clarify expectations and restore some human connection. The pedagogical takeaway was simple: asynchronous structure still needs carefully bounded moments of live conversation.

I underestimated how much I needed this!To be honest, I felt myself starting to tear up when I swapped to "gallery view." ​

This moment reminded me that, while this time is INDEED a revolution for teachers as we strive, and collaborate, and fail, and fail, and iterate, and keep trying...that no simple system, or efficient set of "Google Forms", can replace the incredible connection that just hearing and seeing your student's faces. Emotional...

Keeping the above in mind, I plan on doing a live Zoom for our weekly "Check In" (~ 10 minutes) in each class, at least once per week before launching students into the remaining asynchronous portion of the class.

​I am still buzzing from the emotional connection that simply seeing their faces elicited. From a more technical standpoint, a suggest making sure your Zoom settings include the following to make the process as fluid, and safe, as possible.

• Mute all participants on entry.
• Play enter/exit chime.
• Put participants in waiting room on entry.