How Should Teachers Prepare for their Virtual Classrooms?

Virtual classrooms should be the same as the ordinary physical ones but with the technology feature added to them; students should still interact with their teachers, with their peers, engage in different activities, with quizzes, whiteboard technology, voice and video being all part of the deal. Some teachers are not new to the online education world, but those who are not should know how to prepare their classes in order to receive the wanted outcome from their students.

Tips for Preparing Virtual Classrooms

All schools are now depending on online education and virtual classes due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, so teachers, students, and parents are all now meeting through computer screens to keep the educational cycle going. Students will easily engage in their classes when they find them interesting and far away from being boring, which will definitely depend on the hard work of the teacher and how well he/she is prepared for the class.

Here are some important tips to follow while preparing your next class in order to get the results that you want:

• Don’t Forget Learning with Traditional Methods in Your Online Classes

One thing is always making the whole picture distracted for teachers which is getting the core curriculum content delivered, so they end up with words without any activities that would help students engage and understand the lessons. Teachers should try as hard as they could to add the traditional methods in their online classrooms, such as having a whiteboard behind the camera which they could explain everything for the students on.

• Blend Different Methods Together

When it comes to presenting new material to your students through computer screens, everything becomes harder for them, so it is important to know about the tips and tricks that will help you deliver everything in the right way and make sure that it stays in the student’s mind for a longer period of time. First of all, depend on examples while you are explaining something new, this will help students get what you are trying to say. Second, keep asking them if they need to ask questions, ask them simple questions such as when, why, or who in order to give their minds the chance to work and think.

Third, try to give your students models and guide them through the way to make it easier for them while they are practicing on their own. Fourth, make sure to end your lessons with quizzes that would help you know the level of your students and at the same time they would know how well they understood everything.

• Follow the ‘Scaffold Learning’ Technique

Teachers should try to follow the ‘scaffold learning’ technique, which is based on the idea of knowing the material that the students will learn, putting in mind the assistance they might need along the way. This is an important technique to consider because you will be giving students the chance to solve problems and think properly and critically. Scaffold learning could happen through different ways: modelling and demonstrating, giving mini lessons, incorporating visual aids, describing concepts in different ways, giving students time to practice and time to talk, activate prior knowledge, and make sure that students understand everything you are saying during the lesson.

• Give Each Student His/her Personal Time

The ordinary physical classes have always been different because in addition to the group interaction, students were also given the chance to have personal talks with their teachers. When it comes to virtual education, it is important for teachers to assign specific time for each student to answer any questions he/she might have. It is important also to have a weekly or monthly session of their learning to support the students.

• Build a Supportive Environment for the Students, Even if Online

Yes, the classes are going virtual this year but this should never affect the kind of support which the students are supposed to receive from their teachers. One of the important tips that teachers should follow when it comes to their students is to give them all the needed support when they need it, and work on building such a supportive environment with their students, because this will not only be between a teacher and a student, but students will work on supporting one another as well.

• Depend on Your Voice During Your Lessons

Don’t forget one important thing while you are teaching your students virtually: your voice is the most important thing. When you are giving online classes, it means that it will all appear like a show the kids are watching, so you should always make sure that your voice is engaging, interesting, and will attract the students. Make sure that you change your voice during the lesson between telling a story, using a quiet tone, using an excitement tone, etc. this will be important for students to avoid boredom and be always alarmed to what the teachers are saying.

• Plan Your Schedule Beforehand

Students should be your main focus, that’s true, but in order to manage those students, you should first plan your schedule. One of the negative aspects related to working from home is being on your laptop or mobile phone almost all day, between checking emails and answering them, and that should never be the case. As a teacher, you should plan your schedule in which you devote some time every single day to check all your emails, and make sure that the space between checking your work is not long because you might end up finding yourself overloaded with things to check and tasks to get done.

Online education needs some rules to be set first in order to give students the chance to receive the same quality of education they used to receive during their ordinary physical schools days, the most important thing to keep in mind is that everything could be transferred in one way or another to the virtual world and still be interesting and new to the students.

There are different tips to follow as a teacher in order to create the best environment for your students online and at the same time give them the chance to receive your content in the best way possible without any gaps, because some students are not used to the online learning thing yet.

Do you need to introduce something new and different to your students? Let them learn how to code! You could sign up and add your students to your classroom and manage all their activities and progress, the most important thing is that you don’t need any prior knowledge in coding or computer science.