I knew the power of the teacher was in the conversations with students, that connection. That's why I spent so long building it early doors now online. But I forgot how much I would miss the little quiet work nudges, the are you OK chats, the shall we go for a walk to talk this through at break? I teach adults and that means adult issues of finances, childcare, families, and everything else in between comes to class at the front of their mind. I think this applies to school children too as when I worked in schools I would have the same conversations about family difficulties, financial strains and unfortunately sibling childcare issues. The unfairness of that can be unpicked later, it is too important to be scantily included here.
Issue 3 then is missing the opportunity to talk through all of this. Help students move past it or at least park it temporarily whilst we are in class. I've built community, we are connected, but I'm still disconnected in that we can't have a private chat. Breakout rooms are the natural solution but how to do this? First if you don't have a license for premium breakout rooms how do you create them? Second how do you invite students and ensure they come with you? Third what do the rest of them do whilst you're away?
Initially we didn't have premium breakout rooms, they didn't exist. So I created 2 Google Meets in my calendar. Whatever platform you use, zoom, Teams, Skype the principal is the same. 2 concurrent meetings in my calendar, one called class and one called breakout room. I always join on 2 devices, my phone and a chromebook. The phone then gives me an opportunity to open a touch screen device to model on. I would hang up from the class meet, leaving my chromebook connected so that I could keep and eye. Then I would join the breakout room meet on my phone and talk to students or model or share on that. Then hang up on my phone and rejoin the main meeting again with a second device. The second device allows me to check the chat when sharing my screen live and is also handy for letting students in if I'm presenting. And I'm terrified something will go wrong so I always have a second device as back up.
How do I get students to come with me to the breakout? Initially I offered those who were struggling and naturally a small group came over. Quickly they left me to go back to the main room as one re phrase of how I would tackle the problem was all they needed to move oast their blocker and carry on with the task. I also trialled, if you rated yourself as a 1 on the progress check can we have a quick chat and go through some more examples in the breakout room. That worked too. But I really wanted to talk to 1 person, I could see they were struggling, I wanted them to come, how do I get them to come? Ultimately I asked them, I sent them a private message asking them to join me. They were in such torment at their workings out that they missed my message. So I asked them to come on the main class meet. You seem to be having a tough time shall we go have a chat? No one was more or less embarrassed than if we were physically in the class and I made a bee line for someone and didn't leave their side for a while. I was embarrassed at asking but actually I wouldn't ask if they wanted my help in a physical classroom I would hover and assist. Being online had made me more nervous than I needed to be.
What will the rest of them be doing when you're in a breakout room? Well I kept my chromebook connected and I answered questions in the chat. The what are we meant to be doing? How long do we have? But because of the community I had built the others often responded before me! Timings and timers are key I have learnt so before I leave for the breakout room I pop in the chat the task they should be working on, what time they have until and the breakout meet link if they want to come join me. Simple but helps remind them.
Teaching online isn't perfect I'm still missing seeing their working out. Trialling equatio, trialling pictures of work, I will keep you posted how I am getting on! Hoping your adventures in online teaching are going well SJ
