It seems very likely that distance learning will be returning to our lives this fall, in some form or other. Whether we’re adopting a half-week model, or just getting ready to flip into all-virtual should coronavirus numbers rise, it seems like teachers had better keep their distance learning tricks handy.
When our school went into distance learning mode in March, it was certainly a whirlwind adventure for the first few weeks. But as time went on, I got the hang of doing things virtually. There were certainly some tools I discovered along the way that helped tremendously! I’m sharing are my top 5 here so that you can be prepared for anything this fall!
Blue Light Glasses
My screen time went waaaaay up when distance learning started. I was averaging 6-10 hours of computer time every day, and my eyes and head were feeling it. By the end of the night, I could barely read my screen, my eyes were so blurry. I read about “blue light” glasses, which supposedly block out some of the harsh lighting from screens to make it easier on your eyes. I am so so glad I got a pair! They really helped soften the negative effects of my screen time. Plus, they are super cute! Here is the pair I got from Amazon:
Video Compress App
This app probably saved me literally hours of time over the months of distance learning. I did a lot of filmed lessons (usually on my phone) which I then emailed to students so that they could watch at a time that worked for their families schedules. But uploading video files can take a looooong time! I was sending them from my phone to my computer, and then uploading them to dropbox – so that’s two transfers – and it was really time consuming. Then I got this app and it was a game-changer! I could select the video from my photo library and choose the exact size I wanted the video to be. It made the uploading time less than a quarter of the amount it had been taking me before. So I had more time to you know… actually teach!
Noise Canceling Headphones
For the first couple weeks of distance learning, my husband and I tried to both work in our office. It was not a good idea. He is always on the phone at work, and I was going crazy trying to concentrate in there. The only thing that saved me was my noise-canceling headphones. Even if I just had them on with no music, they muted everything so well. Add the music, and I couldn’t hear a thing! I continued to use these even after I moved my workstation into a different room (I could still hear him through the door!). Also, I am probably never going back to cheap earbuds because I am officially spoiled by their super nice sound quality.
Puppets
Thank goodness for Mr. Wolf. My fuzzy husky puppet was my go-to partner for all the phonics lesson videos I did during distance learning. When you’re used to having a room full of individuals to interact with, it is hard to suddenly be all alone in your living room giving a lesson! Having a puppet helped me bring conversation into my lessons, which helped them to be so much more interesting. It also gave me the opportunity to model some student-teacher interactions (sometimes Mr. Wolf was the student, sometimes I was the student). For example, I could coach Mr. Wolf through a reading strategy and show him putting together the steps as the student would. For younger kids, utilizing a puppet was a great way to keep up the engagement!
Document Camera
Okay, so this one is kind of cheating because I didn’t have my document camera with me at home during distance learning. But I so wish I had, and I fully plan to have it this time around, so I think I can still mention it here. One of the trickiest things for me while Zooming was to show something I was doing on my table and then easily cut back to me teaching the lesson. With the doc cam, you can have it aimed at your table work, and then just switch back and forth between your computer camera and your doc cam on the input! So cool! This is extra helpful for when you’re doing something like shared reading, shared writing, or using math manipulatives. I’m super excited to add this to my arsenal for distance learning!
What were your most helpful distance learning tools?
xoxo
Laura
No Comments