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General Science and Teaching

Keeping children Excited about Learning Online

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Maribel Davila Maribel Davila 580 Points

Due to the new way of living and learning, what are go to ways to keeping students excited about learning as well as responsive during class time when it comes to online teaching?

Katelyn Grass Katelyn Grass 455 Points

Due to recent events, COVID-19 in specific, living and learning has changed drastically. Now, more than ever, it is important to find ways to keep students engaged and responsive during class time, especially when they are learning online. Some little things I have picked up on, that I have noticed help keep students excited, include screen sharing, using polls, and utilizing break out rooms. Screen sharing allows the teacher to play videos as they normally would in a class. In addition, it also lets students share their screen so they can present projects or ideas to the class. Polls are another tool that help engage students. Teachers can use online applications to ask students questions about anything - how they are learning, what they are finding difficult, etc. The answers to these questions can help the teacher make changes to his/her teaching style. Lastly, breakout rooms are a good way to keep students on their toes. On zoom, a breakout room allows students to meet in small groups and work on assignments together or even discuss questions they have with one another. It definitely is a nice little break from being stuck in the main room with about twenty of their peers and is a switch from lecture to more interactive work.

Emillee Medina Emillee Medina 690 Points

Hello Maribel, I am currently doing some volunteer hours in an elementary to help me gain experience and in my time observing, I have seen some things that the teacher does for her students to be engaged in the way learning is occuring now. The teacher that i observe utilizes different ways to keep the students engaged and interactive. In specific to a science lesson, the teacher that I observed planned a virtual feild trip in which her students where able to virtually visit a zoo and learn more about different animals and what type of enviroment they thrive in. Another way that I have noticed the teacher keeps the students engaged is by having them complete assigments in break out rooms and makes it into a type of game or competition so they would all want to participate and succed in. There are also other things that can be done and have the students excited about learning. Specificlally on zoom, the teacher can share her screen and teach the lesson how she would in the classroom with a presentation and modeling what the students should be doign. The teacher can also have the students in break out rooms. Overall, with technology and a varitey of online resources that can allow you to do labs and feild trips virtually I think now it is easier to keep students excited than in the beggining of the pandemic where we were all transitioning.

Hayley Putthoff Hayley Putthoff 230 Points

Hi Maribel, I am currently in an education program and one of my classes is about how to use technology in the classroom. One thing we used was pear deck on google slide that is an interactive power point. It helps keep students engaged, by asking questions periodically during the lesson. 

Ethan Beck Ethan Beck 630 Points

Hi Maribel,

 

I am a 4th year pre-service teacher who has first hand experience with being a student during online classes. The most benefcial practices that I enjoyed from my professors and would use in my future classroom if online learning was occuring would be to return to the idea that we learn best when the content is related to our personal lives. Online classes have reminded us with the question 'how do we engage student in the first place?' the learning environment that schools provide are beneficial and irreplacable, but in circumstances like COVID we have that taken away. How do we relate content to our students lives? We can build our student relations and begin to see how they see the world. Engage in lots of inquiry and self reflections where students are the center of learning. It would already be a lot to ask in a regular classroom to have students generate the learning, but from my personal experience with online COVID classes I did not remeber any pre recorded lecture or readings we did due to the lack of personal connection I had. Hope this helps and gives some insight into what a student is thinking during COVID classes.

 

Best regards 

Ethan Beck

Laura Pirtle Laura Pirtle 270 Points

Hi! Lat semester my school went online for a few weeks. We kept the students motivated my sticking post it notes to our fce everytime they correctly answered a question. When we were in person we did some science labs on the computer. Sadly some students just clicked around until the screen said they were corrct to avoid this we offered up extra dojo points and lunch with the teach!

 

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