Teaching from Home – Online
If you are teaching from home right now, you have some unique issues that haven’t existed prior to last March due to the Covid-19 worldwide Pandemic.
Teaching From Home – Online
Although all teachers went home in March, the remote teaching took on various formats for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year. Many districts extended their spring breaks, some scrambled to send home packets. Many left it to individual teachers or grade level teams to figure out how to reach their students.
But the 2020-2021 academic year looks much different for many. Some schools and districts returned to campuses with masks and sanitizer and lots of new rules. Yet many others remained teaching online. Some teachers are asked to conduct their online teaching from their classrooms and others are doing it from their own home.
Each scenario has its challenges and all of them are not perfect.
Before moving on with this article, I don’t want to forget to offer you the FREE download that I have created for teacher called 101 Teacher Tips. You can get instant access to it (to download) by providing your email below. Then I will zip it right over to you.
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Considering Mindset
The first item that all teachers must consider, no matter what your instructional mode is currently, is that of student and teacher mindset. Student mindset is so very important, especially during these difficult times. Whether students are at home or in class with masks, teachers need to help them learn to build their growth mindset.
When students are taught that they can continuously learn and grow by making mistakes and learning from this, they gain a sense of achievement.
And just like students, teachers need to continually build their growth mindset. If you begin your online teaching each morning by cursing out the computer and telling yourself that you’re not good at technology and it will never get better – then you are setting yourself up for failure.
But on the flip side, if you tell yourself that you can learn anything with concentration and hard work, then you will do it.
I recently wrote an article on Growth Mindset, you can read it through the link here:
Becoming more organized
In order to work/teach effectively from home you will need to become even more organized than you were in your classroom. Here are some tips for becoming organized at home:
- organize places for all the supplies you will need to teach your students online.
- make a “to do” list each morning and work on the items listed in between your teaching sessions.
- utilize consistency in your days; establish a routine as much as possible.
- consider using the “Pomodoro” method for the times you aren’t “teaching.” (see the link below for information on this method). The Pomodoro Technique
Basically, this technique tells you to select a task to work on. Set a timer for 25 minutes and work diligently on that task for the entire 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, take a five minute break and repeat the process again.
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Setting up your workspace
The picture above is an actual teacher workspace in her home. A teacher friend of mine sent me this picture so I could see how she set up her dining room to be her “at-home – temporary classroom.” Doesn’t it look Great!
My biggest suggestion for this area is, if possible, set this up away from distractions. My friend’s children are grown and out of her home, so this set-up works well for her.
Many of you might be limited on where you can set this up, which means, you just do the best you can with what you’ve got. (which is true for all of us.)
Be sure that you find a location that has good wi-fi connectivity. Otherwise, you will be struggling daily with your internet.
Find a way to organize your supplies in this area. You don’t want a cluttered background for when you are on camera with the students and/or their parents (and also with colleagues during Zoom staff meetings).
Each afternoon at the end of your work time, tidy this area up. It won’t take more than about three minutes and will make your next morning so much more pleasant.
Learning to let go
The final item that I want to discuss with you about teaching from home is that you will need to get even better about learning to “LET IT GO!” What I mean by this is that many things can and will go wrong as you navigate this different reality right now.
Don’t let all the challenges and frustrations weigh you down, learn to “LET IT GO!” I know it is much easier said than done, especially if you are a fairly new teacher.
What you need to realize is that this current “REALITY” will not last forever. We will return to “normal” sooner rather than later. Right now it may seem a long way off, but in the larger scheme of things, it is actually a short way away.
Until then, keep on keeping on!
Until Next Time,
