How to use Calendly or Youcanbook.me for scheduling one-on-one meetings
How to use Doodle to coordinate multiple schedules to find a common meeting time
If you don’t have a Learning Management System (LMS) or you don’t like its calendar feature, here’s how to create a shared Google or Outlook calendar.
• An opportunity to think outside the box in good ways
• A chance to facilitate learning in natural environments that will help students connect learning to their own lives
• An occasion to encourage creative thinking that doesn’t always fit into our regimented lesson plans
• An opportunity to collaborate with other professionals in the school and/or field to crowdsource ideas and share resources
• An avenue for encouraging students to have a day that is balanced between traditional learning and experiential learning
• Direct instruction via the web all day as you would in a classroom
• Lists of websites with learning games to play all day
• Homework packets of assignments to do independently
• Live instruction for hours at a time
• Traditional classroom teaching plugged into a learning management system
• Powerpoint presentations posted online
• Learning and reflection activities that can happen periodically throughout the day
• Short videoconference one on one with students checking in with them to see how they are doing and to remind them that they are amazing and that you miss them
• Brief video reviewing or providing new instruction on one micro-component of a concept – (keep to 5 minutes or less)
• Discussions through a group or class in whatever learning management system (LMS) or social networking platform your school is using (e.g., Seesaw, Google Classroom, Canvas, Facebook, Edmodo)
• Texts or posts sharing micro-learning or mini challenges**
A little-known fact related to a topic your class has been studying
A video that they would enjoy on a subject you have worked on
A challenge to do 10 jumping jacks, gather their dirty clothes, etc
**The purpose of this isn’t as much about the activity as it is about the connection to the students**
• Learning Challenges that make learning fun (example below)
Consider the age of the students you are teaching and the learning objectives for that grade level
Create a challenge, something fun they can do at home without a lot of instruction that will help them to apply learning you provided previously or new learning, using items they can find in their house
Record a short video to introduce the challenge and explain what they will be doing.
Record support videos that teach or review the concept that is the focus of the challenge.
• Provide a variety of activities they can choose to share their learning
Write a paragraph
Video record their “findings”
Create an infographic
Draw a picture
Make a song
• Make sure students know how they are to “turn in” in their product
• There is no limit to how you are sharing and facilitating learning in an online platform, and since not all students learn the same way, it is best to use multiple options
There are many tools out there that allow you to connect with students via video. This can really help to unite the class.
Three of the most popular video-conferencing options for teachers and schools include:
Zoom — Robust software designed exclusively for video conferencing.
Google Hangouts Meet— The evolved version of classic Hangouts that’s part of G Suite.
Microsoft Teams — Communication and collaboration platform that’s part of Office 365.
They are all simply ways to have a video conference with screen sharing capabilities.
The teacher can start the conference and share the access link with the students.
Students can access the conference at the specified time using any device (e.g. laptop or tablet).
Here is a quick comparison of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts Meet: