Troubleshooting Common Issues

PROBLEM: Kids saying: "I can't see it!"

When you share your screen you occasionally might have a kid who says they can't see what you're sharing. My best guess is that they touched their iPad and what you are sharing got swapped with their camera (when you share, they still have a small camera view in the bottom right corner... if they tap it, the screens swap so your screen share gets tiny.). Maybe there's some other glitch though, too. There are lots of ways to fix this.

SOLUTIONS:

  1. You can pop them in the waiting room and bring them right back.

  2. You can stop sharing and re-share it.

  3. You can teach them to not touch their iPad when you share. Give them time to explore what actually happens when they touch all the options. They can hit a little blue + sign to see a mini gallery view and slide through all the meeting participants, hit a blue - sign to see it all disappear, touch the small screen and have it swap with the big screen but then tap it again and bring it back. Sometimes they just get lost and don't know how to get back so letting them teach themselves/explore for 2 minutes is a good move, imo.

PROBLEM: You share your screen and literally lose sight of your entire class. Poof!

Yep, it happens. I'm not 100% sure why, but it may have something to do with having two monitors. Don't let that scare you away from having two though- this is maybe the ONLY bad thing about it and it doesn't happen very often.

SOLUTIONS:


  1. If you're using two monitors, check your settings. Make sure you have "Use dual monitors" checked in the regular Zoom settings, under General- it's currently the 1st thing on the list.

  2. Click the Zoom icon in your dock twice. That usually brings it back and is the fastest fix.

  3. Calmly hunt for them. Are they hiding behind another window? Are they minimized somewhere?

  4. Start the call knowing where all the meeting windows are. Before you start you Zoom call, you probably have 2 copies of the videos (maybe that's just for dual monitors? Idk). I like to keep them BOTH on my main computer screen so if one disappears, the other one is still there.

  5. When all else fails, if I know it's a quick share that will be over in a minute, I just PLAY IT COOL and talk to my camera like they never left my sight. As soon as you stop sharing, they'll pop back up again somewhere, I promise. :)

PROBLEM: Students are having technical issues with their iPad.

SOLUTIONS:

  1. Turn it off and back on again. Always a good place to start, right?!

  2. Does your district have a help desk or tech support? Refer them to that phone number or email.

PROBLEM: Glitchy videos - blehhhhh.

This was my #1 biggest stress about teaching distance before we started. I desperately wanted everything to be SMOOTH and clear. Heads up: Your screen sharing probably looks awesome to you on your end. But for the kids, it might be a completely different story. It boils down to a combo of your wi-fi and their wi-fi. Chances are VERY HIGH that there's a delay and your video movement is glitchy. Sound is typically pretty smooth. This especially stinks for things like letter or counting videos if they're hearing one thing and seeing another (like seeing "G" and hearing that it's "H").

SOLUTIONS:

  1. Be aware: this is reason #101 I like to be logged in with my computer AND iPad and be able to see (potentially) what the kids see. You'll see how different it is vs how it looks for you on your computer.

  2. Reconsider your plans: Videos can be fun, but once in awhile maybe you'll choose to ditch some videos and sing the song, read the book, or do the activity yourself.

  3. Share less: When you share your screen, choose to just share Google Chrome (or whatever your browser is) vs sharing the entire display.

  4. Good wifi on your end: An hardwired ethernet cable might help going from your phone to your computer.

  5. Good wifi on their end: If it's really bad, you'll know. You can see everyone's wifi bars on their video and they'll be red if their connection is poor. See if you can get any kids with persistent issues a hot spot.

  6. Have everyone turn off their videos? I haven't tried this, but have read that some teachers think it helps give you more bandwidth for sharing your video if their videos are off temporarily. Idk if you want to not see your kids during the video.

  7. Experiment with a kind friend or family member who will share a few minutes with you. Get them on a practice Zoom with you and have them take vids or tell you what looks best: when you share from your iPad, computer, phone, etc. One will probably be better than the other.

  8. Have a short video you really want them to see well? Send it for asynchronous work!

I still do brain break videos every day and have come to terms with the fact that it's just not perfect and that's okay. The kids are all still dancing and loving it. I HAVE replaced some of the things I'd normally show as videos with myself reading the book or singing the song though and that's been good, too!

PROBLEM: Honestly, I just don't know what I'm doing!


SOLUTIONS:

  1. Just dive in. The best way to learn Zoom and virtual teaching is really just by doing it. I took a whole class about it over the Summer that included lots of practice Zooms and still felt like I didn't know what I was really doing until I just had to do it in real life. Learn what you can (and if you're reading this website- you're off to a great start!) and then just be brave. Be patient with yourself. Be kind to yourself. KNOW you will learn and get better at this!!! I promise. Every single day you'll learn new stuff.

  2. Give yourself permission to take BABY STEPS. I didn't try breakout rooms until the second month of school because I just wasn't sure how to use them and was nervous. Now I wish I'd done them earlier, but guess what- it was okay to not do EVERYTHING all at once. Find a healthy balance between continuing to challenge yourself and not stressing yourself out. Push your comfort zone to keep learning and growing, but don't lose sleep over it.

  3. Do you have a friend or family member who will share some time with you and give you a safe space to practice? DO IT! Have ideas of what you want to try (sharing your screen in different ways, assigning breakout rooms, using the whiteboard and annotation, etc) and they can just log in and give you feedback about what looks/sounds best. They could even be working on something totally different, but just willing to look at their computer or iPad once in awhile and answer questions for you. I did about 55 practice meetings with my husband the week or two before school started. He was a life saver.

  4. Don't want to ask anyone? Just practice yourself! Log in on every device you have: phone, iPad, computer... just see how it looks and what you can do. Get ready to see yourself from 3-4 different, sometimes unflattering angles (haha) and turn your sound down/mute so you don't get an echo. I did a ton of these practices, too.

PROBLEM: Kids are writing on the screen when you share.

You share your screen and suddenly it's covered in scribbles- what?!

SOLUTIONS:

  1. Teach them when it's okay to do that. Give them times when it IS okay and times when it's not. Teaching the expectations and giving them opportunities to explore usually works. It's a SUPER cool feature I like to use every day so I leave mine on all the time and just have them trained to not use it unless told.

  2. Understand how it works from their perspective: When annotation is on, immediately when you share your screen a tiny pencil icon pops up in the bottom left corner of their iPad! It disappears after like 2 seconds. But if they tap their iPad, it comes back temporarily. If they tap the pencil, they can write and everyone can see it. Maybe they don't realize everyone can see it? Maybe they were just curious what it is? This is a great thing to do a little lesson on.

  3. You can always adjust your "Annotation" settings. You can disable annotation all together. You can also make it display names of annotators so if someone does scribble, you know right away who it was and can have them fix their mistake. You can erase things, too, but I like to make them do it themselves.

PROBLEM: You suddenly can't hear anything through your bluetooth headphones.

Once in awhile I will come back from sharing my screen and realize I see the kids talking, but can't hear them! Idk why this happens only occasionally after screen sharing, but I usually don't have time to truly troubleshoot it because I'm LIVE!

SOLUTION:

  1. Keep your hardwired headphone cord close. Plugging it in always fixes any issues.

  2. Make sure you're charging your headphones each evening.

PROBLEM: Kids saying, "I can't hear anything!"

They interrupt to tell you this and ruh-roh- you can't tell them what to do because they REALLY can't hear you! And it can almost get comical because they just KEEP saying it and there's nothing you can do.

SOLUTIONS:

  1. Teach them in advance what to do. Once they're in the moment, it's obviously too late. My best ideas are: learn how to make sure your headphones are plugged all the way in, learn how to adjust your volume, and then if all else fails, know when to just get a grown up because the teacher can't help you if you can't hear them.

  2. Are they older? Write them a note about what to try in chat or on a whiteboard.