Let's face it: Teaching online is no easy feat. You're juggling between keeping your student's attention, what practical virtual tools you can use, and occasionally wondering if they understand your teaching. Are you having these problems, too? You're not alone! It is a common problem that you'll encounter when teaching online.
The good news is that academic tutoring doesn't have to be stressful; you don't have to face it alone. All you need is the right tools and strategies to turn your virtual classroom into a practical learning space that is both engaging and fun for your students. So here's everything you need to know about the essentials of teaching online to make virtual learning a fun, productive experience for you and your students.
Step 1: Getting to know your students—It's all about building trust
Each student comes with their own set of strengths, challenges, and learning styles. As a teacher, it is essential to know these things about your students. For this reason, it is important to get to know your students. This is a key factor in making your virtual classes productive and effective. However, other than these factors, it is also important to build trust with your students. When students trust you, it's more likely that they will open up about their struggles and engage in the learning process. Just like in everything else trust is a strong foundation when it comes to learning. This is especially true given the nature of virtual settings where connections can feel less personal.
How do you build trust and connect with your students?
Ask questions: You can do this by talking with your students and doing icebreakers to relieve the tension, and you can also ask them about their interests, goals, and concerns. As a result, your students will feel that you care for them as individuals.
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Listen: Now that they're talking, make sure to listen to what they are saying. Give them a safe space where they can share their struggles without judgment. Doing this builds rapport and trust between you and your student. As a result, your students will feel valued, understood, and comfortable.
- Be relatable: Another way to make your students trust you is to make you seem more human and approachable to them. For example, you can talk about your time as a student, or you can tell them about the time when you struggled with something and how you overcame it. Make them feel that they are not alone in their struggles and that they can overcome them with you around them.
- Consistency is key: In every session, make sure to always show up on time and make them feel that you value their hard work and time. Another thing that you can do is to establish a reliable structure for your lessons; this helps build a sense of security between you and your students.
Step 2: Utilize online tools
You need to have the proper tools in your arsenal, you can make teaching online easier, more effective, and more interactive for you and your students. Keep it simple; choose tools that are easy to use and understand. Here are some must-have tools:
- Zoom or Google Meet: With these face-to-face interaction tools, you can maintain a sense of connection and engagement with your students.
- Miro or Whiteboard: These tools can help you and your students brainstorm and visualize complex ideas. It is also a great tool to increase interactivity and participation.
- Kahoot and Google Forms: There's a plethora of online tools quizzes and activities that are fun and exciting. With real-time results and customizability, you can personalized course materials for your students.
Step 3: Make lessons interactive and fun
Lectures take a long time to get done, which can make online learning dull and boring. As a teacher, you have to make sure that your students stay engaged. For this reason, it is important to mix things up. Here are simple ways to keep your students engaged.
- Streamlining lessons: Keep your lessons short and informative.
- Using visual tools: These tools can help your students visualize complicated information and simplify it to make it easier to understand concepts. As a result, it makes information more memorable and accessible.
- Get them involved: Teaching goes way beyond telling students what they should do. It is key to keep engaging with your students by asking your students questions, using polls, or facilitating discussions.
Step 4: Stick to a flexible routine
Consistency is key to building routine and discipline, which leads to productivity. You can do this by helping your students know what to expect, but it is also important to make that routine flexible to facilitate a stress-free learning environment. But keep in mind it is also important to find the right balance between these two. Here's an example of a simple lesson structure that you can follow:
1. At the end of the lecture, you can do a quick run through of the previous lesson. Starting a fun question is also a great way to start.
2. Break lessons down into manageable chunks. This can help lessons seem less improved, thus resulting in better retention and allowing students to stay engaged without feeling overwhelmed.
3. Short breaks can improve your student's productivity by reducing fatigue to prevent burnout during long study sessions.
4. To improve retention, you can summarize the key points of the lecture to your students and let them share their thoughts.
Step 6: Positive Reinforcement and Feedback
Your lecture structure is a critical aspect that can make or break your students' confidence and desire to learn. If done right, it can positively impact a student's sense of achievement and confidence. For this reason, it is important to instill a growth mindset that can lead them to academic success. Here are some tips to do it.
- Instead of just saying that the student has done a great job, you can be more specific and point out their improvement; for example, instead of saying, "Great job, you can instead their improvements and achievements.
- As an educator it is important to give your student a place where students feel safe to make mistakes and where their hard work is recognized and celebrated.
Key Take Away
Both teaching and learning online don't have to be hard. All you need is the right tools, mindset, and strategies to create an online environment where students can feel safe and achieve academic excellence. And keep in mind that the mark of a great teacher is that they inspire their students to enjoy and love learning, whether it's online or inside the classroom.
About Park Tutoring
Park Tutoring is the best tutoring service in Irvine, and it understands that learning is more than just grades. It's also about providing a space where students can gain confidence and overcome academic challenges. We are dedicated to helping students be the best version of themselves in learning. Based in Irvine, we specialize in in-person and online personalized tutoring that can meet any student's academic needs. We have it all for you here at Park Tutoring, whether it's acing exams, college exams, or SAT and ACT prep.