How to Improve Your Remote Teaching Skills
How to Improve Your Remote Teaching Skills
Ever since the pandemic struck the world and notably the United Kingdom, there has been more demand for remote teaching and learning. The art of replicating the physical classroom setting in a virtual format is quite challenging because the dynamics are slightly different. According to The Guardian, 4 in 10 pupils in England have had less contact with teachers since May 2020, and it seems the trend is continuing. Therefore, as this remains the status quo, how can you improve your virtual teaching skills and avoid the pitfalls? Find a few ways here.
1. Utilise more interaction styles
Whereas in the physical classroom, your focus is to deliver your topic(s) for the day by using a strict teaching method, the remote platform is different. With virtual teaching, the pupils or students are not in your physical presence; therefore, your focus should be on engaging them more. The most result-oriented teaching style to adopt here is active student-teacher interaction during the session. Researching online assessment tools for distance learning can help you maximize interaction in your virtual lessons.
By creating varied interaction opportunities, you build a platform for better knowledge retention and student engagement. There are three main ways this remote teaching style can be productive, namely:
Allowing students to contribute to the teaching process (student and instructor approach).
Student and content approach: Allowing the student to relate with the learning content.
Student and student approach: Collaboration and group projects among students.
By recreating different levels of interactivity, remote teaching becomes more effective and progressive.
2. Collaborate with teacher unions to share knowledge
Teacher unions are lifelong learning communities established to protect teachers. Besides the protection coverage these unions offer, it’s an excellent place for teachers to tap into helpful knowledge and share beneficial skills among themselves. With COVID-19’s impact, it’s even more expedient to join a teacher union to explore new ways to expand remote teaching. As labour law expert Naomi Soldon puts it, these unions are essential now more than ever to help employees (teachers in this case) maintain their negotiating power.
Moreover, especially when the educational structure is steering a lot more towards the remote teaching system, you’ll find it beneficial to develop your expertise beyond what you already know. Furthermore, diversity and inclusion are the main drivers in professional networking. Therefore, make use of this professional umbrella to remain relevant.
3. Adopt different teaching technologies
Variety, they say, is the spice of life, and it’s very relevant in this regard. By their very nature, students tend to get bored with the same thing within a short while. It’s therefore in your interest to spice things up as much as you can. Today, different educational technologies support remote teaching and learning. Perhaps, these inventors considered the essence of keeping the remote experience simple and fun.
Currently, there are tech tools such as Nearpod, Google Classroom, Edpuzzle, Flipgrid, etc., to help make the teaching and learning experience as seamless and memorable as possible. Your responsibility is to choose those that complement your teaching environment, not forgetting that they’re things your students will enjoy using too.
