Thursday, April 30, 2020

How to Transition to Online Teaching: Ten Tips

A few months ago, Zoom was foreign to me and I rarely used Skype and FaceTime. Virtual teaching was something I’d occasionally thought about but dismissed it as too cumbersome or impersonal.  Really, I’m a technophobe. Then the pandemic hit and virtual classrooms sprung up everywhere. The only way to teach was online.
This term I’m teaching writing at the University of Utah’s Osher Lifelong Learning Program (for adults over 50). Part of my course, “Re-Imagining Your Life: A Creative Aging Writing Workshop,” stresses the importance of stepping out of our comfort zones in order to grow.  So back in March, when the program director asked if I’d be willing to learn Zoom and teach online, I jumped at the chance. I realized this was the moment to expand my technology comfort zone. The first week I muddled through as we experienced a few technological difficulties, but I encouraged the students (most of whom were also new to online learning) to re-frame this as a group adventure. I’m almost finished with the six-week course, and through trial and error, I’ve quickly learned a few things along the way to help make my online classroom run smoothly. Here are my ten tips:
1.     Lay out the ground rules upfront – Spend a few minutes in the first class session explaining how your online platform works, the mute feature, how to ask questions, taking breaks, if any, etc.  

2.     Pace the instructional material – The tendency may be to pack in a lot of information but pare down what you normally cover in an in-person class. With online learning, it’s a bit more of a strain to take in a lot information at once. Email your students to follow-up with any quotes, handouts and references mentioned during class.

3.     Speak in a conversational tone – Be aware of your pacing and make sure you speak clearly and not too quickly.  

4.     Use visuals – Use images, PowerPoint or Word docs to complement what you are saying. Because we all have different learning styles (auditory, visual, kinesthetic), slides or documents with quotes, short passages or images help visual learners to read along. Kinesthetic learners can take notes on what they hear and see. To mix it up, Zoom has a whiteboard feature which is easy to use with a little practice.

5.     Ask for help – Enlist a TA or student to monitor the chat feature and aggregate the questions while you focus on the teaching.

6.     Practice, practice, practice — Do a few sessions with yourself or someone else to test out your mic and camera. Very often, the camera isn’t at eye level so you may need to prop up your computer or your chair to make sure that you’re gazing straight ahead.

7.     Scan the “room” – It’s much harder online than in person to get a sense if students are engaged.  Try to scan the students’ faces to see if you’re holding their interest. If need be, call on people!  This way you’ll get more active participation which, in turn, will make your class more interesting.

8.     Silence is Golden – Make sure your phones, computer calendar and event notifications are turned off (I learned this the hard way).  Also, mute the students while you’re talking to prevent background noise. You’d be surprised what gets picked up: radios, texts, cell phones, kids crying, dogs barking. You get the idea.  Use the “raise hand” feature (or have the students raise their hands) to unmute.

9.     Close your door— Unless you want your cat jumping up onto the keyboard, your dog lunging onto your lap, or your little ones barging in, make sure your door is closed.

10.  Create the right atmosphere – the background to your image on screen shouldn’t be too distracting, and neither should your clothes. For this, I’ll defer to the experts:  How to Look Your Best on a Webcam. For a master class on lighting check out: How to Look Good on Camera According to Tom Ford.  Here’s some common sense information on how to dress and how to create your web environment:  How to Look Fresh and Professional in Videoconferences and Web Meetings.
Go easy on yourself!  We’re all adapting to a new “normal” and much of your success with teaching online is remaining flexible. I’ve really enjoyed teaching virtually and am thrilled that I’ve had the opportunity to nudge my students and myself out of our comfort zones. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’m slated to teach my next online course starting mid-May. I can’t wait!

Guest blog author Debbie Leaman’s writing, including personal essays, has appeared in numerous local, national, and international magazines and on a variety of websites. She teaches various writing courses including “Writing Through Grief,” “Writing as a Tool to Cope with Anxiety” and “Re-Imaging Your Life: Creative Aging.”  Read more at: debbieleaman.com and debbieleaman.com/creative-aging-blog.

Monday, April 20, 2020

Becoming Virtually Mindful … No, Mindful Virtually


This is the last in a series of blog posts helping you add value to your time in coronavirus quarantine.  We’ve pointed you to online resources for edutainment (museums, music, films, continuing education classes), virtual travel journeys, ways to entertain kids schooling from home, and support for exercise at home.

Today, we’re going to help you keep your sanity while sheltering-in-place.

I was already on an exploration of mindfulness before the pandemic arrived, and have welcomed the strategies to calm my anxiety-prone thoughts.  Especially the skill of noticing your thoughts without judgment, but not allowing yourself to get sucked into them.  “Oh look, I’m worried about [insert symptom or person’s name] … again.  How interesting . … Let’s return to deep breathing and clear that busy mind …”

This interview with Jack Kornfield gives you an introduction to the general principles and benefits of mindfulness, especially in the context of Covid-19.  Bottom line:  (1) accept fear, anxiety and grief as normal; and (2) try to let it go.  Breathe deep, breathe some more.

There are plenty of free resources available online to introduce you to mindfulness and guide you through your own mindfulness experience.  Here are a few to try:

·      Mind Control:  Managing your mental health during Covid-19 (U of Toronto, available through Coursera)
·      The Science of Wellbeing (Happiness) (Yale’s most popular course, available through Coursera)
·      Coronavirus Sanity Guide (Ten Percent Happier)
·      UCLA Mindful (UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center)
·      Insight Timer (guided meditations)
·      Balance: Meditation (app)
·      Shine: Calm Anxiety & Stress (app)
·      Ten Percent Happier Meditation (app)
·      Headspace (app)
·      Calm (app)

The unbelievable thing is, this mindfulness stuff really works.  There are neuroscience explanations for how/why it works (it really does rewire your brain), but take my word for it and try it for yourself.

Breathe deep, breathe some more.  Go wash your hands. Don’t check your email, newsfeed or social media for a bit.  Breathe deep, breathe some more.

Monday, April 13, 2020

Stay Safe, Exercise at Home


Depending on where you live, you’ve been experiencing shelter-in-place requirements for well over a month or only a couple weeks.  Or maybe you don’t have any such requirements, but you’re voluntarily staying out of virus harm’s way.  My county just extended its stay-at-home order to May 1, and clarified that exercise outdoors is restricted to the geography near your house.  Other counties near us have issued enforceable orders that forbid anyone from out-of-county coming in; so, I can’t do any of my favorites like hiking or camping.  Gyms, parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, weight rooms, yoga studios are closed for now.

If you’re like me, you’re indoors, eating and sitting much more than you usually do.  Other than walking or running in place while going one of the virtual tours of someplace beautiful in this previous blog post, what’s a person to do about getting exercise?  Some coaches and studios are offering free online resources to help you exercise while in quarantine:

·      Corepower Yoga is offering a special collection of free online classes (yoga and meditations)
·      Peloton is offering a 90-day free trial on many of their classes (bike and other equipment optional) (running, strength, toning, cycling, yoga, meditation and outdoor workouts)
·      Barre3 (The Bar Method) is offering a 15-day free trial starting April 13 (strength conditioning, cardio, mindfulness)
·      Daily Burn is offering a 30-day free trial (thousands of workout videos, plus running and yoga)
·      Gold’s Gym app is free until May 31 (600 audio and visual courses)
·      Yoga with Kassandra (10 minutes full body stretch for beginners every morning)
·      Amazon Prime Video has oodles of exercise videos for Prime members (i.e., not totally free); just search for the kind of exercise you’re interested in (yoga, exercise and fitness, Zumba, pilates, dance fitness, etc.)
·      Nike Training Club (workouts and fitness guidance)
·      Wakeout! (exercise for busy people)

Don’t leave the kids out of the exercise fun.  A PE teacher offers free online daily workouts for kids on YouTube.

Stay safe, exercise at home.

Monday, April 6, 2020

Mom, I’m bored. Can we go back to school yet? Please?


If you are the parent of K-12 kids in this time of coronavirus sheltering-in-place, you have my sympathies and respect.  You are playing so many roles:  teacher, teacher’s assistant, gym instructor, recess supervisor, mental health counselor, mediator, and of course, parent.  Oh, right, and you may also be trying to keep up with your own work from home.

Your approach to helping your kids spend their time at home productively may range from distributing and supervising homework provided by a land-based school, home-schooling (where you choose the topics) or unschooling (where the students choose the topics). 

Below are some free online resources to help you keep the kids engaged during those many hours of the day:
·      Early learning boost emails for 3-4-year olds (literacy, math, science)
·      Khan Academy:  Ages 2-18 remote learning resources
·      Other Goose:  Ages 2-7 lesson plans (20 min. lessons, available free for three weeks)
·      Childrens books’ authors read stories aloud online
·      Read Works:  K-12 reading comprehension instruction
·      Discovery K12:  online homeschool
·      Mystery Science lessons
·      Educational webinars from TEDEd
·      Lesson plans by grade level
·      Extensive list of resources available for free K-12 home schooling (English, math, science, physical education, languages, geography, music, art/design, drama, history, information technology (IT))
·      Mom creates periodic table battleship game to teach her kids chemistry
·      Minecraft video game offers free educational content
·      Daily online PE (physical education) classes for kids

And for high school and university students, or even the parents themselves!
·      Broadway shows:  digital tool kits for integrating the theater arts into standards-based curriculum, featuring student activities, suggested lessons, historical backgrounds and more
·      Harvard University online courses:  140 Harvard classes are publicly available online; this link provides a list of the 31 most interesting free courses (computer science, public health, politics, history, poetry, science of cooking, etc.)
·      Coursera courses:  100 free online courses available through May 31, including reading material, graded homework, projects, and a certificate of completion (public health, coding, mindfulness, updating a resume, learning to play guitar, etc.)
·      10 university art classes you can take for free online
·      Babbel makes its language learning app free for students in various countries