Every classroom has its fair share of quiet students, and it’s all too easy for them to fade into the background. Quiet students tend not to participate in group discussions, but always deliver their homework on time. Clearly it’s not that they don’t know the answer–they just lack the confidence to express themselves in front of others. In one study, a staggering 1 in 5 school-age girls admitted to avoiding raising their hand in class…
Read More »Teaching in virtual classrooms can be much like the widely circulated YouTube video you may have seen called “A Conference Call in Real Life.” If you watch it, you’ll recognize the familiar awkwardness of online meetings, where the rhythm of conversational interaction is thrown wildly askew by technological hiccups and the absence of visual cues. Virtual space is not always easy, so how do you teach in it? While virtual classrooms are not without challenges,…
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In the era of fake news and Internet misinformation, ensuring that students know how to find reliable sources of information online is essential. Thanks to the relative ease of creating and sharing content online, students are confronted with publications created solely to entertain, persuade, and incite via incorrect or incomplete statistics. Students diving into the world of academic and professional-level research often have no awareness of the gaps in their understanding when it comes to performing…
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It’s the time of year when spooky stories emerge and haunted traditions appear! Every family is sure to have their own traditions for autumn–from pumpkin-carving to harvest rituals, there’s something for everyone. Halloween traditions aren’t reserved for home alone, however. Some spooky teachers were willing to share the Halloween traditions they have started in their own classrooms here. Cemetery Trek On or around Halloween, Dr. Carter, an associate professor in Virginia, takes his class to meet…
Read More »As we’ve discussed previously, cheating is a concern even with online learning. Technology is an essential tool for the modern classroom, but with technology comes many more ways for students to take advantage of the system, especially since students can know more about the technology they are using than their teachers. For many, it is hard to envision a scenario where students complete online exams without using their smartphones, tablets, and other devices to look…
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Studying is a part of every student’s school experience, but it doesn’t have to be done alone. In fact, studies show that students benefit greatly from participating in study groups with their peers. There’s all sorts of research documenting how students can learn from each other, but that learning doesn’t happen automatically, and some worry that it’s not likely to occur in a study group where there’s no supervision and distractions abound. Recent findings should…
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Students always have questions, but they rarely ask them, especially at the beginning of the year. They might feel awkward or embarrassed to ask questions, or perhaps it’s just inertia. Whatever the cause, the vast majority of student questions go unasked, and for teachers this can be wildly frustrating. Teachers can’t answer the questions students don’t ask, and in many cases, the unasked questions represent anxieties and uncertainties that negatively affect students’ performance in class…
Read More »in Music Education, Parent-Child Advice, Teachers - 0 Comments
Deciding whether to allow students to listen to music in the classroom is a modern teacher’s dilemma. Every single time students need to write an essay or work on a problem, they say, “Can I put my headphones on? I think better that way!” But is that really true? Does music help or hinder concentration? Let’s take a look at the thoughts of three different high school teachers and their takes on letting students listen…
Read More »According to folks who spend a lot of time hosting web meetings, there doesn’t seem to be any gray area–it can be either incredibly rewarding, or endlessly frustrating. As technology improves, web conferencing applications enable hosts to extend the benefits of live classroom interaction into online spaces, while also allowing students to meet together online as they collaborate and grow in their knowledge and skills. When it all comes together, it’s a beautiful thing–but web…
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What does the first day of school with online learning look like? Your impulse may be to think about replicating the first-day activities from in-person learning, but what works face-to-face doesn’t necessarily translate well online. Here are some Zoom teaching tips for the first day of online school. 1. Create a good first impression. We all know first impressions matter, perhaps even more so than anything else the teacher does in the course. To start,…
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