How to make zoom feel like a real classroom.

The biggest things I miss about teaching face to face is the personal interaction and giving feedback individually. I am a chilled teacher believe it or not and I have a high tolerance for controlled chaos and autonomy in my classrooms provided there is evidence of planning and evidence of work and evidence of learning. Learning and progress and value in my classes are the most important thing to me. But in the land of zoom, it's far more challenging, every instruction takes about three times as long. I have cut material and when doing so I ask how much will my student’s future learning be affected if I don’t teach this or go over it quickly? Is this material they could do alone? Is this really necessary? Can I combine this and streamline it with something else or embed it into other material? But most of all, how do I keep my classroom an intellectually engaging space that students are happy to come back to? How do I help them to see value in what I am doing? How do I help enjoy being there?

I have had some disaster lessons but generally, the rate of attendance in Year 7 and Year 9 – nearly always full ( rarely do I have more than one or two students away) seems to point to the fact that I am doing ok. (Of course, there is no guarantee I am a good teacher and even if I am a good teacher, there are areas that I am terrible at – I talk too much when giving instructions- I need to make them clear; I need to write more neatly in real-time and type more carefully in the chat – just to name a few of my weaknesses).

The problem here is not the technology or the internet connection but how we get around them.

Show the kids respect: Respect their time. I do my best only to put materials on quintal during work hours( there have been a few lapses) and before the first class of the week. Respect their work: They produce good work, I must produce good comments and return assignments in a timely manner. When I am late, I model good manners and apologize profusely and explain why. I have had students tell me that my comments are their reward. I also give time in class for students to read my comments on quintal. I respect that maybe in online learning they have a better way than I do. I also respect that my kids need silence from me in order to think.. (and this can be really difficult and hard. Silence on zoom, while you are recording, is awkward, so I often say a sentence to the Gods of Zoom who will never watch my recording – students are working individually in silence and I am pausing the recording.) You can’t read and think and make connections when your teacher is talking the whole time and usually some rubbish conversation about not being to see your face. ( Go back to a real classroom - do you always expect your students to stare at you/ make eye contact with you?)

Show the kids trust. Occasionally there are children who do not want to learn, who are evil, who are lazy – but generally, I trust that the vast majority (provided I had done my job properly) care about what they are doing and want to learn (even if their basic skills give the appearance that they are being lazy)… so this trust means I allow students to choose whether they have their cameras on or off. There are conditions - use your reactions when a question is asked, type answers into the chat ( which always take far longer than you could imaging and this took me ages to get comfortable with) and when I need cameras on they must be on. I also let my students know that I will be asking them at any time to screen share their work, or hold up their notebooks so I can give them feedback on notes and monitor. It is incredibly rare in my classes for a student to go missing in action. I do not expect my student to ask for permission to go to the toilet – it is their house, not mine. And besides, they might get a kidney stone as sometimes I don’t notice the request in the chat. I do ask them to send me a private message and let me know they are going. Most people respond to trust positively. And I refuse to make my class an uncomfortable place for others because of my personal desire for control over my students or because of one or two students. Staring at a screen does not equal learning or concentration. I also tell my kids that if they need to stand up stretch lie down – they can.. sitting all day is as bad as smoking.

Break out rooms and mind maps

I use break rooms all the time in various combinations. And I find that I feel like I am almost in a real classroom. Often my students are not discussing the material in the breakout room but using what's app or discord to do the task. I am ok with that. They also are often using the chat function. Unfortunately, when you move into a new breakout room you can’t see the previous discussion with the students.. so you can go into a break-out room feel that awkward silence and see an empty chat and think nothing is happening.. when in fact it had already happened in the chat. If in doubt ask the student to copy and paste into the chat again. Once it is there save chat if you want to keep it for later.. (sometimes someone in a breakout room has written something amazing. If I know they are one of those people who has a zoom/ internet that is in and out, I will save the chat and copy and past it in later.)

Breakout rooms for doing worksheets/ essays etc.

I will set up four or five break-out rooms. My instructions are this, “I will remain in the main room, if you have any questions or you want me to check your work, you may leave the breakout room and come and see me. When I come to visit you in your breakout room, I will be asking you to screen share and you show me what you are doing.” I wait five minutes then begin to move. Sometimes kids come for help, sometimes they don’t.

These smaller breakout rooms are like this so that I can identify students with problems in their learning and give them the support they need without disturbing too many students. Not all students need to hear you teaching Jimmy about where he needs paragraphs or teaching Jessie how to take more effective notes, or that one student has completely misunderstood the instructions.

Using screen share, annotating. Because everything takes longer on zoom, I explain to kids before give them feedback that I will be talking fast that they will need to take their own notes as I need to move around everywhere. In the case that I give alt of feedback, I tell kids to screenshot the annotations I have made. If they don’t know how to screenshot then they can take a photo with their camera.

I am a hyper teacher in class in real-time. I jump around a lot. I have learned to jump in zoom.

Different setups create ops for differentiation

Sometimes these breakout rooms are set up in the following ways.

I choose who is in which room. This is done when certain students are done and on free time. I explain to them that I can’t help everyone in the way they need to help with online learning and I ask them to help me with a weaker student.

Sometimes zoom randomly chooses the combination. I explain to students even if you are in a room with someone you don’t like, just remember it’s not forever and we need to learn to be able to work with people we hate in polite and respectful ways.

I often allow students to join the room of their choice they want to be in and also allow them to move between rooms usually in the context that as I am busy moving around rooms, if they need help or further explanation, they may find a person a and b and ask them to come and help… they also may want to look at what another group is doing to see if they are on track.

There have been times when I closed the breakout room immediately as my instructions clearly weren’t clear enough and everyone had misunderstood and seemed to be doing the wrong thing.

And there will always be a student twenty minutes after the activity started say, ‘ I don’t understand what we are doing?’ just a learning opportunity presenting itself. Students need to have their confidence developed to ask questions (and in some cases develop the skill to identify within themselves when they don’t understand).

Breakout rooms for presentations and scoring

Since a presentation or an explanation of a poster usually l has written requirements. ( In my subject this included marks for evidence of planning, grammar, punctuation, content, and appropriacy, bibliography); I will allow students to give the marks for the oral component on zoom. I will bounce around the zoom to keep an eye on it and get some snippets of recording (the recording only records what you see) but I do not interfere. If I hear something good or interesting I will type into the chat and leave the room quietly. Once again students do respond well to the trust I give them. And strangely enough, students will nearly always give lower marks than I would normally give. And it doesn’t matter really. The experience of presenting to friends is a learning experience and grades will be evened out in the other components of marking.

Jigsaw Reading or Jigsaw Viewing with online mindmaps.

(For this to work, you need to prepare beforehand and it may take two or three times to get comfortable.)

Allow multiple screen shares.

Prepare 5 online mind-maps – these mind-maps have key points they are listening for/ notes/ questions.. anyone with the link can write on the mind-map.

Prepare your instructions in Microsoft word. Your instructions should be clear and in short bursts as there is a word limit in the chat. This is prepared so you don’t waste time typing.

Break out room1 gets given the mind-map link for mind-map Group 1 plus video or reading link.

Break out room 2 gets given the mind-map link for mind-map Group 2 plus video or reading link.

Break out room 3 gets given the mind-map link for mind-map Group 3 plus video or reading link.

Break out room 4 gets given the mind-map link for mind-map Group 4 plus video or reading link.

When I did mind was, I had my cohost random students help me rename all people in the zoom for this activity.. e.g. Raphael -1, Kerensa- 2, Keisha-3. Tom, Jess- 1 and so on, etc ) This made it easier for the students to remember what number they were later where I had 15 breakout rooms.

Give them a minimum of 30 minutes.. often you will need more. Remember everything takes longer online. Students are more careful with typing than they are when writing on scrap paper or more careful than me. Their filters of self-criticism to what they present online in the typed word are much higher. As a group, they need to help each other understand and make meaning.

Close break-out rooms. All students come back to the main room. Explain the next instructions. You may now have another set of mind-maps set up plus you recreate the breakout rooms to allow participants to choose. Each room must have at least a new student from each of the previous rooms.

The mind-maps provide evidence. But they also give quieter students a place to respond when they do not want to actively. They are also easy to monitor as I switch between tabs. . With the mind maps I ask students to type their names in unless we are doing an activity where there might be personal feelings or criticism of me – not everyone feels comfortable saying things and put their names to it.) As I switch between tabs will offer to ask other questions or make comment how I relate to the idea.

Here are some links to my class mind-maps. I pay for my subscription as I want the ability to be able to download a pdf or jpeg ( great for reposting in quintal for review or sending to parents) and it allows me to have many.

Images Example 1 and 2 is from group work in breakout room for zoom where students were given reading materials plus video and had to make sense of this information.