Calling all parents... Teachers need your help!

Calling all Parents, so school is going virtual and you have a kid that needs to learn online. First, I know it is overwhelming and I am not sure I can solve all issues with this but I can give some tips from my experience as a virtual instructor and training designer. Here are some tips to help your child during the day. I am going to break this down into two categories of virtual learning to know about

Asynchronous learning vs Synchronous Instruction.

Schools will be doing both this school year and it's important to know how to help in both cases.

1. Synchronous Instruction - Students connecting directly with their teacher for live instruction. This is likely done using a video conferencing tool that has been working feverishly to turn themselves into virtual classrooms, such as Teams, Zoom, Meet, Newrow, Etc. These are all great tools and there are definitely many of them out there with different flavors and options.

What can you do to help?

a. Find a place in the house that limits distractions and as quiet as possible.

b. Purchase a headset with a microphone. If you can afford it, grab some with noise-canceling technology. Note: you will get what you pay for here.

c. Ensure their computer being has a webcam. This allows for collaboration.

d. Set them up for success with a computer and a mouse.

e. Ensure they are taking breaks away from the computer between sessions. This means walking away from the computer and doing something that requires them to get their blood flowing like standing up and walking around the room as a minimum.

f. Sit down with them and show interest in what they are doing. Make sure they know that you support the process and never speak negatively about it. The teacher needs your support.

g. You may need to troubleshoot with them at times to make sure that their mic and webcam are working.

h. Encourage them to still use a notebook like they would in school. There are tools online but they are still transitioning and need to be connected physically to what they are used too.

i. Help your student with communications with the teacher. They cannot just walk up to the teacher and ask questions. Help them learn how to send an email and/or message to the teacher. They will learn this better over time but they will need your help at first.

2. Asynchronous Instruction - This is where the teacher is not live with the students and the content is delivered to them by a website then the instructor is there to help remediate with students who are struggling, track their progress and score their work and give feedback, etc.)

a. Keep track of the time they are spending interfacing with the computer. They should be spending a similar amount of time online that they would spend in school. If they are not spending at least 45 minutes a day (per course) you may need to make sure they are keeping up with the classroom pace.

b. Have them print the course pacing guide (or course schedule). Have them hang this up on the wall wherever they are working and use this as a checklist. Meet with them once a week at this document and check off what they completed.

c. Make sure you are tracking their progress and scores in the course. You could even have them write their score on the pacing guide when they get it.

d. You will likely need to help them navigate how to submit assignments. Students struggle with file management and may need your support in figuring this out. If you are both struggling, reach out to the teacher and they can help.

e. Watch out for this - If they say they are submitting their assignments and they don't have any scores, they are likely not submitting the assignment or struggling with how to submit the assignment.

f. Sit down with them and have them show you their scores and what the content looks like. Show interest in what they are learning and be supportive.

I am opening myself up for support for anyone on my friend list. If you are struggling with anything, ping me and I can help you sort it out.

Here is an excellent video to check out