#AVENUES LESSON PLANNER ONLINE HOW TO#

During these meetings, some time and attention should be given to teacher well-being and emotional health.

Staff meetings should still be held regularly-even if it’s through a videoconferencing platform-to keep staff connected.

If they are not, create those opportunities for yourself. Your school leadership should be building in regular opportunities for you to stay connected to your colleagues during this time. “Teachers need to connect with each other now more than ever,” Kitchen says. Community and connection need to be a priority for teachers, too.

#AVENUES LESSON PLANNER ONLINE HOW TO#

Parents will be better able to support students if they understand how to use the technology, so provide them with tutorials on the tech you use, including whatever platform you use to disseminate information.ģ. For example, you might offer written announcements and record the same announcements in a short video each week so students and parents can choose the format that works best for them. Although it’s important to consistently post through one platform, it’s also helpful to provide the information in more than one mode. If parents or students need help outside of your regular office hours or they need help with technology, who can they contact? Make this information clearly available. Create a backup plan for off-hours and tech support.Establish regular office hours and advertise them in an easy-to-find place so parents know when you’ll be most accessible. When can students and parents expect to hear from you? How and when can they get in touch with you when needed? If you don’t set boundaries you’ll end up feeling like you have to be available 24/7, which will quickly lead to burnout. Set clear expectations and boundaries for communication.And rather than toggling around between emails, text alerts, blog posts, website announcements, and newsletters, choose one platform for outgoing information and stick to it if your whole school can do the same you’ll see even better results. Weekly updates are a good way to keep everyone informed about what’s going on in your class. When parents know where and when to look for information from you, they’ll do a better job of keeping up with it and following through on their end. Establish a consistent location and predictable schedule for sharing information.“We really need parents to be our partners in this learning community,” Kitchen says. Because they are sometimes expected to play an even more prominent role in supporting student learning, they need more support from you. Parents are also adjusting to this new way of doing school.

Communication with parents needs to be more thorough, streamlined, and predictable. Other good resources that can guide and inform the conversations you have in these early weeks are:Ģ. So you are teaching these skills all at once, and it’s not something separate or extra.

But when I assign that, if I’m using Google Classroom, then I’m going to assign that through Google Classroom and teach you how you’re going to open an assignment, how you’re going to submit it, how you’ll be receiving feedback. “If you are explicitly teaching persistence,” Kitchen says, “maybe I’m going to give you a challenge that’s not content-related, but something that you might have to kind of grapple with. So focus your lessons on those things, intertwining the two when possible. On top of that, students need practice with whatever digital tools you’ll be using. Social emotional skills can be woven in during this time. Things will go more smoothly if you devote the early weeks to building community so students feel connected. Resist the temptation to dive right into curriculum at the start of the school year.

The first weeks of school should be devoted to community building and digital competency. Along with these differences, she also shared a few things that should stay exactly the same. She came up with nine: three that are specific to community building and communication, and six that focus on instructional design. I asked Melanie to share some ways online teaching should be different from face-to-face teaching.

Avenues lesson planner online