This post is week 6 of 8 in the #8WeeksofSummer Blog Challenge for educators
As I always say in these posts, it has been a very challenging year for all of us. Although I am not new to online teaching, I had to adapt my face to face lessons to their online version, so this meant a lot of work behind the scenes.
Teaching online has to sides: Sychronous and asynchronous teaching / learning or a combination of both.
What is this you might ask, if you are not familiar with the terms:
According to wikipedia:
Synchronous learning refers to a learning event in which a group of students are engaging in learning at the same time. Before learning technology allowed for synchronous learning environments, most online education took place through asynchronous learning methods.
According to edglossary:
Asynchronous learning is a general term used to describe forms of education, instruction, and learning that do not occur in the same place or at the same time. ... When teachers instruct students who are in the same classroom or learningenvironment, the term “in-person learning” may be applied.
In my country schools have used both methods. Especially with smaller ages, asynchronous learning was more common, while high school students had their clsses online with their teacher and their fellow students.
I have used various platforms and sites to help me with this difficult task.
My synchronous teaching
First of all, as I have mentioned in my previous posts, I used Skype, Zoom, Webex, Viber and Facebook messenger for my online classes, whatever suited my students the most.
Since my classes are usually one on one or a small group of 2-3 people, I have hot met a lot of challenges.
Speaking activities were not a problem since we could still see each other and talk to each other. As far as writing is concerned, Google docs was a tremendous help, since we could simultaneously write - I uploaded and shared my worksheets with my activities / theory / texts etc. and students could work while we were having a lesson or even afterwards as homework.
If the task was on the book, students took pictures with their smart phones and sent the activities to me, so I could check them out.
Another site / app that has helped me a lot, especially with my groups, was Kahoot.
In a very simple way, students could choose the correct answer to a task and we could meke it like a competition or a quiz game, which was really fun for them and participated gladly. It has both free and paid versions, the paid version has more features and it is definitely worth it.
My asynchronous teaching:
Of course I could not leave my students withoout activities.
First of all, I should say that most publishers as well as British council / Goethe Institut (and I am sure the official institutes for other languages) offer their own platforms with online exercises, videos and worksheets for the students, which was a big help, because students could revise according to what chapters we had worked during our lessons.
YouTube was a great help, since is familiar to everybody, and students could watch a video clip or a song and complete a task on Google Docs or they could use one of the following sites:
quizlet was my students favourite. I created lists of vocabulary and my students could learn them with flashcards, matching exercises, spelling exercises, games and lots more. There are also audio exercises in many languages and I could use this for all the languages I teach or learn. Students can also create their own lists (which can be fun!)
educandy : my personal favourite. This has to do with vocabulary as well. You write your lists and it automatically creates games like hangman, matching, memory etc. You can also use this for other languages! It is easy to use, you just sent your students the link, they don't have to create an account! Especially my children students loved it.
As I have menioned above, all these activities need a lot preparation form the teacher and most of the time this is not appreciated, but I believe that it's worth it, when you see the joy in your students' eyes and the fact that all these activities actually help them learn.
I don't know if we will go back to class this year of if there's gonna be a new lockdown. What I know is that I am keeping these tools for me face to face classes as well!
Looking forward to read your posts on this!