Hi all!  Coming at you to share what I’m doing in distance learning these days.  This is in no way me saying I know what I am doing (I feel lost too!), but I love to hear about what works and what doesn’t for other people.  So here’s what I’ve found that has worked for me the past month or so! (Read about my favorite physical tools here)

Assigning Work

For the first two weeks, before I had all of my students on a schedule, I sent them all a weekly assignment in Google Slides.  I really love doing it that way, and I’ve continued using that format (you can see my samples here).  I like that it’s the same format and routine each time.  That said, as I began to meet with my students and see the amount of work they were getting assigned from all their other classes, I wanted to cut back a little bit.  I meet with my students virtually about every OTHER week, so now, I only assign them work on the “off” week.

Assigning Sessions

For the most part, I try to keep a schedule weekly for the sessions, but I work around what I need to.  My main reason for this is because I am a Mom of 3 young children, and there are certain times of the day that things are MUCH more chaotic than others.  I try to plan a bunch of sessions in a row during nap times or early in the morning when my husband can help watch the kids, and it’s really helped.  I send a reminder to all students who have virtual sessions that week on Monday and remind them the day of.

Actual Sessions

I’m still nervous for pretty much every session at this point.  Will my activity work?  Will the students show up?  Will my dog bark the whole time?  Will my child yell a profanity?  It usually works out though, and I love getting to see my student’s faces.  I shared how I run my sessions here, and I keep doing it the same way.  I pretty much keep the same screen up on my computer each time now, and I thought I’d share that today:

I try to close all other windows on my computer when I’m doing sessions, so I don’t get too overwhelmed.  I like to have all of these open before I start, because I screen share every time, and this makes things easier.  So each time, I have the Google Meet screen as my main screen.  I keep an “agenda” of what I want to get done on the right side, in a separate Notes app.  Then, I open and drag whatever I’m screen sharing on the left, for quick access.  Finally, I use a drawing app for Pictionary or another game almost every session, so I have that open and ready to go as well.  I love being set up at the start, it helps me so much!

Plan More, Not Less

Before I started virtual sessions, I asked the Instagram community for advice, and a fellow psych mentioned that it was a good idea to have more activities than you think you’d get through.  I’m so glad they shared that.  I forgot about this piece of advice the first week, and had a few sessions where my whole plan was done in 10 minutes, and then there was nothing to do!  Now, I always have an “if time” or “extra” activity on my agenda, just in case.

Break the Ice

There were a few sessions, after my first week, that made me question if Distance Learning would work at all.  As it turns out though, some students were just as nervous as I was.  Now, I take the time to do a quick activity (calming tools Pictionary, emotions hangman), within the first 5 minutes, to break the ice and get kids talking.

What tips to you all have for Distance Learning?  Come share with me!