A HUGE thank you to all the amazing teachers out there who’ve gone out of their way to reduce the stress of our new distance learning teaching reality.
As a teacher who, up until 3 weeks ago, did not use Google Drive and Classroom, I can’t thank you all enough for your kindness. In an attempt to pass along the good deeds, I’m linking some of the best tutorials I’ve found beneficial.
Best Distance Learning Tutorials
#1 Cassi Noack’s Remote Learning: 6 Online Lessons is the BEST! She breaks it down step-by-step how to create lessons for remote learning and how to add various elements to online worksheets. If you are not fully comfortable with our new online teaching platform, I’d highly recommend her lessons.
#2 Teachers’ Tech “How to Set Up and Use Google Classroom”. (I told you I was starting from scratch…I’d never used Google Classroom!). Jamie, the host, does a thorough job and shows you what Google Classroom looks like from the teacher’s and the student’s view. Here’s the link to Teacher’s Tech: How to Set Up and Use Google Classroom. This link of course leads to numerous other helpful tutorials.
#3 Jennifer Findley has shared some time-saving and stress-reducing freebies for distance learning. For the first three weeks, I relied on her reading menus as choice options for students. Here are her choice boards.
I also love her videos on tackling all things distance learning. She has free downloadable guides. Check out her tutorials here.
Connecting With Students During Distance Learning
#4 Google Meet has been a friendly tool for a variety of uses. Most importantly, I hold office hours twice each week where students meet up with me. I also use it to record read aloud. It’s friendly and easy to use. You’ll find the icon on your Google Drive quilt dots.
Another Mind-Blowing Distance Learning Tutorial
#5 Learning to make pdfs into distance learning fillable pdfs. Check out this tutorial here. It’s another Teacher’s Tech tutorial. I was MIND BLOWN!!
I’ve been using my own items and converting them to individual learning packets and Google Classroom friendly work. I can’t tell you what relief it is to have most of my work assignments done for the week from one packet. They’re now called Individual Work Packets in our distance learning platform. You’ll find four of them here. They’re perfect for 5th-8th and offer reading, writing, sentence work, and vocabulary. I’ve kept the topics high-interest so engagement is built in. Find the Individual Work Packets here.
I’ve added a week-long teaching guide for five days’ of work. You pick what you’d like to add to your packets.
Distance Learning Freebie
I’m also giving away these Reading Response Menus in the hope that they’ll reduce your stress during these trying times. I have them for 4th – 8th grades. Find them here.
They are part of my Reading Response Log Unit.
I love using reading logs for a variety of reasons. I recommend using them in combination with the reading menus. Here’s a blog post on why I still use reading logs.
I’d love to hear about some of your favorite tutorials or tips you’ve learned to thrive during our new teaching reality.
I’m teaming up with some amazing bloggers this month.
Wow! Thanks to the talented teachers who have come to the rescue of so many teachers who were given only days to learn how to practice distance learning with their students. Although the past few weeks have been stressful to all in education, the teachers, parents, and students have worked together so that learning can take place. Wishing everyone the very best during the final months of the school year.