What I Wish I’d Known (and Done) Three Weeks Ago

Many of our online teachers work full-time for brick and mortar schools in their hometowns. A few of them made the switch from brick and mortar to online a few weeks ago. We asked them “If you could talk to your past self, what advice would you give, knowing what you know now and having experienced the learning curve of switching suddenly to online?” Here are the lessons those teachers who have lived this transition experience have shared.

If I knew then what I know now, I would…

• track access to resources.
  • make a list of students that had the internet at home and who didn’t.
  • make sure that students had some device at home- whether their own or have them borrow from the school.

• use my support team early and often.
  • make sure that special education and ESL teachers had an answer key to the packets that I assigned.
  • communicate with my co-teachers, whether the same grade or subject to get an idea of what they are assigning, to make sure that students are not getting tons of work from all of us.

• organize my time and set boundaries.
  • set up “office hours” so the students knew when I would answer quickly. (Right now, I feel that they expect me to answer their questions right away, like on call)
  • create a spreadsheet for tracking communication.

Remember…

• Always remember that you are not alone in this transition!
• Not all of your students have support at home
• Not everyone is home, not working. Parents still have to work and then monitor their children to get work complete.