We know, we know… you didn’t sign up for this!

The pandemic has brought it’s fair share (or maybe unfair share) of challenges, one of those being forcing us all to start doing almost everything remotely. Due to the closure of schools, remote learning has become an essential part of our working day. Not only does this skill now apply to a qualified member of teaching staff, but also to supply staff and teaching assistants.

It is now super important that we’re ALL aware of how it all works and there’s no need to be a tech wizard to use it! Here’s our top tips for using platforms like Teams and to teach remotely. 

1. Structure

2. The right settings

3. Record your session

4. Personalise it

5. Screen Share

1. Structure

Creating your lesson through calendar view will send an email to students, who can then accept and find the lesson in their calendar which is a great way to replicate the school day structure to yours and your students’ day. 

2. The right settings

Sitting through a family quiz video call is hard enough with delayed WIFI connections and talking over one and other without multiple children getting over excited trying to talk to their friends! The best way to avoid disruption is to stop students presenting unless it is part of the lesson plan and to mute them too! (you can do this in the meeting options section!) 

3. Record your session

Recording your session is super important for your students, technical difficulties are bound to happen therefore by recording your session, your students will have access to your lesson afterwards. This is also useful for you, to avoid answering the same questions over and over!

4. Personalise it 

We all know how hard it is to feel motivated sitting in front of a screen all day, so it is s a great idea to use the background feature to mix things up. You can create your own by uploading a picture from your computer, such as a tropical beach or a funny picture relating to your subject!

5. Screen share

Often, the most daunting part of presenting a virtual lesson is seeing the reflection of yourself in the camera. Teams has a great screen sharing feature allowing you to play educational videos or present a PowerPoint to your class.

So there you have it, 5 simple tips that will goa very long way during your remote learning sessions!