Virtual Teaching FAQ And Details

We are getting bombarded with questions about our virtual teaching.

Here are the answers to the most common questions:

Virtual SetUp:

• 2 computers-the laptop on the stand is from Microsoft Teams for our live stream. The other is for playing music and is connected to the smartboard and document camera.
• I am not using an extra microphone, just the regular computer microphone
• Screen sharing has been causing some issues so we use the document camera to show materials on the smartboard. It works well. I recommend a Hue document camera.
• The document camera is connected to my laptop which is connected to the smartboard. This allows easy switching between showing the laptop screen or document camera
• I keep all of the materials for the week on the shelves so I have everything I need.
• I am using my regular computer speakers to play our songs and it works great.
• The laptop stand is from Amazon. I chose it because it raises up and swivels. CLICK HERE FOR TO GET THE STAND.
• I am using the camera on the laptop for our live lessons. I am recording the lessons with my iPhone.

Schedule And Requirements

• We have a full day schedule.
• We have 2 hours of LIVE teaching using Microsoft Teams. We only use Teams for live video. We do not use any of the teaching features.
• We are working up to the 2 hours. Right now we’re at an hour or so. We do the whole 2 hours in one block so we don’t force the families to log on and off. We give breaks throughout.
• We are recording the live lessons each day and sharing those with families who cannot be there live. This allows everyone access to the learning.
• Science and social studies will be integrated into the Live ELA lessons. We will also be doing Mad Science Thursday LIVE. This will begin in a few weeks.
• We use Schoology for our learning management platform. Students/families log in to Schoology every day to access the link for the live meeting. This also marks them as present for the day.
• We’re using Remind to communicate with families.
• Students will attend related/arts and specials as well as small groups in the afternoon. This will begin happening in 2 weeks.
• We have office hours for one on one assistance if needed/requested by families. We will use these office hours to assess students using ESGI.
• I am delivering paper packets to families each week. This is not a requirement but a personal choice. I believe they need these hands on experiences. I will deliver them each week in a safe porch drop off. This will also allow me to see my students and build relationship. As students complete the daily activities, families send pictures of the work.
• Students will also be assigned weekly lessons from the Florida Virtual School to complete at their own pace. These will be used for our grades.

Music

• We have a playlist on iTunes that we play music from. This makes it easy to just click a song to play.
• You can see our playlist by clicking HERE!
• The songs we sing as a class each day are: A Beautiful Day by Jack Hartmann, Alphardy by Dr. Jean, Alien Alphabet by Intellitunes and Alphabet Zoo by Jack Hartmann.

Participation

• Students are engaged and participating. I taught them to mute and unmute themselves and they’re doing great.
• I sent home a visual rules poster for virtual learning and that helps. I am also setting expectations for sitting up, being still, looking at the screen, etc. This is definitely helping. The rules poster is in our virtual learning freebie linked below.
• We used visuals for mute and unmute and that worked great. The clipart we used is from Creating 4 The Classroom and can be found HERE!
• The kids do have family/parent/sibling support. It was great to have that help.
• We do explicit discussions of rules and procedures and expectations. Just as we do in the classroom. We will continue to do this daily. As we set the expectations the kids have responded well.
• We are using the wireless doorbell. It works great. You can read about the doorbell and get your own doorbell HERE.
• We are using our regular resources with great success (Bootcamp, research projects, Read It Up, etc). The kids are responding well to the lessons.

All of our posts for virtual learning are here: