Online classroom management differs from in-person strategies, here are some tips for success.
Since the increase of online instruction, teachers created new systems to manage students online.
Online classroom management models differ from in-person strategies in many ways. Teachers are not able to quickly scan the room to see student progress. They are not able to easily see the faces of students who are confused, bored, or tired. Also, teachers don’t have control over students’ learning environment.
During online instruction, students may not have a designated area to work in, it might be too loud, they might have responsibilities of caring for younger siblings, and they can easily jump on their phones to watch videos or turn on the TV while signed into class.
I started out lessons by infusing fun and humor. I shared a meme, GIF, video, story I heard on the news, something I experienced with the class, or a would you rather question.
It led to the majority of students participating right at the start of class, whether it was using the Zoom reactions, typing their ideas in the chat, or unmuting to share with the class.
A meme I used in class that received some laughs.
I used different methods to identify whether students were engaging with the activities I assigned in class. For example, I used Google Slides for a writing assignment and provided one slide for each student to type their work.
This provided me an opportunity to easily see everyone’s progress with the activity and provide direct feedback as needed.
Example of a Google Slides activity:
As a class we read about constellations, students can access the link to the site and they answered questions on their individual slides before we discussed them together.
Also, I created Google docs for activities that were typically worksheets that were printed out in the classroom. I had students make a copy of the document and share it with me, in order for me to keep track of their progress.
If your school uses a learning management system, such as Schoology or Google Classroom, they have tools embedded in their software to see when students are opening assessments, and when assignments are submitted. I often relied on this data to check students’ work completion.
Using Zoom breakout rooms is a hit or a miss, what I found most helpful was strategically creating groups of students by placing a “leader” in the group. I knew this student would keep students on track and providing the groups with roles put the responsibility on all team members to actively participate.
I did my best in rotating among the breakout rooms to check in with groups, in addition to having them share a Google doc with me with updates on their discussion or group work.
In addition, I incentivized students with the ability to choose their partners based on active participation in class and work completion rates.
There are several methods of differentiating instruction online. I was fortunate to have class aides in class. We would often break up the class into smaller groups to increase the likelihood of students participating.
In addition, I would provide students with varying levels of support: I provided instruction and directions to begin a task, then I assigned the students who can work independently to breakout rooms. I stayed in the main room with students who needed more direct instruction on the task.
Depending on the activity, I would provide students options of working independently or with a partner to complete a task.
I took attendance within 5 minutes of class starting. I had an independent activity for students to complete at the start of class. During that time, I would send emails to parents and students who had not yet logged into class.
I had a template saved in my drafts to copy and paste the text. Also, I had a document of parents' and students' emails for each class in order to make it easier to send the email. For students who chronically didn’t attend, I called parents and involved administration as needed.
Similar to in-person instruction, parents were informed of their child’s progress by checking the online portal for attendance and grade reports.
Students consistently not turning in work received a weekly progress report, indicating the missing items and notes from the educational team. I sent a reminder to teachers on Wednesday and I emailed it to parents and students on Fridays.
Online classroom management can make or break the ability of students to achieve success. It’s necessary to think through the daily tasks within an online setting, create an organized structure to present the material, and think “How can students achieve success?”
Since the increase of online instruction, teachers created new systems to manage students online.
Online classroom management models differ from in-person strategies in many ways. Teachers are not able to quickly scan the room to see student progress. They are not able to easily see the faces of students who are confused, bored, or tired. Also, teachers don’t have control over students’ learning environment.
During online instruction, students may not have a designated area to work in, it might be too loud, they might have responsibilities of caring for younger siblings, and they can easily jump on their phones to watch videos or turn on the TV while signed into class.
I started out lessons by infusing fun and humor. I shared a meme, GIF, video, story I heard on the news, something I experienced with the class, or a would you rather question.
It led to the majority of students participating right at the start of class, whether it was using the Zoom reactions, typing their ideas in the chat, or unmuting to share with the class.
A meme I used in class that received some laughs.
I used different methods to identify whether students were engaging with the activities I assigned in class. For example, I used Google Slides for a writing assignment and provided one slide for each student to type their work.
This provided me an opportunity to easily see everyone’s progress with the activity and provide direct feedback as needed.
Example of a Google Slides activity:
As a class we read about constellations, students can access the link to the site and they answered questions on their individual slides before we discussed them together.
Also, I created Google docs for activities that were typically worksheets that were printed out in the classroom. I had students make a copy of the document and share it with me, in order for me to keep track of their progress.
If your school uses a learning management system, such as Schoology or Google Classroom, they have tools embedded in their software to see when students are opening assessments, and when assignments are submitted. I often relied on this data to check students’ work completion.
Using Zoom breakout rooms is a hit or a miss, what I found most helpful was strategically creating groups of students by placing a “leader” in the group. I knew this student would keep students on track and providing the groups with roles put the responsibility on all team members to actively participate.
I did my best in rotating among the breakout rooms to check in with groups, in addition to having them share a Google doc with me with updates on their discussion or group work.
In addition, I incentivized students with the ability to choose their partners based on active participation in class and work completion rates.
There are several methods of differentiating instruction online. I was fortunate to have class aides in class. We would often break up the class into smaller groups to increase the likelihood of students participating.
In addition, I would provide students with varying levels of support: I provided instruction and directions to begin a task, then I assigned the students who can work independently to breakout rooms. I stayed in the main room with students who needed more direct instruction on the task.
Depending on the activity, I would provide students options of working independently or with a partner to complete a task.
I took attendance within 5 minutes of class starting. I had an independent activity for students to complete at the start of class. During that time, I would send emails to parents and students who had not yet logged into class.
I had a template saved in my drafts to copy and paste the text. Also, I had a document of parents' and students' emails for each class in order to make it easier to send the email. For students who chronically didn’t attend, I called parents and involved administration as needed.
Similar to in-person instruction, parents were informed of their child’s progress by checking the online portal for attendance and grade reports.
Students consistently not turning in work received a weekly progress report, indicating the missing items and notes from the educational team. I sent a reminder to teachers on Wednesday and I emailed it to parents and students on Fridays.
Online classroom management can make or break the ability of students to achieve success. It’s necessary to think through the daily tasks within an online setting, create an organized structure to present the material, and think “How can students achieve success?”
Since the increase of online instruction, teachers created new systems to manage students online.
Online classroom management models differ from in-person strategies in many ways. Teachers are not able to quickly scan the room to see student progress. They are not able to easily see the faces of students who are confused, bored, or tired. Also, teachers don’t have control over students’ learning environment.
During online instruction, students may not have a designated area to work in, it might be too loud, they might have responsibilities of caring for younger siblings, and they can easily jump on their phones to watch videos or turn on the TV while signed into class.
I started out lessons by infusing fun and humor. I shared a meme, GIF, video, story I heard on the news, something I experienced with the class, or a would you rather question.
It led to the majority of students participating right at the start of class, whether it was using the Zoom reactions, typing their ideas in the chat, or unmuting to share with the class.
A meme I used in class that received some laughs.
I used different methods to identify whether students were engaging with the activities I assigned in class. For example, I used Google Slides for a writing assignment and provided one slide for each student to type their work.
This provided me an opportunity to easily see everyone’s progress with the activity and provide direct feedback as needed.
Example of a Google Slides activity:
As a class we read about constellations, students can access the link to the site and they answered questions on their individual slides before we discussed them together.
Also, I created Google docs for activities that were typically worksheets that were printed out in the classroom. I had students make a copy of the document and share it with me, in order for me to keep track of their progress.
If your school uses a learning management system, such as Schoology or Google Classroom, they have tools embedded in their software to see when students are opening assessments, and when assignments are submitted. I often relied on this data to check students’ work completion.
Using Zoom breakout rooms is a hit or a miss, what I found most helpful was strategically creating groups of students by placing a “leader” in the group. I knew this student would keep students on track and providing the groups with roles put the responsibility on all team members to actively participate.
I did my best in rotating among the breakout rooms to check in with groups, in addition to having them share a Google doc with me with updates on their discussion or group work.
In addition, I incentivized students with the ability to choose their partners based on active participation in class and work completion rates.
There are several methods of differentiating instruction online. I was fortunate to have class aides in class. We would often break up the class into smaller groups to increase the likelihood of students participating.
In addition, I would provide students with varying levels of support: I provided instruction and directions to begin a task, then I assigned the students who can work independently to breakout rooms. I stayed in the main room with students who needed more direct instruction on the task.
Depending on the activity, I would provide students options of working independently or with a partner to complete a task.
I took attendance within 5 minutes of class starting. I had an independent activity for students to complete at the start of class. During that time, I would send emails to parents and students who had not yet logged into class.
I had a template saved in my drafts to copy and paste the text. Also, I had a document of parents' and students' emails for each class in order to make it easier to send the email. For students who chronically didn’t attend, I called parents and involved administration as needed.
Similar to in-person instruction, parents were informed of their child’s progress by checking the online portal for attendance and grade reports.
Students consistently not turning in work received a weekly progress report, indicating the missing items and notes from the educational team. I sent a reminder to teachers on Wednesday and I emailed it to parents and students on Fridays.
Online classroom management can make or break the ability of students to achieve success. It’s necessary to think through the daily tasks within an online setting, create an organized structure to present the material, and think “How can students achieve success?”
Since the increase of online instruction, teachers created new systems to manage students online.
Online classroom management models differ from in-person strategies in many ways. Teachers are not able to quickly scan the room to see student progress. They are not able to easily see the faces of students who are confused, bored, or tired. Also, teachers don’t have control over students’ learning environment.
During online instruction, students may not have a designated area to work in, it might be too loud, they might have responsibilities of caring for younger siblings, and they can easily jump on their phones to watch videos or turn on the TV while signed into class.
I started out lessons by infusing fun and humor. I shared a meme, GIF, video, story I heard on the news, something I experienced with the class, or a would you rather question.
It led to the majority of students participating right at the start of class, whether it was using the Zoom reactions, typing their ideas in the chat, or unmuting to share with the class.
A meme I used in class that received some laughs.
I used different methods to identify whether students were engaging with the activities I assigned in class. For example, I used Google Slides for a writing assignment and provided one slide for each student to type their work.
This provided me an opportunity to easily see everyone’s progress with the activity and provide direct feedback as needed.
Example of a Google Slides activity:
As a class we read about constellations, students can access the link to the site and they answered questions on their individual slides before we discussed them together.
Also, I created Google docs for activities that were typically worksheets that were printed out in the classroom. I had students make a copy of the document and share it with me, in order for me to keep track of their progress.
If your school uses a learning management system, such as Schoology or Google Classroom, they have tools embedded in their software to see when students are opening assessments, and when assignments are submitted. I often relied on this data to check students’ work completion.
Using Zoom breakout rooms is a hit or a miss, what I found most helpful was strategically creating groups of students by placing a “leader” in the group. I knew this student would keep students on track and providing the groups with roles put the responsibility on all team members to actively participate.
I did my best in rotating among the breakout rooms to check in with groups, in addition to having them share a Google doc with me with updates on their discussion or group work.
In addition, I incentivized students with the ability to choose their partners based on active participation in class and work completion rates.
There are several methods of differentiating instruction online. I was fortunate to have class aides in class. We would often break up the class into smaller groups to increase the likelihood of students participating.
In addition, I would provide students with varying levels of support: I provided instruction and directions to begin a task, then I assigned the students who can work independently to breakout rooms. I stayed in the main room with students who needed more direct instruction on the task.
Depending on the activity, I would provide students options of working independently or with a partner to complete a task.
I took attendance within 5 minutes of class starting. I had an independent activity for students to complete at the start of class. During that time, I would send emails to parents and students who had not yet logged into class.
I had a template saved in my drafts to copy and paste the text. Also, I had a document of parents' and students' emails for each class in order to make it easier to send the email. For students who chronically didn’t attend, I called parents and involved administration as needed.
Similar to in-person instruction, parents were informed of their child’s progress by checking the online portal for attendance and grade reports.
Students consistently not turning in work received a weekly progress report, indicating the missing items and notes from the educational team. I sent a reminder to teachers on Wednesday and I emailed it to parents and students on Fridays.
Online classroom management can make or break the ability of students to achieve success. It’s necessary to think through the daily tasks within an online setting, create an organized structure to present the material, and think “How can students achieve success?”
Since the increase of online instruction, teachers created new systems to manage students online.
Online classroom management models differ from in-person strategies in many ways. Teachers are not able to quickly scan the room to see student progress. They are not able to easily see the faces of students who are confused, bored, or tired. Also, teachers don’t have control over students’ learning environment.
During online instruction, students may not have a designated area to work in, it might be too loud, they might have responsibilities of caring for younger siblings, and they can easily jump on their phones to watch videos or turn on the TV while signed into class.
I started out lessons by infusing fun and humor. I shared a meme, GIF, video, story I heard on the news, something I experienced with the class, or a would you rather question.
It led to the majority of students participating right at the start of class, whether it was using the Zoom reactions, typing their ideas in the chat, or unmuting to share with the class.
A meme I used in class that received some laughs.
I used different methods to identify whether students were engaging with the activities I assigned in class. For example, I used Google Slides for a writing assignment and provided one slide for each student to type their work.
This provided me an opportunity to easily see everyone’s progress with the activity and provide direct feedback as needed.
Example of a Google Slides activity:
As a class we read about constellations, students can access the link to the site and they answered questions on their individual slides before we discussed them together.
Also, I created Google docs for activities that were typically worksheets that were printed out in the classroom. I had students make a copy of the document and share it with me, in order for me to keep track of their progress.
If your school uses a learning management system, such as Schoology or Google Classroom, they have tools embedded in their software to see when students are opening assessments, and when assignments are submitted. I often relied on this data to check students’ work completion.
Using Zoom breakout rooms is a hit or a miss, what I found most helpful was strategically creating groups of students by placing a “leader” in the group. I knew this student would keep students on track and providing the groups with roles put the responsibility on all team members to actively participate.
I did my best in rotating among the breakout rooms to check in with groups, in addition to having them share a Google doc with me with updates on their discussion or group work.
In addition, I incentivized students with the ability to choose their partners based on active participation in class and work completion rates.
There are several methods of differentiating instruction online. I was fortunate to have class aides in class. We would often break up the class into smaller groups to increase the likelihood of students participating.
In addition, I would provide students with varying levels of support: I provided instruction and directions to begin a task, then I assigned the students who can work independently to breakout rooms. I stayed in the main room with students who needed more direct instruction on the task.
Depending on the activity, I would provide students options of working independently or with a partner to complete a task.
I took attendance within 5 minutes of class starting. I had an independent activity for students to complete at the start of class. During that time, I would send emails to parents and students who had not yet logged into class.
I had a template saved in my drafts to copy and paste the text. Also, I had a document of parents' and students' emails for each class in order to make it easier to send the email. For students who chronically didn’t attend, I called parents and involved administration as needed.
Similar to in-person instruction, parents were informed of their child’s progress by checking the online portal for attendance and grade reports.
Students consistently not turning in work received a weekly progress report, indicating the missing items and notes from the educational team. I sent a reminder to teachers on Wednesday and I emailed it to parents and students on Fridays.
Online classroom management can make or break the ability of students to achieve success. It’s necessary to think through the daily tasks within an online setting, create an organized structure to present the material, and think “How can students achieve success?”
Stella Ikhnana has 10 years experience as a Special Education Teacher. Social emotional learning, self-advocacy and executive functioning were her top priorities throughout her teaching career. As an English Language Learner, she brought her experience to the classroom and kept students first in mind in her decisions. She earned a bachelor's degree from Loyola University Chicago and master's degree in Literacy Education from Northeastern Illinois University. She currently works as a Client Success Manager at a marketing software company.
Classroom management is a wide spectrum of strategies needed to run a successful class. When provided with clear structure and rules, created with everyone’s input, it leads to greater achievement.
Since the increase of online instruction, teachers created new systems to manage students online.
Online classroom management models differ from in-person strategies in many ways. Teachers are not able to quickly scan the room to see student progress. They are not able to easily see the faces of students who are confused, bored, or tired. Also, teachers don’t have control over students’ learning environment.
During online instruction, students may not have a designated area to work in, it might be too loud, they might have responsibilities of caring for younger siblings, and they can easily jump on their phones to watch videos or turn on the TV while signed into class.
I started out lessons by infusing fun and humor. I shared a meme, GIF, video, story I heard on the news, something I experienced with the class, or a would you rather question.
It led to the majority of students participating right at the start of class, whether it was using the Zoom reactions, typing their ideas in the chat, or unmuting to share with the class.
A meme I used in class that received some laughs.
I used different methods to identify whether students were engaging with the activities I assigned in class. For example, I used Google Slides for a writing assignment and provided one slide for each student to type their work.
This provided me an opportunity to easily see everyone’s progress with the activity and provide direct feedback as needed.
Example of a Google Slides activity:
As a class we read about constellations, students can access the link to the site and they answered questions on their individual slides before we discussed them together.
Also, I created Google docs for activities that were typically worksheets that were printed out in the classroom. I had students make a copy of the document and share it with me, in order for me to keep track of their progress.
If your school uses a learning management system, such as Schoology or Google Classroom, they have tools embedded in their software to see when students are opening assessments, and when assignments are submitted. I often relied on this data to check students’ work completion.
Using Zoom breakout rooms is a hit or a miss, what I found most helpful was strategically creating groups of students by placing a “leader” in the group. I knew this student would keep students on track and providing the groups with roles put the responsibility on all team members to actively participate.
I did my best in rotating among the breakout rooms to check in with groups, in addition to having them share a Google doc with me with updates on their discussion or group work.
In addition, I incentivized students with the ability to choose their partners based on active participation in class and work completion rates.
There are several methods of differentiating instruction online. I was fortunate to have class aides in class. We would often break up the class into smaller groups to increase the likelihood of students participating.
In addition, I would provide students with varying levels of support: I provided instruction and directions to begin a task, then I assigned the students who can work independently to breakout rooms. I stayed in the main room with students who needed more direct instruction on the task.
Depending on the activity, I would provide students options of working independently or with a partner to complete a task.
I took attendance within 5 minutes of class starting. I had an independent activity for students to complete at the start of class. During that time, I would send emails to parents and students who had not yet logged into class.
I had a template saved in my drafts to copy and paste the text. Also, I had a document of parents' and students' emails for each class in order to make it easier to send the email. For students who chronically didn’t attend, I called parents and involved administration as needed.
Similar to in-person instruction, parents were informed of their child’s progress by checking the online portal for attendance and grade reports.
Students consistently not turning in work received a weekly progress report, indicating the missing items and notes from the educational team. I sent a reminder to teachers on Wednesday and I emailed it to parents and students on Fridays.
Online classroom management can make or break the ability of students to achieve success. It’s necessary to think through the daily tasks within an online setting, create an organized structure to present the material, and think “How can students achieve success?”
Classroom management is a wide spectrum of strategies needed to run a successful class. When provided with clear structure and rules, created with everyone’s input, it leads to greater achievement.
Since the increase of online instruction, teachers created new systems to manage students online.
Online classroom management models differ from in-person strategies in many ways. Teachers are not able to quickly scan the room to see student progress. They are not able to easily see the faces of students who are confused, bored, or tired. Also, teachers don’t have control over students’ learning environment.
During online instruction, students may not have a designated area to work in, it might be too loud, they might have responsibilities of caring for younger siblings, and they can easily jump on their phones to watch videos or turn on the TV while signed into class.
I started out lessons by infusing fun and humor. I shared a meme, GIF, video, story I heard on the news, something I experienced with the class, or a would you rather question.
It led to the majority of students participating right at the start of class, whether it was using the Zoom reactions, typing their ideas in the chat, or unmuting to share with the class.
A meme I used in class that received some laughs.
I used different methods to identify whether students were engaging with the activities I assigned in class. For example, I used Google Slides for a writing assignment and provided one slide for each student to type their work.
This provided me an opportunity to easily see everyone’s progress with the activity and provide direct feedback as needed.
Example of a Google Slides activity:
As a class we read about constellations, students can access the link to the site and they answered questions on their individual slides before we discussed them together.
Also, I created Google docs for activities that were typically worksheets that were printed out in the classroom. I had students make a copy of the document and share it with me, in order for me to keep track of their progress.
If your school uses a learning management system, such as Schoology or Google Classroom, they have tools embedded in their software to see when students are opening assessments, and when assignments are submitted. I often relied on this data to check students’ work completion.
Using Zoom breakout rooms is a hit or a miss, what I found most helpful was strategically creating groups of students by placing a “leader” in the group. I knew this student would keep students on track and providing the groups with roles put the responsibility on all team members to actively participate.
I did my best in rotating among the breakout rooms to check in with groups, in addition to having them share a Google doc with me with updates on their discussion or group work.
In addition, I incentivized students with the ability to choose their partners based on active participation in class and work completion rates.
There are several methods of differentiating instruction online. I was fortunate to have class aides in class. We would often break up the class into smaller groups to increase the likelihood of students participating.
In addition, I would provide students with varying levels of support: I provided instruction and directions to begin a task, then I assigned the students who can work independently to breakout rooms. I stayed in the main room with students who needed more direct instruction on the task.
Depending on the activity, I would provide students options of working independently or with a partner to complete a task.
I took attendance within 5 minutes of class starting. I had an independent activity for students to complete at the start of class. During that time, I would send emails to parents and students who had not yet logged into class.
I had a template saved in my drafts to copy and paste the text. Also, I had a document of parents' and students' emails for each class in order to make it easier to send the email. For students who chronically didn’t attend, I called parents and involved administration as needed.
Similar to in-person instruction, parents were informed of their child’s progress by checking the online portal for attendance and grade reports.
Students consistently not turning in work received a weekly progress report, indicating the missing items and notes from the educational team. I sent a reminder to teachers on Wednesday and I emailed it to parents and students on Fridays.
Online classroom management can make or break the ability of students to achieve success. It’s necessary to think through the daily tasks within an online setting, create an organized structure to present the material, and think “How can students achieve success?”
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