I spent much of 2020 mildly obsessed with learning to teach digitally. I knew it was going to be difficult and I felt strongly that doing the best I could was important. I spent the summer finding, consuming, and sharing the best resources I could find in the hopes of starting the new school year off successfully.
Half a year in, it turned out to be even more difficult and even more important than I expected. In addition to battling the new format, the battle just to keep kids participating in school at all has been a massive endeavor. I spent a lot of time planning for how difficult digital learning would be on my end, but failed to foresee how tough it would be on the students’ end. I had a lot to learn. As I said in a prior post, there was very little actual knowledge of how to effectively teach K-12 students online when this school year started. It was destined to be a year to learn from experience rather than from best practices. Looking ahead to the second half of the year of teaching digitally, here are 20 things that 2020 taught me about online learning.
2. Grades Cannot Be Based On Work Completion
Most kids are likely to do the least they can to get the results they want. If they can get adequate grades merely by turning work in without learning anything or showing up to class, they’ll do it. Grades have to be given based on real learning on real assignments. I’ve only given grades on formal assessments this year. It sends the message that simply showing up or simply pressing submit on something won’t cut it. 3. Google-proof and PhotoMath-proof assessment questions Along those same lines, students in my class started learning a LOT more and showing a LOT more effort when I went the extra mile to make sure test questions were hard to Google or PhotoMath. Again, most kids will do the least they can to get the results they want. If they know the can Google or PhotoMath their way through the next test, they aren’t going to make much of an effort to learn along the way. Writing those questions is time-consuming, but they sure force students’ hand when it comes to learning. 4. Teach twice In September, with much of my class performing far below my hopes for them in math, I started teaching every lesson twice. It took some time-organizational gymnastics, admittedly. I benefited greatly by having already committed to a flipped classroom long before digital learning was in vogue. I had to give up on some practices that were really beneficial in normal circumstances, but it was worth it. The overall performance of the class skyrocketed. 5. Cold calling works “Cold calling” is the practice of calling on students to answer questions without asking for volunteers. I have never been a proponent of cold calling in the past, but the Teach Like a Champion blog has been touting it for years, it has been front-and-center in the digital teaching videos they’ve shared since the pandemic began, so I tried. It has been a game-changer. The kids get used it, I promise. 6. Same "breakout" groups One of my biggest and fastest frustrations was how quickly just about every student shut down when I sent them to “breakout rooms” for small group work and discussion. They just wouldn’t engage with each other. In September, I pre-set all my groups so that the same students ended up in the same rooms EVERY time. It helped a lot. In time, they only had to get comfortable with two other students, and once they did, they began to engage like normal.
8. Go with what motivates
Every once in a while, a lesson or activity will catch fire and the students get really into it. When it did, I went with it and freely changed course for a few days to take advantage. If I could capture their attention or joy for a few days, I did, even if it came at the expense of another topic. In December, my class got really into glaciers. They were a small part of the curriculum, but we ended up spending a couple days learning about them just because they were into it. 9. Be incredibly specific I mentioned previously my frustration with students engaging in “breakout” groups. During that time, I would loudly and sternly command students to “be a good partner” in the rooms, which didn’t help even a little. What did help was getting much, MUCH more specific with my directions. “When you get to your breakout room, turn on your microphone, turn on your camera, and be ready to screen share your work with the group.” Every time I catch myself telling students what I need them to KNOW rather than what I need them to DO, I end up disappointed. 10. Magic words As I wrote before the year began, there are two sets of “magic words” that solved a lot of problems for me last spring. They’ve continued to be invaluable again this year.
12. Joke Around
Every student who wrote me a holiday card thanked me for making them laugh. Literally, every one. I joke around a lot, I make fun of myself a lot, I play the villain a lot. In a normal class, I have to do this strategically, because the crowd can get carried away if I start joking around. Digitally, there is no crowd, and I don’t hold back. Apparently, it makes a big difference. 13. Give up Long ago, I made myself a promise not to give up on a new instructional practice for at least two months. I simply can’t tell if something will work until it has had time to become normal and routine. In fact, one of my biggest teaching breakthroughs came from sticking with something for just over two years before it finally really clicked. This year, I haven’t followed that promise. I’ve given up early and often. Under normal circumstances, I’m trying something that I typically know for certain has been successful in other classrooms, and I just have to figure out how to make it successful in mine. This year, I’m throwing darts. There are no “best practices” for this. So when something doesn’t work, I try something else.
15. Start immediately
This is another lesson I learned from Teach Like a Champion. No warm up questions. No roll call. No “we just have to wait on two more folks to log in.” If class starts at 9:50, the lesson starts the second the clock shifts to 9:50. It shows respect for the students who were there on time and it sets the precedent that you’ll miss something if you’re not early. 16. “Text me if this isn’t done by……” Last spring, students in my district learned “asynchronously,” meaning we posted lessons and work for them to do whenever they wanted. This year, we teach live online and follow a traditional school schedule. Even four months in, I still have at-home students who treat my assignments like they did in the spring. Even when I give them a class period to do something, for instance, a few will wait and do it in the evening. It drives me crazy. I’ve started to tell students I look at or grade everything as soon as class ends (which I pretty much do), so they need to text me if something isn’t done by then. That way, so I tell them, I know the difference between “I’m still working” and “I didn’t do it.”
18. Give second chances
I think giving second chances is always a good idea, but it matters even more online. There are simply too many ways for students to drop the ball. They need chances to pick it back up when they do. 19. Hand-write whenever possible Writing by hand does something for learning that typing just doesn’t. I still have students take notes by hand, and many do all their work that way and just take pictures of it. Even if I’m going to give students online notes or slides from me, I still have them write by hand first.
20. Leave Zoom on
Even when class is over, I leave Zoom on when I can. A few students will want to ask questions but didn’t want to in front of the class. A few students have even become friends just because I leave zoom on for them to talk after class 
What catches my attention most as I read back over these is that very few of them have to do with instruction, and none of them have to do with what technology tools are used. All of my breakthroughs have come through commitments to motivation, communication, expectations and how I relate to students and families. Those areas are where the real deficits appear to lie when students are at a distance.
Have you learned anything that belongs on this list? Please share in the comments below. Here's looking forward to a better semester of online learning in 2021! If you enjoyed this post, please share it! Want to make sure you never miss a new post? Subscribe below for email notifications of new content.
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About MeI'm an award-winning teacher in the Atlanta area with experience teaching at every level from elementary school to college. Categories
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