You see regular blog posts with ambiguous ideas about ways you can possibly keep distance in the classroom. You think about all the ways you do hands-on activities, allow students to work in small groups, and have students regularly moving around the classroom to incorporate kinesthetic learning. How could this possibly work?
If you are returning to the classroom, there are ways you can keep learning fun and engaging, but still allow for distance and safety measures to be in place.
Top 15 Tips for Distance Learning In the Classroom
Materials:
Keep a pencil bin or plastic pouch of small supplies for each student. This packet could include scissors, glue, colored pencils, pens/pencils, dry erase markers, highlighter, and sticky notes.
Have a separate bin for each student with larger supplies. This bin could include student folders, books, a clipboard, and a dry erase board. I would suggest labeling each item with the students name to make sure things stay where they belong.
Use plastic sleeves and lamination as much as possible. If you don't own a lamination machine, plastic sleeves are inexpensive and go a long way. I generally laminate anything I put on my walls so that it can be wiped down easily. In addition, laminate all your task cards, flash cards, or other paper materials/games that students typically share. Then you can easily wipe materials down between uses.
Centers/Activities:
Provide more frequent movement breaks. As shared recess materials or playgrounds may not be available, students will need to move. Create a list of movements that students can do while standing at their seats. Take a 2-3 minute break between each subject or lesson and have students get moving in their space.
Use distanced gallery walks for learning. Spread laminated task cards 6 feet apart around the outside of the classroom. Have students take a clipboard with an answer sheet around the room and move from one card to the next on your cue. They will stay distanced, but sill be able to move and use task cards.
Use more independent games at centers. If students are allowed to complete small group stations, you may need to have less shared materials. Independent games are a great choice such as dice rolling to solve problems, spinner games, and flash cards.
Partner games can still happen. Many partner games require using the same worksheet or game board, but both partners solve different problems. In this case, you can easily make a copy of the game sheet for each student and have them talk about the work, but use separate materials.
Go digital. Maybe this wasn't what you had hoped for, but in the circumstances, it may be time to embrace the digital world. There are hundreds of available resources on Teachers Pay Teachers that meet the digital needs for any subject and type of activity.
Teaching/Mini-Lessons:
Pre-record mini-lessons and read-alouds. If you are required to wear masks, you may want to record some mini-lesson ahead of time. Whether in the classroom or online, you can share these easily with students and hey can go back and re-watch as necessary.
Keep the most important posters and anchor charts centered near the front board. Students might need to sit facing the same direction and teaching/learning will be easiest if students do not consistently need to move around in their seats to reference important notes.
Take pictures or make copies of important anchor charts and reference sheets. These can be shared individually with each student in class to use as a quick reference without having to get out of their seats. If you teach online or in a hybrid model, you can also share these in your online platform.
Use a flipped classroom approach. Maybe you won't have the same amount of time in the classroom with all your students. Share videos and notes for students to preview at home and focus on practice and more interactive activities in the classroom.
The Teacher:
Transportation has the likelihood of looking different next year. Keep a mini laminated list of when and how your students travel to and form school attached to your badge for quick reference.
Purchase a few mini hand sanitizer bottles and a silicone key-chain holder. You can keep a small bottle attached to your badge or pocket for quick use when needed.
Have extra water, throat lozenges, and lotion for dry skin on hand. If you are wearing a mask for the entire day, you may wear your voice down or deal with a rubbing mask.
Every school will look different. They already do. And with the possible restrictions in place, varied sizes of school districts, and different communities, we are sure to have differences in how we each conduct the school year.
That being said, you may not be able to do all the same things as other teachers you see on social media. Don't sweat it! You will be an awesome teacher no matter how you have to teach. Use these 15 tips to help you stay calm, cool, and collected throughout the school year.
Looking for some additional online resources? Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store for digital activities HERE.
Need some independent center activities? Check out my Roll and Answer math games or my Prefix/Suffix and Greek and Latin Roots puzzles.
