April-2020-Special-Edition

EDUCATING

6 CEA ADVISOR SPECIAL EDITION • APRIL 2020

MANAGING YOUR VIRTUAL CLASSROOM Best Practices to Keep You and Your Students on Track

SUPPORTING

In a recent CEA survey about how teachers are handling distance learning, 40 percent reported using real-time video class discussions, and 61 percent are pre-recording videos for students to view on their own schedules. At a time when school closures prevent in-person interactions among students and teachers, Stratford physics teacher and 2011 Connecticut Teacher of the Year Kristen Record finds video conferencing a helpful tool not only instructionally but also for the opportunity it provides to see—and be seen by—her students. “I get to see my kids’ expressions and have real-time interactions and discussions,” she says. “It’s also really important for students’ emotional well-being to have time with their class community. My students have told me they really value video conferencing. They miss face-to-face interactions and how school makes them feel connected.” Video conferencing has been successful for Record partly because she was able to teach students how to use the platform and establish proper etiquette before launching her first online lesson. First, the basics “For almost every single one of my students, this was the first time using live video in an academic or professional setting,” interactions on a FaceTime call with a friend and participating in a school environment.” Record starts off with the fundamentals: where the controls are, how to move the cursor, share screens, and view the video conference tools that come up at the Record says. “There’s a big difference between social

bottom or top of the screen. She explains what each icon means and how to use it as well as how to turn the video camera on and off, and what it looks like to others if the camera is off.  “We have to remember, as adults, that this is a new tool for a lot of people, and just as we have a learning curve, kids do too,” she says. Setting clear expectations “Even though we’re not literally in school,” Record reminds students, “this still counts as school, so all of the district’s rules and social media policies still apply. With high school kids I’m very explicit and tell them this means they shouldn’t be taking screenshots of videos or posting to Snapchat. All of the normal rules still apply. “I teach them that when they participate in a group call, they should always put themselves on mute until it’s their turn to speak.” Other rules of etiquette, she says, are to stay muted if someone is presenting verbally or by screen sharing, and using the chat box to comment or ask questions. “I make sure students understand a chat box is not like sending a private text. Chat box messages are not individual conversations—they go to everyone, so only comments meant for the whole class should go there. My procedure is that if I’m presenting, I’ll say, ‘Emma, you just submitted a great question. Please unmute yourself and explain it to the class.’ That’s their cue. Otherwise I ask them to stay on mute so that no one talks over each other.” Record begins each class by having students mute themselves while she explains what they’re going to cover that day.

Brothers Jack and Owen Higgins, students at Peck Place School in Orange, adjust to a virtual learning environment.

“I’ve found students will remind each other of the rules I’ve outlined and help enforce them.” Dress code, environment Appropriate attire is another subject Record has addressed with her students from the start. “I told them, ‘You need to be wearing clothes that are appropriate. Nobody should be showing up in bed in their PJs on a video conference. We can all be flexible, but there are limits.’ My students know me well enough at this point in the year that they know where my lines are. I have had students who have overslept. When I’ve reached out to make sure they’re okay, I’ve found a lot of kids respond better and more quickly to expressions of concern; they will apologize.” She also asks her students to pay attention to what is behind them— what their teachers and classmates will see on the screen—and to make sure family members know when a student is on a video conference so that there won’t be any surprise guest appearances. Social time Record leaves the first five minutes of class and the last five for social time. “We’ll take a pause to see students’ cats and dogs. We’ll chitchat. Minus the animals, that’s probably how most teachers run their classes in person—chatting after greeting kids, then getting down to work. We can do our best to replicate that experience online. It’s really important to maintain a classroom environment with kids even though we’re not physically all together.” Holding video conferences with her classes every other day allows her to give whole-class feedback, answer questions, and restore a little bit of normalcy to students’ experiences.  “Asking high school kids to get on a conference call before 9:00 a.m. is not going to work, so we use early morning work hours for department and other staff meetings. It’s great for us adults to be able to meet at 8:00 or 8:30 and video conference with students later.” In Stratford, video conferencing is an optional tool for teachers, and parents can opt out. Record, who serves as the co-vice president of the Stratford Education Association, says that her school has not established a prescribed schedule for online classes, and that allows teachers to collaborate with one another and establish video conferencing times that won’t

conflict with other teachers’ plans. “In Stratford, we started off with video conferencing because high school teachers wanted access, but elementary teachers have inquired about its use as well,” Record says. “It might look different in an elementary setting. Some elementary teachers are doing morning meetings via video conference or a daily read- aloud. They say it helps to maintain the normalcy of classroom culture.” Safety online While video conferencing is a great tool for connecting with students during this time of extended school closures, teachers must ensure their safety as well as that of their students. A number of schools around the country have reported incidents of “Zoombombing,” where uninvited individuals disrupt a class video conference, often with profanities or hate speech. The FBI recommends the following steps to prevent such threats: • Do not make meetings or classrooms public. In Zoom, there are two options for making a meeting private: require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature and control the admittance of guests. • Do not share a link to a teleconference or classroom on an unrestricted, publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to specific people. • Manage screensharing options. In Zoom, change screensharing to “Host Only.” • Try to ensure that participants are using the updated version of remote access/meeting applications. In January 2020, Zoom updated their software. In their security update, the teleconference software provider added passwords by default for meetings and disabled the ability to randomly scan for meetings to join. • Check that your district’s policies address requirements for physical and information security. If you are a victim of teleconference hijacking or any cybercrime, report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at  ic3.gov . Additionally, if you receive a specific threat during a teleconference, report it at  tips.fbi.gov or call the FBI New Haven Division at (203) 777-6311.

Social Media Dos & Don’ts CEA Educational Issues Specialist Michele Ridolfi O’Neill presents Social Media Safety, a webinar to help teachers maintain their privacy and professionalism in an environment of increasing social media traffic. Top takeaways: • Avoid connecting with students or their parents on social media platforms; don’t accept friend requests from (or extend friend requests to) them. • Do not post photographs of yourself in inappropriate situations. Set your Facebook settings to ensure that if someone tags you in a photograph, it cannot appear on your timeline without your approval. Under the gear icon, click Settings & Privacy, then Timeline and Tagging Settings. • Avoid questionable or offensive remarks or memes, or criticisms against your school system. • Never use social media to vent or joke about parents or students. • Even your comments on someone else’s post can be seen by others, so if you wouldn’t post it to your own wall, don’t post it at all. Watch the recorded webinar and sign up for additional training at cea.org/2020-coronarvirus . • Know your district’s social media policy and abide by it. • Never post pictures of students without permission.