Evelyn Chen / Zai-Xi Elementary School

“This is a reviewing of the online teaching lesson for the previous semester. Here are some activities and ideas that we developed using Google Meet and Google Classroom to make distance learning fun for our students.”

Why and how we do online teaching

COVID-19 pandemic has pushed us all out of our comfort zones and we found that it is difficult to manage student engagement and make them learn remotely. Therefore, my best partner, Tr. Valeria and I use Google Classroom and Google Meet to ensure we still have a strong bond with the students until they are back at school.

Are you using Google Meet as a teacher? How are you coping with remote teaching? Here are some activities and ideas that we developed using Google Meet and Google Classroom to make distance learning fun for our students.

Sixth Graders in Zai-Xi Elementary School

The platform:Google Classroom/ Google Meet
Procedure: Asynchronous teaching/ Synchronous teaching
How to communicate: Post all the teaching materials and announcements on Google Classroom.
Teaching Tips:

A. Innovative Check-ins

In order to motivate the students to speak and attend the online class on time, we started the online class by asking them to check in various ways. For example, we had students’ check-in by having them answer questions that are of interest to them. Such as, “What’s your favorite song/singer/book/TV program/movie?” By using questions that center our students we were able to peak their interest and motivate them to engage with us during remote learning. Not only did it help us to get to know our students better, but it also fostered independence and a successful path for students to be part of the lesson.

B. Draw, Write and Share

Google Meet makes it easier to differentiate lessons because it allows teachers to do face-to-face teaching or use various teaching materials on the screen. As teachers, we understand that students learn in different ways through multiple means of engagement and expression. Therefore, in order to help improve our students’ listening comprehension skills and encourage them to concentrate on learning, we asked them to listen to the word or the sentence and draw the picture by using Google Jamboard. Google Jamboard is inside Google Meet and we used it as the whiteboard to draw or write anything. Students can also take turns drawing and guessing to make this virtual Pictionary fun. This activity helped our students understand concepts and vocabulary better and allowed us to teach them to learn to follow teachers’ instructions. Google Jamboard also allowed us to give flexible assessments and identify students’ specific needs. For example, we gave them the freedom to draw, share and talk about their ideas. In using this tool, they felt confident to share and talk in a more natural way, which is important when students are learning a foreign language.

C. Read out the Picture Book

It’s important to encourage the students to read. During the online chat with the students, we prepared the picture book- We’re All Wonders. We asked them to take turns doing the reading relay so all of them could read independently and listen to each other carefully. This activity helped us keep track of our students’ reading levels. We were also able to collect data about our students and create lessons that could help them improve their reading skills and fluency. In doing so we empowered our students to capitalize on their strengths.

D. Provide interactive activities

We found that live streaming running for longer than 20 minutes will distract the students from learning. By applying the Universal Design for Learning (UDL)model we were able to diversify our teaching time and engage our students through more efficient means by using various online tools that provide auditory and visual content that allows them to apply their knowledge in a less traditional and more up to date fashion. We used learning management systems, such as Quizizz, Kahoot, Quizlet, Booklet, and Wordwall, to make learning more effective and enjoyable. These online resources can be incorporated into instruction and offered to students of various learning levels and styles. The automatic checking and grading features on the learning management systems also saved us a lot of time. Furthermore, the data collecting features in these apps helped us take action to help individual students.

E. Student Work Samples

Notice for students	Sign in on the Jamboard
Story book: We Are All Wonders	Role play online
Online games for the whole class	The ranking interests all the students