The global pandemic has changed everything, whether it’s the mode of teaching or the way of official work. Presently, I believe everyone is amid thinking about what will happen next
Especially the school students who are constantly juggling between online learning and the start of the recent session in their schools in the frequently changing circumstances.
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Because of the lockdown, there are fewer available resources and people are constantly debating over whether the schools should be opened or not. Is it safe right now for the children to move out or not? These are some very common questions that everyone is dealing with nowadays.
These questions might disturb to the students and their parents, so to avoid this situation in such a difficult time we need to focus and think about building a strong and genuine connection in online learning.
Rather than thinking about what will happen, think about building a positive environment and relationships in the online mode of teaching. This is not only beneficial for the students but also for the teachers for fruitful and productive learning.
While we all know that this is quite crucial in school life, but especially important for the years in the pandemic. The virus has almost given all the trauma and pain, adults are mentally suffering and especially the children who have been affected the most in this.
Their whole life has changed, from being locked in a house for almost a year to not seeing their loved ones and friends. We are still in the phase of recovering and for the school students, their teachers can be a friendly hand. Just the smiling face of the teacher with a friendly gesture can be a healing touch to traumatize children.
If you are the teacher who is going to begin with, to the new session in school, then this brief article could help you in creating a genuine connection with the students.
Ways to build a genuine connection online
Building an actual connection to online learning differs from face-to-face interactions. It can be challenging, however, if nicely done, it becomes quite easy. You can follow these simple suggestions for an easy connection with the students. The suggestions are:
Creation of virtual waiting room
Many video conferencing applications offer this feature of the waiting room. For example, Zoom offers a virtual waiting room feature in which it allows a moderator to hold all the participants in one space and let only some participants in a conference one at a time.
If you can offer a synchronized class, then you can easily use this feature. This feature also allows quick side-by-chats with individual participants. In this way, a student who is hesitant to clear their doubts or problems in front of the entire class can ask the teachers separately.
It is one of the best features that helps in building a genuine relationship or connection with the student, so the next time you decide to schedule the next class, just look for apps that have this kind of feature.
Scheduling extra brief hours
Divide the number of students into small groups and schedule a few minutes with each group formed. We could base the formation of the group by arranging them alphabetically or according to their roll call. In this way, you meet each student personally and build a strong bond.
The conferencing should not only be based on study-related topics but on the topic the student wishes to talk about. In this way, the students can share their personal problems as they feel included and valued. Meaningful connections can be formed in just a few extra minutes.
Inclusion of feedbacks
Feedbacks are one of the most important parts of online teaching. The students often neglect written feedback as sometimes they don’t take that seriously, so provide audio feedback. Audio feedback gives a personal touch and the student also takes that seriously.
Make sure you also include positive feedback as whenever any student performs better in class, then praise them so that they feel included in the class. Appreciations have a powerful impact on students and they perform much better in class.
Occasional short videos
Unlike offline classes where you have the chance to talk to each student personally, in online classes you can make short videos for individual students occasionally. For example, wishing a student on his/her birthday makes the student happy and valued. You can make them as creative as possible to make them more efficient.
Connecting over phone call
We all know that each student might not have that stable internet connection or even a smartphone to connect over video conferencing, so in such cases these students should not feel left out and should be connected via phone call.
Because of the pandemic, the students are already lacking behind in their studies, so you should make all the efforts that no student is left out because of the unavailability of the resources. Many a time, some students miss the lectures because of the lag on the internet, so a brief phone call about the missed lecture could help them cover fast.
Conclusion
A teacher who can make their students feel included and valued even in the limited resources available can easily build a genuine connection with the students. You should make all the approach to make online learning fun and fruitful.
Photo by Vanessa Garcia from Pexels.
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