4 Ways To Manage Your Virtual Classroom Like a Pro

If you’ve been following For The Love of Teachers for some time then you know I write consistently about classroom management and how to become a classroom management rock star. Being a classroom management coach and an elementary teacher for 18+ years, I preach that teaching and learning cannot happen without effective classroom management.

But then COVID-19 comes along and takes the classroom right out of classroom management. Now we have a “new normal” and a virtual classroom. But even with this virtual classroom, we still have a lot to manage for remote teaching and distance learning to be successful. And because we are professionals and experts in our field, we can manage our virtual classroom like a pro if we just take some time to think of classroom management in a “virtual” kind of way. 😉

The Virtual Space

We may not have a physical classroom, but we do have a virtual classroom within a learning management system, which serves as the platform for distance learning. I bet you, as well as students and parents, are overwhelmed with all of the different kinds of platforms there are: Schoology, Google Classroom, Seesaw, Nearpod, etc. While many of these platforms integrate together, try stick to one platform as your main hub, the ONE place your students can go to find:

• Daily schedules and agendas
• Announcements
• Assignments in all subject areas
• Most Frequent Q & As
• Assessments
• Rubrics

For many teachers and students, it’s the first time they have ever used these digital platforms and this type of teaching. Just like we teach our students the ins and outs of the physical space, we need to teach them the ins and outs of the virtual space.  First up is how to use this platform and how to navigate it.

Take your students on a platform tour and show them WHERE everything is:

• Daily Schedules
• Agendas
• Where to find assignments in different subject areas
• Where and to submit assignments
• What tools does the platform offer, where to find these tools
• Discussion boards
• Shared folders

Tips:

• Make sure that all your assignments are clearly labeled with the name of the assignment, the date, and the due date.
• Assignment directions should be offered in print, audio, and video to accommodate different student needs.
• Be sure to have your students’ logins and passwords recorded and on hand.

This will take some time and will need to be modeled and taught to your students and parents. I do live Zoom meetings with my class and share my screen to model and teach how to use the platform and where to find everything they need. What I love about doing live Zoom meetings is that I can record it, answer any questions that they may have right on the spot, and then send them the link afterward for them to rewatch if needed. This saves us all time with asking and responding to the same questions over and over or prerecording without having those good questions to answer live. Keep these videos in a video library folder for students and parents to access. Every time you have any kind of mini-lesson or tour, record it, and then put it into the video library. Smart, right?! 😉

Building Relationships & Community

If you read my post, 4 Ways to Build Relationships & Community the First Few Weeks of Distance Learning, I talk about how important it is to build relationships and community from the start, and yes from a distance. In the classroom during the first 4 weeks of school or so, I do all kinds of ice breakers, scavenger hunts & getting to know you activities. We share our hope and dreams (goals) for the school year and establish the norms and expectations in order to meet those goals. We play games, we laugh, we have fun and we get to know one another. Building that class community is so very important to build an environment that is conducive to teaching and learning. I list these 4 things to how to do this if you start off the year with distance learning:

• Introduce yourself early by mailing postcards or Meet The Teacher newsletter to your students
• Call home weekly to just talk to and connect with your students and their parents
• Consider having Daily Morning Meetings for about 4 weeks or so to do those ice breakers, scavenger hunts, and getting to know you activities, and commit to writing a morning message discussion board every day
• Give student interest surveys to get to know your students

Building relationships and community may look a little different but it can be done. Investing the time in building teacher-student relationships and community will yield great results.

Expectations

I have checklists of routines & expectations (Back To School Checklists Like a Boss) that I use to remind me what I need to teach before I can actually begin teaching. This teaching involves the modeling, guidance, and practice of daily routines and expectations, like how we arrive to class, how we dismiss, how we transition from one activity to another, how we turn in work, etc. I use my modeling scripts to guide me through teaching these routines & expectations along with guided practice.

So now that we may not be physically in the classroom, what expectations do we need to teach in our virtual classroom? First, you showed your students where to find what they need in the virtual space (LMS), now you’ll show them how and what you expect of them. Here are a few expectations you should teach during a LIVE Zoom meeting. Afterward, don’t forget to store these videos in your video library as well as having a shared folder with these expectations in print for easy access.

• How to submit assignments
• How work is expected to look (the quality of work)- share examples and good models of work
• How to use the tools to chat and raise your hand along with the expectations during synchronous lessons, live meetings & break out rooms
• How to participate & engage
• How to be accountable for their work

Communication

Communication is key. Now more than ever it is important to communicate clearly. Understandably, this pandemic is causing a lot of stress for parents and students. Parents and students are completely overwhelmed. They have a full plate at home, from working at home to managing multiple children’s school work. They are getting a ton of emails, learning digital platforms, troubleshooting technology and are hanging on by a thread. So, keep your communication positive, simple, and factual.

Bullet information that is easy for parents to skim through and to refer back to easily. Include a clear subject line and an introduction stating the purpose of the email content. Parents like to know right off the bat why and what you’re writing to them. Then, make a bulleted list, preferably sequenced, with key information. Finally, summarize the most important information so parents and students know exactly what to do with the information and how to move forward. Crystal clear communication will eliminate confusion and questions from parents and students.

In addition to having news announcements and updates in your LMS, think about which is the most effective way to communicate with families:

• Weekly emails- For me, communicating through email was the best form of communication for my families. Be sure to translate your email for your ELL families whose parents may speak a different language at home.
• Newsletter– I’m considering attaching or replacing the weekly email with a digital newsletter this Fall. I think it would be helpful to have a newsletter with all the information in one place that has go-to links in it and can be printed out too.
• Class DoJo– If you are a fan of Class Dojo, many teachers use this communication tool and love it.

Take-Home Points:

• Give tours of your virtual classroom space just like you would do in your physical classroom
• Record and save all tours and mini-lessons and saved in a shared video library for students and parents
• Invest the time in building teacher-student relationships & class community
• Teach all expectations to your students
• Decide how you’ll communicate clearly & consistently to both parents and students

I know these ideas will help you become an effective virtual classroom manager pro in no time. Distance learning is definitely not an ideal situation for teachers, parents, or students, and there is no place I’d rather be than in the classroom with my students. But for the sake of our health and safety, we are going to have to do our best during a global pandemic.

What are some ways you manage your virtual classroom? Share in the comments.

Missed it? If you like this post, you may also like 5 Survival Tips For Teachers Working From Home, Remote Teaching: 4 Ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder, and The Coronavirus Craze and The Reality of Remote Learning.

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