Monthly Archives: October 2020

Let’s Chat! Using the Chat Bar to Maximize Engagement and Innovate Assessment

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The WebEx chat bar may be the most under-utilized tool in your virtual classroom. Few tools are easier for you to use, while also increasing the engagement of your students.

Every time students type in the chat, they are more engaged in your classroom. Every. Single. Time. Asking them to type in the chat a few times per WebEx session is good strategy because these will be more likely to be present and engaged with your content.

However, asking them to type in the chat bar is also good strategy for you because it provides you such an easy way to see if they are learning what you want them to be learning. Creating some routines and expectations around student use of the chat bar – if you do not already do this – has the power to transform your virtual classroom.

Please watch the attached video for chat bar engagement strategies learned from Columbia’s Teacher College. Let’s Chat:  Your Simplest Tool to Maximize Engagement and Innovate Assessment, 7:05.

Links in the “Let’s Chat!” Video: Baylor University,  Polls in WebEx 2:15; Edutech, Six Questions to Improve your Virtual Classroom (2:08)

Standards of Practice: How They Can Help Us and How They Can Help Bend-La Pine Families

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WE HEAR YOU.

Whether teacher or administrator, we hear that you are putting more time into this new version of a school year than you thought possible.  Whether you’re in your first five years, or your first twenty-five, this is HARD.

As much as we wish – for ALL our sakes – that we had a clear freeway exit coming up, we all know we must continue forward.  We must continue to deliver the best education we can teach ourselves to deliver in this new medium.

To support your efforts to guide and create, we’re committed to providing a small, but creative, variety of strategies each week.  We’ll anchor our work in the Secondary Standards of Practice, which were thoughtfully and conscientiously created by myriad district voices, to be a kind of operating manual for the demands of this year.  Sometimes we’ll build the content you’ll find here, sometimes other district teachers will; sometimes it will come from the Canvas support team, sometimes it will come from the internet.

We’re committed to continuing to listen to you, and trying to provide ideas you’re looking for.  And trying to build a ladder through this year, one rung at a time.

INCREASING FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

  1. Standards of Practice #1: Intro and Family Engagement  (5:25). Written by our district, this video introduces the Standards of Practice for Virtual Instruction and provides motivation and rationale for reaching out to families with more frequency than in traditional school years.  Also provided is a brainstorm of many possibilities for doing this efficiently

    1. Standards of Practice #1: Intro and Family Engagement – Slideshow  Here is the PowerPoint that lines up with the video.  Administrators or ICCL leaders, you may want to present this yourself and then discuss with your staff accordingly.

  2. 5 Ways to Build Connections with Students Online This article, written by a high school English teacher, gives 5 quick things he does to stay connected with students in remote learning environments.  

  3. How Teachers Can Maintain Positive Parent Relationships During School Closure  The article proves several simple, yet clear ideas about how to keep parents in the loop during CDL. 

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