Welcome back to Charlie’s Lessons and thanks for coming back to read more of my top teaching hacks! In this blog, we are going to look through my top four tips to get the most from your hybrid teaching classroom.
For those who aren’t already in the know, a hybrid teaching classroom typically consists of a mix of digital and in-person classroom activities. This can be particularly helpful when you are you are working with students who are based internationally across different time zones or work alongside their lessons. In this blog, I am referring to classrooms with both in-person and remote learning students. So, one group will be face-to-face and the other will be learning through online interactions.
Hybrid Learning: A brief history
Hybrid learning has become much more popular recently as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, this is not the first time that the world has had to adapt to teaching during a pandemic. In Chicago in 1937 during a Polio outbreak, students were sent home and received class instructions via radio. Just imagine learning to speak English via radio! But, every teacher has a different individual set-up.
For my classrooms, we connect our online students via a Zoom call with the physical classroom using a wide-angle camera that sits at the top of a monitor alongside two microphones. One microphone is connected to the teacher and the other is mobile and used for the students. This creates a space where students can interact even when they are not physically present. So our students can feel immersed with the rest of the class and still join in.
Hybrid Teaching Hack 1: Interaction
My first piece of advice for teaching hybrid students is to ensure that you balance your attention between the online and physically present students. It is natural to tend to give more attention to the students who are physically present than the ones who are viewing the classroom online. Students who are experiencing your lessons online will already feel remote and removed from the classroom. So it will make a big difference to them if you make an extra effort to interact with them as much as possible.
Hybrid Teaching Hack 2: New Platform Prep
Before you begin introducing new tools or platforms to your lessons, make sure that you spend time with your online students to ensure that they fully understand them. If you have students who are face to face one week and then online only the next, make sure that you run through these platforms step-by-step in their individual tutorials.
Hybrid Teaching Hack 3: Nearpod
Hack number three is to start utilising a great teacher training platform called Nearpod. If you have never heard of Nearpod before, make sure that you read through my full teacher training tutorial.
Nearpod is a perfect platform for your hybrid classroom because it brings face-to-face and online students together through one website. Meanwhile, you set the classroom pace and select from lots of great content or activities.
There is a wealth of content that you can use – my top recommendation is the VR field trips. My students seem to enjoy these the most by far, as they enable you to make virtual trips around various worldwide cities. When we are virtually visiting these new places, I can ask my students to describe what they notice and get them to compare these with other areas.
Hybrid Teaching Hack 4: Whiteboard.fi
Whiteboard.fi is a free digital whiteboard tool for teachers and their classrooms created by Kahoot! I love using this in my hybrid classroom because it allows me as the teacher to monitor exactly what my students are doing whilst in class.
To use the free part of Whiteboard.fi, we first sign up in the usual way. We can then share a link or QR code with our students for them to access our remote whiteboard. What the students write or draw on their whiteboards is shared with you too, so you can see exactly what all everyone is doing during the class.
Using it with lower levels
With younger learners, I often will use this for activities such as drawing and spelling. For example, I could call out a vocabulary item such as a cat and ask the students to draw what I say correctly. Or, with spelling, I can call out a word such as a dog and ask the students to spell it on their board.
Using it with higher levels
For higher-level students, I can ask an open question and ask students to write down their answers. We could ask our students, for example: “How are you today?”
There is also an option for me to show my whiteboard to the whole class. This is ideal for giving instructions because I can pick when I send it to everyone. This way, I can also provide instructions that I’d like to give to all of my in-person and remote students at once.
I simply press the Push / Assign button in the top right-hand corner to transmit it whenever I am ready. I can then also select from additional options including All Pages, Current Page or Current Page (As Background).
With so much going on in any one classroom at any time, hybrid teaching can be a tricky area to navigate at first. It can take a bit of time for everyone to get used to. But, by incorporating these easy ideas with fun, inclusive and interactive lessons, you can be confident that all of your students can make great strides forward together.
I hope that your students benefit from them as much as we have when you use these hybrid hacks. While you’re here, please remember to share this video with any teacher friends who you think could use some help in this area too. Plus, you can let me know how you get on in the comments below.
Otherwise, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!