Tools and Technologies for Online Teaching
Online teaching has rapidly evolved from being a niche option to becoming a cornerstone of modern education.
We don’t born knowing everything, as everything in life we have to learn how to do it, and teaching is not the exception. No one prepares you for the challenge of being a teacher, and what involucrates.
We don’t born knowing everything, as everything in life we have to learn how to do it, and teaching is not the exception. No one prepares you for the challenge of being a teacher, and what involucrates.
Maybe you have an idea of how to do it, because you have seen your teachers or because college has imparted some courses, but you don’t know actually how to prepare your class and how to plan the lesson.
Let’s check some of those common mistakes for new teachers.
You must have the list of topics that you have to impart through the course. You might be asking why, and the answer is pretty simple. You have to know your destination to start checking the route that you have to follow. Once you know the list of topics it will be easier to create your plan lessons and even check if there’s any other topic that you have to include to list to complement the other ones.
One of the most important things about your class is planning it. You have to know how to abord the topic, if your students will need any materials, what’s the purpose of the class, if you will reinforce the topic with exercises and homework, etc. So you must have all that clarified, you just can’t go blind expecting that everything goes well. Don’t be scared of planning the lesson, it’s very easy and if you don’t know how to do it, there are a lot of templates that you can use or you can adapt them to your needs.
We currently live in a technological era, that provides many resources. As a teacher, you have to know how to take advantage of that resources and use it in your favor. You can increase the chances that your students find it easy to learn the topic, and you can even share with them the slides that you use for the class in that way they can use them to review the topic.
This could sound very funny and dumb, but before you start even planning your lesson it’s imperative that you actually know the topic that you have to teach. Think this, imagine that you’re writing the instructions for a device, but you don’t know what this device is used for and of to use it. You can teach people how to use it if you don’t know how it works. This is the easiest example of why is important to have the necessary knowledge to impart a topic. If you have doubts about the topic that’s okay, no one
remembers everything exactly, you can always do a little research about it to refresh the information that you already know, and even use your slides as support if for any reason you forget a word in specific or if there’s a particular way that you want to teach the topic.
Not in all cases do you have to leave homework, but on most occasions you have to include your homework in your lesson plan and provide a deadline to deliver it. One of the points of homework is to give the students the chance to put into practice what they actually learn and even check if they get it right. It also will give you the opportunity as a teacher to clarify doubts about it once they have had the opportunity to practice independently.
If at the time that you grade the assignment, it is important that you leave notes over the incorrect parts, but make it meaningful. These notes need to be very clear so the student understands very well why is incorrect and how the right answer has to be placed.
Midterms and tests are made to check the student’s knowledge about a specific topic or course, but with them, we can measure not just their knowledge but your capability to teach. Of course, a test will not define you exactly but will give an idea of the teaching methods and the way that you’re planning your lesson.
Take the results as something good that will give you the chance to improve and be a better teacher every day. All of us learn in our path and it’s okay to make mistakes and find out that your teaching style is not the one for your class or that you have to start giving more homework or do some projects that complement their knowledge. Don’t be afraid of trying something new, that will help you tremendously to find out the perfect point that you want to reach about your students, your style, the way that you manage your class, and even the way that plan it.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to try something new.
All of us need to try and error until find out what works and what does not. Remember that what it works with one class might not work with another one, you have to learn which is the best method that will fit your student’s learning process and how to adapt it to yours.
