Best Practices: Flexibility and Organization

On Tuesday, Johnny was absent from class and needs to make up work during his and your lunch hour.  On Wednesday, Jenny had to leave early for a lacrosse game two towns over and missed a science test.  She can’t make it up until the following Monday during P.E.  Does this sound familiar?  We’ve all been there as teachers.  We’ve all had to be flexible.  And that is no different in the online classroom.

According to “Best Practices in Teaching K-12 Online: Lessons Learned From Michigan School Teachers” teachers in the virtual classroom need to be flexible too.  For example, in the online classroom teachers often schedule video or audio conferences with their students.  On one such occasion, three of the students can’t access the room because of server issues.  The teacher in this case needs to either reschedule the whole class or conduct a small group session with those students.  In other words, they need to be flexible

Organization is also a key part of the online teacher’s style, as it is in the traditional classroom.  Because you as the teacher are not there to direct students on what to do and what order to do it in, you need to have explicit instructions online and easy folder navigation.  The teacher also has to be organized in their implementation of the course. “One of the most important aspects of being a successful virtual school teacher is organization above all ... The teacher has to make sure they are logging in at certain times every day, they have to make sure they’re checking certain areas of the course, for example, the message area, organizing the discussion board, having grades set, and [sic] sending grades back to students” (DiPietro et al., 2008).  Again, much the same way that teachers are available to students in the traditional classroom, they have a responsibility to do so in the virtual school as well.

Up Next:  Classroom Management…

Resources:

DiPietro, M., Ferdig, R., Black, E., & Preston, M. (n.d.). Best Practices in Teaching K-12 Online: Lessons learned from Michigan Virtual Schools. Blackboard. Retrieved October 13, 2014, from https://blackboard.cmich.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_3050188_1&course_id=_86186_1