I believe that any teacher’s mission is to make learning awesome for their students, no matter what. Whether you’ll be teaching remotely or in person in the upcoming school year, I hope that my best practices and tips will inspire you to step outside your comfort zone and get even more creative when it comes to engaging students. Let’s go!
1. Connect your students with other kids from around the world!
I love connecting my kids with peers and adults from different backgrounds, cultures, and religions – and students love it, too! Through these activities, they can see that even though we’re different, we’re more alike than we realize. Playing learning games together, such as connected kahoots and Mystery Skype, livens up classes and allows students to practice content with peers from other schools and countries. It shows kids that the material they are learning is relevant, since others all around the world are learning the same thing.
2. Use Kahoot! slides to spice up textbook work.
I try to make learning engaging, real, and fun for my students by using Kahoot! slides to cover content from the textbook. You can combine Kahoot! slides with your quiz questions, and there’s no timer on slides. Instead of having students answer a question in the kahoot, a slide might say “read pages 11 and 12 and look for the text features.” When I combine slides with kahoot questions, it breaks up reading material into little chunks, creates great discussion, and makes learning more fun.
