To celebrate World Teachers’ Day, we took a look at educational search trends on Google to acknowledge the dedication and passion of teachers everywhere.
Para celebrar el Día Mundial de las y los Docentes y homenajear a la increíble comunidad de educadores en todo el mundo.
Google for Education collaborated with research partner Canvas8 and advisor and consultant American Institutes for Research to conduct a global study in 24 countries on …
We hear a lot of talk these days about the finding “new normal,” and while COVID-19 has presented countless challenges for educators, bright spots have emerged. The pandemic has pushed them to take risks, explore digital solutions, and experiment with new teaching methods to engage and support students and their families. We spoke to several educators who took the time to talk with us and share their experiences with distance learning.
Trinh: A lot of teachers thought that this would be a moment in time—that technology would be a solution for the pandemic only. However, they’re beginning to realize that digital learning will be needed over the long term. This fall, the professional learning is becoming deeper and will be needed to enhance teaching skills for the foreseeable future.
Lim:Before the pandemic, we’d have one or two people sign up for technology-related professional learning experiences. Now we’ve had as many as six hundred educators sign up. Since starting the year virtually, we’ve improved and capitalized on our community of teachers to work and plan together for a better distance learning experience. And it’s surprising how well some students do in this setting. They thrive in a space where they have more choice and agency in their learning. They didn’t necessarily have these experiences before because the teachers weren’t familiar with using the digital tools.
Brewster:I’ve seen teachers in my school who have for years have been reluctant to accept coaching or to explore innovative strategies and tech tools. These same teachers have begun to independently seek out support and try new things. They want to make sure their students’ engagement level and experience is more than showing up and turning on their cameras. I’ve also seen how parents are embracing digital learning more than before. In the past, there was concern about screen time but now with this new reality, they see how technology keeps us going and connected.
Carraway: This fall, we are much more prepared than last spring. We’ve increased our Chromebook inventory and provided more hotspots to families and staff to better support distance learning. We've also opened up office hours for parents and guardians to get the answers they needed when they needed them.
Wright:Our district launched a Connected At Home Learning Support Initiative to expand our existing technology device offerings. In the spring, we allowed secondary students to check out Chromebooks and hotspots until school ended. For the past two years, we’ve participated in the Sprint 1 Million program to provide hotspots to high school students. We’ve now extended that to the Empowered 2.0 T-Mobile program and are partnering with our local cable company to provide low-cost home internet.
Barcenas: We thought that internet access was going to be the biggest barrier to learning, but in reality it was that parents weren’t always able to be home. It was the extended family members—the abuelitas and abuelos—who were sitting side by side with the students, and they didn’t have the digital skill sets to help them with digital classwork. This fall, we’ve opened office hours for grandparents and we’re “translating” our technological vocabulary to make sense to older-generation family members.
Farinas:At the start of the school year we were hyper-focused on building community before tackling content. It’s paramount that teachers create safe online learning environments and build positive relationships with students and families. We do this by conducting routine wellness checks with students and families—making ourselves available during office hours and responding to calls and emails as soon as possible. We created a helpline to support families struggling with technology and even have staff who “walk” students to their virtual classrooms.
Jaber: Thinking ofMaslowe’s hierarchy of needs, students cannot self-actualize if their basic human needs and feelings of safety and inclusivity are not at the core. Give students safe spaces and opportunities to share. That means teachers sharing with students because they are encouraged when they see we are vulnerable too. Call them to check in if they are not “present.” Build in options and flexibility in teaching. Really get to know the kids beyond their persona as learners.
Since COVID-19 has upended the way that schools function, the Google for Education team has spent the last five months building products to help teachers and students navigate distance learning. Today we’ll host a virtual event called The Anywhere School, where we’ll talk about new tools that teachers, students and parents can use as we head “back to school.” Teachers across many communities are the inspiration for us and provide direct feedback on the features we build.
So we reached out to four leaders in our field to learn more about their plans for heading back to school: David Chan, Director of Instructional Technology at Evanston Township High School in Illinois (virtual learning plan); Taneesha A. Thomas, Director of Instructional Technology at Franklin Park School in Illinois (hybrid learning plan); Dr. Quentin J. Lee, Principal, Talladega County Schools in Alabama (hybrid learning plan); and Kim Lane Clark, Director of Blended Learning, Lancaster Independent School District in Texas (virtual learning plan).
School leaders share their plans as they head back to school.
Here are some highlights from our open and honest discussion.
Lee: Listening to the concerns of parents, students, teachers, and community stakeholders is a priority. School leaders must constantly survey the essential needs of the community in providing the service of education to students. We have talks with families to make sure they understand our rationale—and that they feel heard and seen.
For example, I’ve hosted “Kicking It with Dr. Lee,” a forum to allow others to have a brave space to share thoughts and ask questions. The last call had approximately 85 students join in. We are also having conversations with students using a district wide created document to check in on their health and well being. This document has allowed us to track health concerns for students.
We can also make this fun. I have created a video about CDC guidelines for back-to-school safety with a few students and a fellow teacher. It’s gone viral with 4.2 million views and growing in just a week!
Clark: The constant unknowns are what keep staff up at night. All districts were in survival mode in the spring, we didn’t know what was going to happen next. But now that we have time to plan, we want to be thoughtful and strategic and make sure what we’re now doing is what’s best for students. Streamlining and communicating expectations will make things clearer for staff and parents.
Chan:The biggest challenge will be when to make the decision on transitioning from a virtual to a hybrid model and then what exactly that hybrid model will look like. We can all imagine in-person teaching and we have a better sense of what virtual learning looks like based on our spring experience. However, many of us struggle with the unknowns that a hybrid model brings, namely, how do I teach effectively when some of my students are in front of me and the rest are at home? What happens when the school needs to shut down? How do I balance my own personal life/family with my work life?
Lee: I’m most concerned about tangible resources such as meals that students will miss out on by being out of school. I’m thinking about the social and emotional needs for students who found a refuge in coming to school.
Chan: When our administration presented our virtual opening plan to the board, they did something interesting. They showed images of students pre-COVID in a classroom collaborating, and having a positive experience. Then they contrasted that with images of the socially-distant desks and the impact on a classroom environment. The impact was clear and that coming back to school wouldn’t be delivering the learning experience we want for our students, so there was support for going all virtual this fall.
Thomas: If we need to close schools again, we will go fully remote. This should be a seamless process, since we’re already starting the school year doing three remote learning days a week. For the fall, we want to make sure that people understand that, given that we’ve had more time to plan, we’re holding ourselves to a higher standard throughout the school year. For example, in the spring we didn’t hold students accountable for completion of work or attending classes. Now attendance and completing work is required. We want to make sure students and teachers are prepared for what may come and we aren’t repeating the COVID-19 learning of the spring.
Chan:At the end of the school year, we ran a one-day institute through video conferencing tools where we heard from both teachers and students about their experiences. We then engaged our teachers during the summer with an e-learning academy. We wanted to create consistency in our routines and tools to make virtual learning more approachable for families. Over the course of six units and a final project, all teachers will enter the fall with a Google Classroom created and a course expectations guide for each of their classes.
Clark:We are currently creating a three day virtual training event for all teachers and administrators. We will train teachers on how to create a virtual learning environment, logistics, and resources. Teachers will leave the training with tangible deliverables (Google Classroom, virtual Bitmoji classroom, and first day expectation posted in their LMS) that will prepare them for virtual learning. There are so many changes everywhere -in some days, it feels like everyone is a new teacher this year. So we are trying to keep things as “normal” as possible for our teachers and students, where we can or where it makes sense, so they can have some level of comfort.
Thomas: We have innovation coaches creating a return-to-learn guide for teachers and parents too. A lot of parents are seeing these digital platforms for the first time and have no idea how to assist their students. What we try to emphasize with our staff is that the platform is their responsibility, not the parents. Parents aren’t a co-teacher but helping to facilitate access to the learning.
Clark:We are developing and hosting live parent trainings where parents can get the exact simulations that their children will experience during their virtual learning experience. This will help create comfort for families to better support their students.
Lee:As a school we are constantly working to remove barriers to education by supplementing resources and supplies to benefit students. We are inviting parents to become advocates of their child’s education. A website is being created to inform parents of their child’s process as it pertains to school. By partnering with parents as a school, we can become the support that students need to experience true success.
I spent more than a decade working in schools as a teacher and administrator. Whenever there was an event that caused the school to close, I found a way to ensure that students didn’t lose valuable learning time. We call this “distance learning” and many teachers, whether they work in a virtual school or are faced with a unique event, are exploring how to make it work. Currently, we’re facing such an event. Concerns over the transmission of COVID-19 are closing schools across the globe, and millions of students are unable to physically attend school.
To help with this, we recently announced that advanced Hangouts Meet features are available for free to anyone who uses G Suite around the world. This means you’ll be able to put up to 250 people on a Hangouts Meet call—an entire class or group of classes can join a lesson simultaneously. You’ll get live-streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within your domain, so that you can do a virtual school assembly or stream a lecture. Plus, you can record meetings and save them to Google Drive. When students can’t join the lesson, they’ll be able to access the content later.
For educators preparing for potential school closures—or currently facing them—here are a few other ways to handle distance learning.
Keep students engaged while they’re at home
Virtual learning can be isolating and disengaging for students. Sitting in front of a screen for hours watching videos may compel a student to fast forward or even skip a lesson altogether. To keep them engaged, open up virtual discussions about what they’re learning. In a lesson exploring the water cycle, challenge students to pause the video and join a discussion in Google Classroom (using the Stream) about the last time they experienced a thunderstorm. You can also use comments in Google Docs and Classroom to have a two-way discussion with students as you give feedback on their work—another great strategy to engage when you can’t see them in person.
Frequently assess student learning
Formative assessments help you make sure students are continuing to progress while away from school. Check for understanding during group instruction by asking a poll question in the middle of a lesson and showing the results in real time. This can also help you “take attendance” in a virtual setting. Quizzes in Google Forms offer auto-grading features, allow you to embed videos, images, and as many answer choices as you want. You can also assign graded discussions in Google Classroom, and students can demonstrate their knowledge through project-based learning assignments using Slide presentations, Docs or Sites.
Continue to connect with Hangouts Meet
When students’ routines are disrupted, many realize how much they actually miss the structure of school, and learning with their teacher. It’s important to maintain that feeling of comfort and safety during a time of uncertainty.
If your students have Wi-Fi access, you can see them virtually on Hangouts Meet. You can also use this platform to create video discussion sections for students to engage with one another and support their peers who might be struggling with concepts. Turn on live captions to help students focus, and so that students who are deaf or hard of hearing can read spoken language during the call.
Scheduling is another challenge that may arise. Using Calendar Appointment Slots, students who need extra help can sign up to meet 1:1 or in small groups with you. Due to intermittent or lack of Wi-Fi access, or shifting childcare solutions, not all students may be able to join a virtual classroom at the same time. Your instruction will likely be a mixture of live video and sharing recordings of your lessons for students who couldn’t make it. Thankfully, advanced features in Hangouts Meet allow you to record your lessons to share with students.
Check in with how your students are feeling
Social Emotional Learning can continue in a distance learning setting as well. Just as you can use Hangouts Meet to “be” there for your students and maintain your classroom culture, you can provide other ways for students to share and process their emotions while away from school. Using Google Forms, create mood check-ins for students to share their emotional state on a daily basis. Within the Form, students can request a conference with the teacher if they need extra support. You can also set up a private blog for students to reflect on the experience by journaling or recording video reflections.
Think beyond the clock
With distance learning, you don’t have to worry about time constraints of the normal school day: rushing students into the classroom or hurrying to finish your lesson before the bell rings. Students can take more time on some activities and breeze through lessons that come naturally to them. Take advantage of this opportunity and design your lessons to include more “choose your own adventure” activities rather than a fixed schedule of lectures and lessons.
Explore more approaches to distance learning
As educators and administrators set up contingency plans and consider making classrooms fully virtual, we’re here to help. We’ve seen educational leaders reaching out to one another, sharing ideas and providing support through Google Educator Groups, and other social networks, including Twitter and Facebook. Check out this webinar on distance learning strategies, find resources in the Teacher Center, and continue to share ways you support remote learners.
I spent more than a decade working in schools as a teacher and administrator. Whenever there was an event that caused the school to close, I found a way to ensure that students didn’t lose valuable learning time. We call this “distance learning” and many teachers, whether they work in a virtual school or are faced with a unique event, are exploring how to make it work. Currently, we’re facing such an event. Concerns over the transmission of COVID-19 are closing schools across the globe, and millions of students are unable to physically attend school.
To help with this, we recently announced that advanced Hangouts Meet features are available for free to anyone who uses G Suite around the world. This means you’ll be able to put up to 250 people on a Hangouts Meet call—an entire class or group of classes can join a lesson simultaneously. You’ll get live-streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within your domain, so that you can do a virtual school assembly or stream a lecture. Plus, you can record meetings and save them to Google Drive. When students can’t join the lesson, they’ll be able to access the content later.
For educators preparing for potential school closures—or currently facing them—here are a few other ways to handle distance learning.
Keep students engaged while they’re at home
Virtual learning can be isolating and disengaging for students. Sitting in front of a screen for hours watching videos may compel a student to fast forward or even skip a lesson altogether. To keep them engaged, open up virtual discussions about what they’re learning. In a lesson exploring the water cycle, challenge students to pause the video and join a discussion in Google Classroom (using the Stream) about the last time they experienced a thunderstorm. You can also use comments in Google Docs and Classroom to have a two-way discussion with students as you give feedback on their work—another great strategy to engage when you can’t see them in person.
Frequently assess student learning
Formative assessments help you make sure students are continuing to progress while away from school. Check for understanding during group instruction by asking a poll question in the middle of a lesson and showing the results in real time. This can also help you “take attendance” in a virtual setting. Quizzes in Google Forms offer auto-grading features, allow you to embed videos, images, and as many answer choices as you want. You can also assign graded discussions in Google Classroom, and students can demonstrate their knowledge through project-based learning assignments using Slide presentations, Docs or Sites.
Continue to connect with Hangouts Meet
When students’ routines are disrupted, many realize how much they actually miss the structure of school, and learning with their teacher. It’s important to maintain that feeling of comfort and safety during a time of uncertainty.
If your students have Wi-Fi access, you can see them virtually on Hangouts Meet. You can also use this platform to create video discussion sections for students to engage with one another and support their peers who might be struggling with concepts. Turn on live captions to help students focus, and so that students who are deaf or hard of hearing can read spoken language during the call.
Scheduling is another challenge that may arise. Using Calendar Appointment Slots, students who need extra help can sign up to meet 1:1 or in small groups with you. Due to intermittent or lack of Wi-Fi access, or shifting childcare solutions, not all students may be able to join a virtual classroom at the same time. Your instruction will likely be a mixture of live video and sharing recordings of your lessons for students who couldn’t make it. Thankfully, advanced features in Hangouts Meet allow you to record your lessons to share with students.
Check in with how your students are feeling
Social Emotional Learning can continue in a distance learning setting as well. Just as you can use Hangouts Meet to “be” there for your students and maintain your classroom culture, you can provide other ways for students to share and process their emotions while away from school. Using Google Forms, create mood check-ins for students to share their emotional state on a daily basis. Within the Form, students can request a conference with the teacher if they need extra support. You can also set up a private blog for students to reflect on the experience by journaling or recording video reflections.
Think beyond the clock
With distance learning, you don’t have to worry about time constraints of the normal school day: rushing students into the classroom or hurrying to finish your lesson before the bell rings. Students can take more time on some activities and breeze through lessons that come naturally to them. Take advantage of this opportunity and design your lessons to include more “choose your own adventure” activities rather than a fixed schedule of lectures and lessons.
Explore more approaches to distance learning
As educators and administrators set up contingency plans and consider making classrooms fully virtual, we’re here to help. We’ve seen educational leaders reaching out to one another, sharing ideas and providing support through Google Educator Groups, and other social networks, including Twitter and Facebook. Check out this webinar on distance learning strategies, find resources in the Teacher Center, and continue to share ways you support remote learners.