Strategies for Teaching Concurrently: Hybrid and Remote
I’m going to go on record and just say it. Hybrid teaching sucks. Like sucks the living life out you. It is an energy vampire. I would like to see anyone try to be engaging to both in-person students and students on-line at the same time. It is like being pulled in two different directions all day. At some point you just feel like no one is getting the best of you. Not the in-person kids, and not the kids on-line. And… permission to speak freely here? That’s ok! You’re doing the best you can. You are doing the impossible. I could go on and on about how amazing you are, but instead what I am going to provide are some easy strategies to make concurrent teaching just a little less sucky.
Websites we use to teach concurrently:
The websites, apps, and platforms listed below are all amazing for students to work on in a collaborative manner. While students are separated by social distancing within the class and by physical placement (as in some students are home while others are in-person), you can rely on all of these programs to help bring your students together in a collaborative manner while also allowing you, the teacher, one place to see all student work instead of being split between two worlds.
Pear Deck - Pear Deck is our ABSOLUTE favorite teaching tool that we have found this year. We love it so much that we will be using it from now on! This Google slides add-on works great for seeing student work from both your in-person students and your students working from home. Another added bonus of Pear Deck is that it is FREE! Yes! Parts of this fabulous platform are free. There are features that we use, and love, that are part of the paid subscription. In our opinion. Pear Deck is well worth the cost for the subscription.
Jamboard - We have done a whole blog post about the benefits of Jamboard that you can read here. This is another great Google program that students can work on both from home and while in the class. This is a great platform for students to work together virtually and in person. If you have not given this free platform a try yet, then you need to! It is a MUST for hybrid instruction.
Google Slides - Like Jamboard, Google slides can be shared with your classes through Google Classroom. If you make the slides editable instead of making a copy for each student, then all students can work on the slide together at one time.
Padlet - A Padlet is a blank slate, a place for students and teachers to share information and collaborate virtually. There are so many different ways to use the Padlet platform. You can find some ideas here and here. We love that both our students in the class and our students who are working from home can all work together on one page and share ideas.
Parlay - We did a whole blog post on this awesome website. You can read up on our Parlay blog post here. Bottom line - we love this discussion-based learning tool and global community of educators who are reimagining class discussions for the 21st Century.
Flipgrid - We love using Flipgrid for students to create and share work with each other. This is a website where teachers can pose a discussion question and students can post a video or presentation to share with the class. Their responses show up like a grid similar to the look of Pinterest.
We know this list is not exhaustive, but in all reality, you only need a few great websites or web platforms to transform your teaching and make your life just a little bit easier. Really, that is what we hope for you - that you can make it through the year with a little bit more ease. We know this year has been hard, and we just hope that one or more of these awesome programs can help ease the burden of teaching concurrently for you.
Bottoms up!