Keeping students engaged in learning is challenging under normal circumstances. But during a global pandemic and stuck with remote learning? Well, that’s a whole new ball game.

Here are 12 ways I’ve found to keep students engaged. I hope you’ll share your ideas with me!

1 – Use check-in questions as social-emotional temperature checks. Just jumping into academic work without checking in with students first does not work for me. Maybe that is just a personal thing. But, for me, it’s important to take a few minutes to “take the temperature” of the class and to let my students know that I care about them as people just as much as I care about them as students.

With the isolation aspect of remote learning, this is another way to help keep students connected to each other.

Here are some ideas:
*share one word that describes how you’re feeling right now
*share an emoji in the chat that fits your mood right now
*use “Would You Rather” questions from Minds in Bloom

These questions don’t have to be anything that requires a lot of thought. Just a simple “what do you think?” type of question works well for this activity.

Students can answer out loud or they can type their answer in the chat and you can read them aloud.

Other fun options (which you would need to do in advance) are to post the questions in Google Classroom Stream or to send a link to a Padlet wall where students can respond.

2 – One of my favorite classroom engagement strategies is turn-and-talk or think-pair-share. This strategy is especially helpful for ELL students. I keep looking for new ways to use that partner talk in a remote learning environment.

Here are three ways I’ve found:
~put kids in breakout rooms to discuss the topic
~ask kids to respond on a Padlet wall
~open a Jamboard in Google Meet and have kids add a word or phrase about their thinking

The advantage of the breakout room is that students hear what others say and get a chance to talk as well. A Padlet wall is good for letting kids think first and see what other people write before they add their own thoughts. A Jamboard is fun for letting everyone add at once, but it’s often difficult for students who like to see what other people write or think before they add their own thinking.

3 – Use check for understanding throughout the lesson. This is a tried and true teaching practice because checking on what students do and do not understand throughout the lesson helps you teach responsively to students’ needs. Here are some ways you can do this:

*hold up a certain number of fingers to match an answer choice
*use thumbs up to signal that their windshield is “clear” (they are understanding), thumbs sideways to signal that their windshield is “buggy” (they mostly understand but don’t feel completely clear on it yet), or thumbs down to signal that their windshield is “muddy” (they are feeling lost).
*have students type T for true or F for false in the chat (or respond to a question with some other quick response)

4 – Call on kids in random ways. You can put names on popsicle sticks, use an app like “Popsicle Sticks,” use a checklist and check off when you call on different kids — whatever works for you. Keep in mind that the purpose is not to be a “gotcha” for kids, but rather to be more equitable in calling on students and giving everyone a chance to talk and share.

5 – Use a class circle format to talk and share. Here’s a link to my post about doing these in the classroom. When I use a question in a class circle, we go around the circle and give everyone a chance to answer the question. They can always pass if they want to, but I try to encourage everyone to contribute in some way. (Sometimes I talk to kids privately about why they continually “pass.” Most of the time they are feeling a little shy and/or unprepared to answer the question. It helps to give them a preview of the next day’s question so they can be ready to share.)

6 – Stand up while you’re teaching! I tried this one day on a whim and I noticed that not only did I feel better (because I’m used to standing and moving around while teaching), but my students were SO much more interested and engaged. Then I saw this post by Michael Linsin on Smart Classroom Management and realized it makes perfect sense. Now I stand up as much as possible!

7 – If you are teaching from your classroom (or if you’re able to do that), consider doing that at least some of the time. I went into my classroom to teach from there a couple of times (mostly for my own convenience), and was pleasantly surprised at how excited my students got when they saw that I was in the school building! While we understand the importance of staying distant right now (whether we like it or not), our students are really missing their familiar places and people. I heard comments like “I miss school” and “I wish I were there right now.” Now I am making more of an effort to go into the building and actually teach from there a couple of times a week.

8 – Consider using dialogue journals with your students. I explain the process in this post, but it will be different when you are doing this virtually. I am going to create a Google doc for each student and write the first letter to them. I’ll ask them to reply by typing their letter back to me above my letter to them. Then we’ll repeat the process, with the most recent letter at the top of the document.

9 – Use check-in questions on Google forms. To keep this from getting too routine, it helps to change the questions from week to week and not to use too many questions. I try to use just two or three questions in each form. Here are some favorites:
~What was your favorite lesson from this week? Why?
~What was your least favorite lesson from this week? Why?
~What is one thing you did well this week?
~What is one thing you could have done better this week?
~What is one goal you have for yourself for next week?
~What is one thing you want me to know?

10 – Follow “_mindsnacks” on Instagram for a daily conversation prompt. While these are not always great to use with children, it can give you ideas if you’re stuck! This site also offers a collection of open-ended questions that can give you inspiration for daily questions to discuss.

11 – Use online learning games such as Kahoot, Quizizz, and Quizlet Live to review content. Games are always a great way to keep kids engaged with each other and with content, whether you are teaching face to face or remotely. Just this week I tried out Quizlet Live with breakout rooms which was a big hit.

12 – Use small group instruction as much as possible. Here are some ideas:
~for math: review concepts for those who need that, provide an enrichment problem or activity for those who need more challenge, or keep some students with you to work on the practice for the day and discuss their strategies;
~for reading: guided reading, book clubs (using online texts from Epic or Raz Kids), fluency work (using a content area text), sharing book recommendations;
~for writing: sharing part of a piece of writing and receiving feedback from other students in the group;
~for content areas: reviewing notes or study guides before a test.

These are just some of the ways I’m trying to keep my students engaged in remote learning. I would love to hear your ideas! What are your favorite ways to keep your students engaged?

One of the most important goals for my class every year is to build a classroom community. Remote learning (and hybrid learning) make this more difficult, but I am determined to make it work.

I believe that students who feel connected to me and connected within our classroom community make higher achievement gains. With all of the isolation and “social distancing” between us right now, helping students to feel connected to others and to care about others is more important now than ever.

Here are 16 tips for how to build a classroom community and positive relationships.

1 – Assign a “cheer peer” or “buddy” to every student. I use an app on my phone called “Popsicle Sticks.” I click “Random Groups,” then “Groups of Two.” You have the option to shuffle names entirely, or to switch names if you see a pairing that might not work for some reason. I then email each student with the name of their “cheer peer.” This is not meant to be secret, as they know that whoever they are cheering for is also cheering for them! Another benefit of this practice is that it forces us to know and use everyone’s names and to learn to pronounce them correctly.

Here are some ways we “cheer” for each other:

*say “good morning” to your cheer peer in the chatbox when you see them show up in the group meeting
*whenever we share compliments or appreciation, say something kind to or about your buddy
*send them a friendly chat or email
*watch for good things that your cheer peer does during the day and compliment them on that.

2 – Have a snack or lunch meeting with small groups of students with no real agenda. Just eat a snack or lunch together over video, talk, and get to know each other. (My district is promoting a “device-free lunch” as a way to help cut down on screen time, so this may not work for me this year. But I’m including it here in case it’s a routine that might work for you.)

3 – Just as we start the day with a “circle” meeting, I am also inviting students to join me each day for a “closing circle.” We meet for about 10 minutes at the end of their school day (from 2:50 – 3:00 p.m.). We review the day, talk about what was good, what was more difficult, discuss what we’re going to do after school today. Nothing special, but it helps to keep us connected. While this is not required, I am noticing that more students are joining us each day.

Some questions I ask to get the conversation started:
*what was one rose and one thorn from the day?
*what was something challenging or new for you today?
*tell us about a time when you had to push through something hard today
*how did you take breaks and move your body today?
*how were you creative today?
*what is something you did to take care of yourself today?

Sometimes we play a game together that reviews something we are learning but in a fun way.

If you’re wondering about class meetings and how to get them started, here is a link to my post about how I do that in “normal” years!

4 – Hold daily office hours – this is a good time for you to just be available to have kids join and complete their assignments together. They can also ask questions if needed. This builds community and helps support those students who may not have adult support at home. I generally sit there and work on my own stuff (grading, for instance), but I am available if needed.

5 – One thing I did in the spring that really helped was to have once weekly Google Meets where we just did fun things together. I am continuing to do that this year. Here’s a link to my post about some fun activities to do in these meetings.

Another fun thing to do in these meetings is to host special guests. Invite your specialists, your guidance counselor, the principal — anyone that your kids love and who will be fun to interact with, even for just a brief visit.

6 – Host Field Trip Fridays! Since field trips are on hold for our district right now, one way to incorporate some fun while learning about a new place is to go on a field trip on a Friday (or any other day that suits your schedule). Here’s a link to my post about some fun field trip options!

7 – Host a Fun Friday event and play games together. Kahoot, Quizizz, or Quizlet are great options for fun academic content or just for fun games.

8 – Ask for student feedback regularly. Ask students how they’re feeling, ask them what they like and what they don’t like, ask them for ideas for changes you can make to your classroom. Ask them what they need from you. (As simple as this sounds, it makes a big difference.) I do this with Google forms, with polls in Google Meet, or just with casual class discussions.

Doing these simple activities builds trust and strengthens relationships. Then, once you ask for the feedback, it’s important to find a way to incorporate their suggestions (or explain why you cannot do what they’re asking).

9 – Create “learning pods” or “study groups”. These are small groups for students (about 4 or 5 works best). These group times allow them to get to know each other better and have “go-to” people for questions, etc. While it’s good to mix kids up in different configurations throughout the day, these groups serve as a bit of a “home base.”

Earlier this year we used our study groups to help each other review and study for a big science test. Currently, we are using them to give each other feedback on our personal narrative writing.

10 – Establish a “theme” for each day, just to shake up the routine and get kids talking about different things. I’m working on a future post with some ideas so stay tuned!

11 – Use fun activities like Mad-Libs or round-robin story writing where everyone can participate to create something fun.

For round-robin story writing, you can start with a prompt and call on a student. They add something to the story, then you go on to the next prompt and the next student. The results are usually hilarious when it’s all put together. (If you’re feeling ambitious, you can type the story as the students fill in their part or you can ask another adult to join your class and do the typing for the group.)
Here are some story prompt ideas to get you started:
Once upon a time in . . .
There was a . . .
Who . . .
Every day . . .
This continued . . .
Until one day . . .
And then . . .
Because of that . . .
Until finally . . .
And from then on . . .
The moral of the story is . . .

12 – Use a class Jamboard for shared collaboration. You can choose a topic and let everyone illustrate their own thinking. (Examples: this weekend . . ., my favorite book. . ., my favorite movie. . ., I’m looking forward to . . ., any kind of prompt like that.)

Another idea is to use it to have a “silent conversation.” This is a good strategy to use when everyone has read an article or part of a story. Instead of talking about their thinking, they can jot words or phrases or they can illustrate something they are thinking about what they read. It helps get them started more quickly if you give them a time limit!

13 – Use breakout rooms in Google Meet or Zoom. Give students a thinking/discussion prompt, appoint a leader to get the conversation started, and send them to separate rooms. A time limit helps them get going quickly on this activity as well!

14 – As a fun warmup, play “grab and share.” Have students grab something that is within arm’s reach, share it with the group, and tell why it’s significant for them. You could get more creative with this and tell them to grab something that is a certain color or made of a certain material or has a certain purpose, etc.

15 – Consider taking one day a week (maybe a Fun Friday?) to let kids dress a certain way or bring a certain object with them to class. Here are some ideas:
pajama day
hat day
superhero day
wear your favorite sports team colors day
bring a pet to class
crazy hair day
funny shirt day
dessert/snack day
bring a stuffed animal day
funny socks day
share something you made day
bring your favorite snack day
wear your favorite color day

The sky is the limit with the ideas! Ask your students for some of their ideas too.

16 – Do everything you can to create as many collaborative opportunities as possible.

Here are some ideas:

*post a question in Google Classroom for students to respond to (this helps everyone get to know each other)

*or use a Padlet wall for those daily questions

*use FlipGrid for students to make brief videos explaining how they solved a math problem or recommending/telling about a book they are reading or sharing some items that tell more about themselves

*use Google docs and presentations as assignments and allow students to collaborate on their work

*post an informational article or video for everyone and allow students to make comments about what they found surprising or interesting or was new learning for them.

Building a classroom community is critical to student learning and social-emotional wellness. With all the changes happening in our classrooms and the world, we need to build a community now more than ever.

Maybe it’s all the COVID statistics and the fact that this virus isn’t leaving any time soon. Maybe it’s all the election coverage with the endless ads on TV, social media, and in the mail. Maybe it’s just that I’m exhausted! But whatever the reason: I’m finding myself in a slump with every day seeming like just another version of Groundhog Day. If I’m feeling that way, I know my students are feeling it too.

So it’s time (and maybe past time) for me to stop, re-evaluate, and figure out how to bring the joy back to my classroom. If I can do it there, it will make a difference for me which will then make a difference for my kids.

First of all — I highly recommend this great article “Joy in School” by Steven Wolk. (If you don’t want to read the whole article, stay tuned to this blog because I’m going to summarize it and apply it to COVID-19 teaching and learning soon.)

One of my favorite literacy gurus is Regie Routman. I have been a fan of hers for many years and I highly recommend every one of her books . In her latest book Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Excellence, and Equity for All Learners, she lists “joyfulness” as one of the ten key factors for excellent teaching. She describes joyful teachers who “fully engage with students in a manner that demonstrates and ignites passion and inspiration for learning.”

So yeah – I know all that but I wasn’t doing all that. Time for a change. I’m sharing a few ideas but I hope you will let me know what works for you! We’re all in this together and we need to support each other with reassurance and great ideas.

1 – Stop and accept yourself and your feelings right now. Teaching is always exhausting work but with the added stresses of virtual learning or hybrid learning or face-to-face learning but with masks and distancing and all the rest — this is more exhausting than ever. It’s perfectly normal to be tired. It’s perfectly normal to be tired of it all! Just accept that this is how you feel right now and that it’s okay. Accept yourself and your feelings, just as they are.

2 – Do a brain dump of all the things that frustrate you, all the things you hate, all the things that keep you from enjoying your life right now. You might think that this would only make things worse, but getting all the “stuff” out of your head and onto the page is tremendously helpful. You don’t have to keep what you wrote! Keep it or trash it. The benefit lies in getting all those swirling, anxious thoughts out of your head.

3 – Do some yoga stretches or simple calisthenics. This is not a fitness routine. This is just a way to get the blood flowing, get you moving, and changing your mental state. Physical exercise releases the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which helps to regulate your mood.

4 – Take a walk. Outside if possible. This gets you out of your work environment and releases those same neurotransmitters.

5 – Meditate, even for only three minutes. My favorite app for that is Headspace, but you don’t need an app. Just sit or lie down, close your eyes, and focus on your breath. When thoughts come in (which they will), let them go and return your focus to your breathing.

6 – Read some fiction. Get out of your world and into another world. My current favorites are Elin Hilderbrand’s Winter in Paradise trilogy and This Secret Thing by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen. (If you’re looking for some excellent nonfiction, I recommend Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson.)

7 – Watch some uplifting show on Netflix or whatever other streaming service you can access. My current favorite is season four of Somebody Feed Phil!

8 – Think of what would usually bring you joy in the classroom in a regular year and do more of that. For me, it’s reading aloud to my students. This week, we had an unexpected schedule change (due to some local storms and power outages). Instead of plowing ahead with that day’s lesson, we read some North Carolina ghost stories from a book I had available. My kids loved it and are now begging for more read alouds. Somehow the change of schedule and change of routine boosted all of our moods.

9 – On Friday, we celebrated Halloween and Day of the Dead. We aren’t usually allowed to hardly even mention holidays in our classrooms (don’t get me started on that), but my team and I decided the heck with it: we’re going to celebrate.

Our students are working so hard and have missed out on so many fun events of our regular classroom and school life. They can’t even go trick or treating door to door in our community this year. So we played spooky music, we did a guessing game where we gave each other clues about our costumes (got that idea from the amazing third-grade team at my school), we even wore our costumes all day long.

Our math practice featured problems with candy, we read about holiday traditions and the history of these holidays for our reading lesson, and then we played Kahoot and Quizizz games to review what we learned from the reading passages.

At the end of the day, my students said it had been the “best day ever.” I think that just changing up the routine is what did the trick. Now we’re going to feature more unexpected “fun” days whenever we can.

10 – Feature gratitude and appreciation in your class routines whenever possible. We share “brags and drags” or “roses and thorns” from the day or from the weekend. We share one thing we are grateful for as a regular morning meeting circle question. We share an appreciation for someone else in the class as part of morning circle or in the end of day routine. I ask them to “tell me something good” in the chatbox. Any possible way to keep our focus on what is going well, what we do enjoy, what is good about our life together right now will keep us all in a more positive frame of mind.

“Joy is the main event.” ~Regie Routman

Find a way to bring the joy back to teaching and learning. It matters — for you and for your students. Please share your own strategies!