Easy Ways to Create Connections During Distance Learning
Teachers, you are doing A LOT right now. Distance learning and teaching are less than ideal (and that’s putting it lightly). Honestly, it hurts my heart for teachers, for parents and caregivers, and most of all—for students who are missing out on so much. I have forced myself to look at the bright side of this situation so many times over the past 6 months, but I’ve also had days of high anxiety, worry, and guilt. If you are like me, relationships are EVERYTHING when it comes to teaching and setting up our classroom environments. During a time where you can barely keep your head above water, I hate to even ask you to do more; but, I hope to offer you some new ideas for building connections (AND JOY) with your students during remote learning. One of these ideas may be just what you and your students need to have more joyful moments during these challenging times.
USE FUNNY/HEARTWARMING MEMES
Starting your class time with laughter can build connections and put everyone in a good mood. Use funny or heartwarming memes that students can relate to. You can post a meme while waiting for students to join your class meet. You can also share memes within Google Classroom as an image or within your teaching slideshows as a nice surprise for students. Who doesn’t love to see pictures of fluffy cats?! Cat videos have been proven by research to reduce stress, anxiety, and sadness. (How’s that for research-based teaching strategies?!) One caveat, I personally steer clear of super-sarcastic memes with students—although I’m sarcastic myself, it doesn’t always set the tone you are hoping for, nor teach students how to treat one another in a larger setting.
READ ALOUD PICTURE BOOKS
Please don’t forget the power of reading aloud to your students. I don’t care what age you teach, a shared story is a powerful way to communicate a message, create relationships, and connect with your students. While I often stop reading the “fun” picture books as the year goes on and we get into more content, remote learning positions us to use read alouds to our advantage as often as we are able to. If you are looking for recommended read alouds, I’ve got tons of recommendations on topics like Growth Mindset, Belonging, Kindness, Friendship, and a Love of Reading. I even compiled a list of 34 picture book read alouds to use when you are short on time!
USE ATTENDANCE QUESTIONS TO GET TO KNOW YOUR STUDENTS
Many schools are using Google Classroom or other means to have students “check-in” for attendance. Rather than simply having students click a box to show that they are present, create a multiple-choice question related to something you’ve done in class, a read aloud, or a lighthearted opinion-based question.
What’s your favorite thing to do on a Saturday?
Who was your favorite character in _____ and why?
What type of weather would describe how you are feeling right now?
What’s something great that has happened lately?
MAKE TIME FOR MORNING MEETINGS
Having a consistent morning meeting built into the schedule is a fantastic way to connect with students during remote learning. Morning Meeting allows you to set the tone for your classroom community each day and provides a time for you and students to bond and check in with one another before starting the day’s work. Morning meetings can be successful even if you only have 15 minutes.
If you want to go deep with your morning meetings and implement lessons that develop students’ social and emotional skills, I’ve created 16 engaging, detailed morning meeting units focused on important themes for upper elementary students’ personal, social, and academic growth—themes like Responsibility, Growth Mindset, Belonging, Kindness, Courage, Integrity, and Friendship to name a few!
These morning meeting theme units include lesson ideas, suggested read alouds, student notebooks, and bulletin boards to make planning morning meetings SUPER EASY! Editable lesson plans? You’ve got it! Need digital student notebooks for remote learning? Google Slides for the teacher and student notebooks are included—yay!
If you’re interested in trying out a theme-based morning meeting unit, you can have the Belonging theme unit sent straight to your inbox. This unit really helps me establish my classroom community and my routines for morning meetings. Whether it’s the first week of school or later in the year, this is always my first unit!
PLAY MUSIC AT THE START OF CLASS
Before the pandemic, most students started each morning with a fairly lengthy transition period between home and school. Bus rides, car rides, and walking were all involved and granted students the ability to separate their home-life attitude from their school-life attitude. With virtual learning, that transition period has been shortened to a matter of feet and seconds.
Doing something a little extra to help provide mental space between home and “school” can really help students feel connected to the virtual environment and ready for a day of learning. Playing music at the start of class is a great way to trigger students’ minds that the school day has begun, gives them a few minutes to leave behind any rush or negativity from the morning at home, and serves as an instant mood lift for those that may need it. You may even choose to encourage dancing to get those brain juices flowing on a rainy day or meditation to quiet an excited group! ;)
SURVEY STUDENTS AND USE THEIR RESPONSES
If you didn’t survey your students about their favorite things at the beginning of the year, there’s still time to do so in order to learn more about them. I’d recommend creating a Google Form so that all of your students’ responses are compiled into one spreadsheet. You can ask about favorite foods, tv shows, video games, the best book they’ve ever read, a book they had to read and disliked, what sports they play, skills they would like to learn, other hobbies they have, siblings, pets, and what they like to do in their free time. If you really want to get into it, you can create lists of ideas and let them check off all that apply.
How can surveying students help you build community? Use students’ responses to come up with ideas for spirit days, ask more targeted questions during class time, share results (keeping students’ anonymity, of course). I just know you will find ways to sprinkle this information into your time with students!
SCHEDULE One-On-Ones DURING BREAKS
Consider scheduling short (I’m talking 5-10 minutes) one-on-one meetings with each of your students during “free time.” Use independent work time that is already built into the schedule, the last ten minutes of the lunch/recess break, or a short period during your office hours.
Strive to meet with each of your students every other week to talk about…nothing. Seriously, just connect. Ask them questions about themselves, let them ask you questions, just converse and make a dent in getting to know them on an individual basis outside of anything school-related. Those few minutes every other week will make a positive impact on your connection with one another.
PLAY A CLASS Game
Look for the occasional light day in the schedule where you can take the last 20 minutes of a class to play a fun game together. Sharing laughter and enjoyment together plays a significant factor in students feeling connected with you and each other. Some great mood-boosting games that would work well virtually include Twenty Questions, Two Truths and a Lie, Would You Rather debates, Scattergories, or most trivia games.
Surprise students or build it into the schedule to create excitement and anticipation. Either way, a winning idea!