Remote Learning:
How You Can Use Regular Resources to Teach Students Even When They’re Not in the Classroom
It’s official. Hundreds of districts have shut their school doors, and students will be remote learning in the coming weeks. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the thought of teaching your students in a remote learning setting, then this free workshop might be the perfect way to help you wrap your mind around how to begin. In this 6-lesson workshop, Cassi Noack will walk you through the entire remote learning process. Planning, structuring, teaching, practicing, assessing, communicating, and facilitating are topics she discusses that will guide you as you move into these uncharted waters. Her years of experience with creating “Digital Learning Paths,” has given her insight that can help you confidently face the weeks ahead.
Grab your favorite Flair pen, print her free workbook, and get to learning.
Remote Learning: 6-Lesson Workshop to Get You Going!
Last week, I wrote a blog about distance learning. You can read it here. The number of questions I received revealed a strong need for this workshop. If you want an introduction to distance learning, hop over to last week’s post, and meet me back here to begin the Remote Learning Workshop.
Schools around our country are closing with no warning and without a clue as to how long the Coronavirus will affect our school system.
I’ve put together a workshop that will teach you step-by-step how to use your own regular resources along with some basic (and free!) technologies to facilitate remote learning.
Work through each lesson to learn how to create a distance learning path.
CLICK HERE to download the FREE Workbook.
Introduction
This short video will introduce you to the types of materials and technologies that will help you create a remote learning path for your students using basic resources you already have and love.
Lesson 1: Plan & Structure Your Distance Learning Path
This lesson will teach you how to plan for your remote teaching. It will introduce you to the structure of a digital learning path.
Click here to download the planning file.
Lesson 2: Remote Teaching (New Content & More)
This lesson is about teaching your students remotely using video. It will show you how to use videos from YouTube or how to create your own videos.
Lesson 3: Distance Learning Practice Opportunities
This lesson will teach you how to take your regular resources you would use in a face-to-face environment and tweak them for online learning.
Lesson 4: Remote Learning Assessment Opportunities
This lesson will teach you how to add assessment components to your remote lessons so that students can self-assess, and so that you can keep track of how your students are doing.
Lesson 5: Online Communication
This lesson teaches you about communicating with your students and their families during distance learning sessions.
Lesson 6: Facilitating Remote Learning
This lesson teaches you how to wrap up your remote learning path, share the learning materials with your students, and monitor their progress. The second video (6-B) shows you how you can access your students’ learning paths once they are working on their own copies.
Tips for Distance Learning
This final video offers you tips for making your remote teaching experience successful.
Hi Rachel,
this is such a wonderful resource. Thank you so much!
My one question is how do the students work on the google slide you have created without changing it for you. Do they first have to copy it and make it their own?
Thanks for your help with this, Wiebke
Hi! 🙂 You do have to give students their own copy so they don’t mess your original up. You can do this with or without Google Classroom. Lesson 6 will walk you through it. If you haven’t signed up for the email group, don’t forget to. The first set of free add-ons is going out today.
Cassi
If the student makes their own copy, how do we see what they are doing?
Hi! Sorry I’m just seeing this! 🙂 Here’s the quick version, but I’ll still be making a video to walk you through it.
In your drive, you have a file named “Classroom.” Inside of this file is all of your classes, all of your assignments, and if you go into the file of the assignment, you’ll see each of your students’ files. You can just click into their file and see what they’re doing in real-time. You can leave comments, digital stickers, or whatever else you’d like. They’ll see your updates in real-time too!
I’m sorry, I don’t see how to make a comment on my own. You said you can put questions with student’s names but how do you give that to only one student? I saw in Lesson 6 how to distribute it to students but can you edit just their copy to provide individualized questions/supports?
Yes, you absolutely can. In your drive, you have a file named “Classroom.” Inside of this file is all of your classes, all of your assignments, and if you go into the file of the assignment, you’ll see each of your students’ files. You can just click into their file and see what they’re doing in real-time. You can leave comments, digital stickers, or whatever else you’d like. They’ll see your updates in real-time too!
Wow! I can’t thank you enough. You’ve just saved me hours and hours of work and opened doors in my own learning experience. Your tutorials are clear and easy to follow. The delivery is logical and sequential. I can’t believe you did all this in such a short amount of time. Again, THANK YOU!!!
You are so very welcome! I used digital learning paths with my students, and they definitely work! Good luck!
I can’t thank you enough! I am not the most tech-savvy. This has been so helpful. I feel confident now that I can carry on with my teaching. I will share this with my colleagues.
That makes me feel so good to hear. That was definitely my goal. Make sure you sign for the email group bit.ly/remotelearning20
I have the first set of extras going out today. 🙂
This was very helpful for someone just starting out in Google Classroom. Thanks you!
I’m so glad! Make sure you sign for the email group bit.ly/remotelearning20
I have the first set of extras going out today. 🙂
Thank you, Cassi! Your webinar was so helpful and it came at just the right time. This is all new to me and you made it so clear and easy to understand. However, it is a steep learning curve since I have never done an online learning path for my students. I signed up so I could receive any additional materials that you are willing to share but I have not received any yet. Have they already been sent out? Do I need to sign up again or just wait? Blessing!
Hi! 🙂 I’m so glad the videos are helping you! The emails are set to come automatically shortly after you signed up. If you still didn’t get it, you can email me at [email protected]
Thanks so much! 🙂
Fabulous! What grade was this targeted for? Just curious….
Hi Teri, thank you! The workshop isn’t for any grade level or content specifically, but my expertise is in upper elementary math, so it might unintentionally be geared toward that. 🙂 -Cassi
Thank you so much for making this course. I can’t tell you how much it has helped me wrap my head around this sudden change. You are great!
I’m so glad it helped you!!! Yay!!! 🙂
This is perfect timing and amazeballs! Do you have any recommendations for group work? Before remote learning, students were evaluating peer narrative writing contest anonymously. Somehow I need to have students read their peer survivor narratives and then have them rate them. I thought about creating a table and then having them rate them, but do you have any other strategies?
Thanks so much! Group work is definitely doable using the share button with editing rights!
Here’s what I would do: Create a brand new Google Slides. On each slide, paste a link to (or picture of) one student’s narrative. Once you have the presentation of narratives, you can share the link to the Google Slides file with all the students. Just make sure that before you share the link, you change it to say that anyone with the link can edit. Then your students can see everyone’s narratives, and they can insert text boxes to comment and rate. Everyone will be working inside of the same document. 🙂 Hope this helps!
This was very helpful. Thank you!!! Might be cool if you give out a certificate of course completion 🙂
Thank you! And great idea. I’ll look into seeing what it would take to get a course completion certificate. 🙂
Thank you for taking your time to make this video series. They were very helpful.
You are very welcome! 🙂 Hope it helps you 🙂
Therefore once they make a copy of the file, they will not be able to change anything, correct. Does that include the checkmarks, the coverups and anything they use to assess “answer” the questions?
Once the students get their copies, they’ll still be able to manipulate everything on the slide. The only thing is that you won’t be able to change the things from your original slides and have it translate to their copies. They’ll get an exact new copy of your original. Whatever you can do on your slides, they can do on theirs! Hope this helps. If not, let me know.
Wow this was amazing. Thank you so much I can see many ways to use this all year to deliver differentiated instruction. Can’t wait to get started.
Yay! 🙂 I’m so excited for you!
This is excellent. Thank you!
Thank you so much! 🙂
Thank you so much!!!!
I’m Paulette, I work in Mexico City and this has been a great workshop. I will be starting my learning path right away and sharing my results with you.
Once again thank you for your time and great ideas.
You’re sooo welcome! Good luck with your remote teaching adventures!
You saved my life! Thank you so much. Great resources and wonderful, down-to-earth tips. All the best.
LOL! I’m so glad I was able to help!! 🙂
This was an excellent workshop! Thank you so much. I am a school counselor who would like to post classroom lessons. I do not have Google Classroom. You mentioned emailing the lessons to students. Is there a way I could just post a link to it on our school’s website? Or maybe I’d send the lesson to individual teachers and they send it to their students? Just not sure how to do this.
You can definitely do this. You might want to use a URL shortener, like bit.ly, so that the link isn’t so long. If you watch Lesson 6 starting at 4:47, I’ll walk you through sharing your learning path through an email or even pasting the link on your website or wherever. 🙂
THANK-YOU!!!!! This is just INCREDIBLE!!!!! You have no idea what a life-saver you are! I’m only at Week 4, and I am so excited to try all these things out! Do you use Google Classroom? This weekend has been like no other…..
You are very welcome! 🙂 All of this is designed to work perfectly with Google Classroom. I’ll talk about it in Lesson 6. And you’re right, these times have definitely been like no other.
Cassi, thank you soooooo much! This is such an amazing resource! It is easy and extremely teacher friendly! My grade level partner and I worked together to create a student and parent friendly resource during this crazy time. As my partner said, “You are our superhero!!!! Thanks again!
Thank you so much, Kristy! 🙂 I’m so happy to hear!
Wow, you said you just quickly put this together, can’t imagine if you had tons of times. Learned so much. Not only is this extemely useful now, but my school is looking into individualized learning plans and I see your learning paths playing so well into to that. AMAZING. Thank you!
You’re welcome! Individualized learning is exactly how I used the learning paths! I just made them, and students worked through them at their own pace. When they were ready to move on, they moved on! 🙂
Hello,
Thank you for the lessons. Your advice and method or organization makes for a much better product than what I was producing! I appreciate you sharing your expertise.
I have a question about using cam scanner. The only options are to safe scanned documents as jpeg or pdf files. How do students edit these documents if they are worksheets? When I posted them the students said the formatting was “messed up”.
Thank you.
All CamScanner can do is make a “photocopy.” It doesn’t make it interactive or formatted in a way that students can answer them. They would have to use textboxes or other means to actually complete the worksheet. If you are inserting these files into a learning path Google Slides, you should use the PDF format because Google will only allow you to insert pictures. You may have already watched Lesson 3, but if not, I got into some detail about this. I also have a blog post that goes into even more detail. https://cassinoack.com/digitize-your-worksheets-with-google/
OMG!!!! Thank you soooo much! I am a visual learning and this was a GOD send. I feel so much better about this learning path and I have you to thank!
Yay! That makes me so happy! 🙂
Do you create a learning path for each subject?
You can do it whatever way works best for you. I taught only science and math, so I had a separate learning path for each subject. I’ve worked with other teachers that just put everything for a day or a week on it. 🙂 One thing to think about is that if it gets too long, it might be a little overwhelming for the students. If it does happen to get too long, you can always include a table of contents slide at the very beginning to guide them.
Rachel,
Thanks for sharing the Remote Learning Workshops. They were extremely helpful and full of great information. Thanks again!!!
You’re welcome!!! 🙂
Thank you for your information. This was a great workshop and I am trying to figure it out for the next week. I teach high school science so would I need to give them more practice or information?
I think you need a good balance. My daughter is in high school and is doing her homeschool right now. She was complaining because the instruction wasn’t enough to help her complete the activity. She had to go googling to try and figure out how to do her work. My greatest advice would be to create your own teaching videos that students will watch before trying the practice. 🙂
Awesome advice! Thank you!
Thank you so much for helping to get my head wrapped around all that needs to be done.
You’re welcome! 🙂
Thank you so much for these videos and information. You make it seem so easy and doable. I shared this information with my teachers and many are excited and ready to try it out. Thanks again!
Thank you so very much for the valuable information.. On the spring freebie, I am unable to get the dice roll to work for the spring game. Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you!
You’re very welcome! 🙂 ooops.. I forgot to link it. I corrected it so you can make a new copy, or you can just link the picture to this link. 🙂 https://www.google.com/search?q=dice+roller
I ADORE the new Spring templates!!! Cassi, you are MAGICAL!
LOL!!! Well, only because I had someone with an amazing eye pick the colors!!!! LOL Love ya!!! 🙂
Such a fantastic resource! You explained everything so well and gave an easy-to-follow format for implementing it with fidelity! Great job – I am grateful for your time and energy:)
You are very welcome!!! 🙂
Thank you so much!! You have really helped me solidify the approach and strategies I will implement as we embark on this new adventure. I was really concerned about how I was going to be able to reach and work with the kids who need extra support. In setting it up this way, with a clear learning path, I can differentiate effectively for all different needs and at the same time, feel like it’s manageable. I like the pace of your videos and appreciate your helpful and upbeat personality. Much appreciated!!
Thank YOU so much! 🙂 I’m sure you’re going to do amazing things with your students!
Cassi-
I can’t begin to thank you! We started remote learning two weeks ago, with absolutely no training. Then, we just found out yesterday that we’ll be doing this until 5/4 (or longer). I have been really struggling and not sure how to make it work. You’ve solved many problems for me and now, I think I can do it! Thank you so much! You are a true hero to me…giving this great workshop all for free! Nancy
Dear Nancy, you are so welcome! Make sure you sign up for the emails at bit.ly/remotelearning20 because that’s how you’ll get all the free starter files and extra support videos! Just take it one step at a time, and just do the things that make sense for you to do! 🙂
Wow! I am completely blown away by this. Honestly, I could cry. This is thoughtful, thorough, creative, and made with love. This will help save me countless hours and my sanity! I plan on sharing this with my fellow teacher friends up here in Canada. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise with all of us. Stay safe and healthy 🙂
Hi Erin, Thank you so much! I’m just so happy that you’re able to use the info to help you get started with distance learning! LOVE FROM TEXAS!!! 🙂
Thank you so much Cassi. Your time and effort spent to help teach others is so appreciated. You are an angel!!! Just think of the compounded impact your teaching will have when each of us feather out and teach our students remotely. You have made such a tremendous contribution to education everywhere!!
Brenda
Thank you for encouraging me, Brenda! 🙂 I appreciate your thoughtfulness! 🙂
I’m loving all the templates you’ve provided. Thank you! One thing I’m having trouble with is the stickers with the “audio” symbol. After I’ve created my audio using the cloud audio recorder, it doesn’t seem to play once I drag the symbol onto the top of your audio symbol. I can’t figure out what I may be doing wrong. Any suggestions? Thank you.
Hi! 🙂 I bet the only problem is that your real audio icon is going behind the picture of the audio icon. Just right click on the picture, then click order, then click send to back. Then you’ll be clicking on the real audio icon. HOpe this helps! Cassi
Thank you so much for sharing this information!! I am having trouble with two things. One, when I share the learning path with my students, it doesn’t allow them to type on one of the slide pages. Two, when I ask them to share their work by getting a shareable link, they can’t paste it to the slide. Any ideas?? Also, do you sell your Learning Paths? Thanks again!
Hi 🙂 It sounds like your link is set to “anyone with the link can view.” That means they can’t edit. If you want them to be able to use the slides as their own, they will need their own copy. If you watch Lesson 6 (there are 2 parts) I will show you exactly how. 🙂 And I don’t have any learning paths for sale, but I do have many digital activities that I will be posting in Rachel Lynette’s TpT store over the next few weeks! 🙂
Would this also apply to the slides that say to “drag the no peeking sign away to see the answer” and the one where you can “insert and leave a comment”? I also shared my presentation so that anyone with the link can view. I’m a school counselor, so multiple grades/classes are viewing my slides. Thank you!
Cassi,
Thank you so much for this invaluable resource. My district is just now putting Chromebooks into our children’s hands this week as we begin our distance learning plan. However, I have been in contact with my class parents since March 16th. I have been using 3 different websites to keep my students working on the skills they left school with. However, I want to do more with them, at least a little. I think by doing this it will help me. My question is, in one of your videos you mentioned that the students would have an individual google drive. Is this correct? If so, how would I go about helping them set that up?
Thank you for all you do! Your time is invaluable to people like me.
Linda
Hi Linda, if your school uses Google Classroom, Google drive is a part of that. Everything they do in Google Classroom automatically connects with their Google drive. If you don’t use google classroom, each student would just need their own Gmail address.