Zoom hacks for school download
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Zoom hacks for school downloadHere we go again! Just as everybody thought schools would remain in person and that leaders at a higher pay grade had this whole pandemic thing kind of figured out, in comes Omicron. This highly transmissible virus variant is upending school operations all over the place. As a result, many of us once more face life on Zoom, at least for limited periods.
Before the holiday break, I helped facilitate an online training that people were visibly too tired to attend. There was nothing I could do about the timing of the virtual session, so I focused on upping the energy by adding the festive sound of the Peanuts theme song as people entered the Zoom room.
It might seem like a simple thing to do, but providing mood music is one small tool in our arsenal to improve the online experience of adults and children alike. If our Zoom experience is going to be any longer than a few days, it helps to ask students to suggest music selections to play either at the start of class or during a quiet period of work time. That will increase involvement in our virtual space and help everyone feel more connected to the class. Over the past two years, breakout rooms have gotten a lot of love — and a lot of hatred.
Given the broad range of learning styles that exist, the dual-edged nature of breakout rooms makes sense. Some people love chatting in small groups while others dread the experience.
To change up our methods for student participation, going beyond the breakout room is key. We can also have students engage with quiz applications or polls, which is another way to both increase participation and gamify our teaching. As a rule of thumb, restricting our breakout room use to once or twice in each class period will force us to find other ways to help students interact with one another.
I am about to start a new semester with a class I teach in the evenings that has been online since mid We take a moment and talk about what those careers might have been and use the space to build rapport. Then, everyone switches cameras off and we repeat the process with additional prompts. For Zoom instruction, we bemoan the very real challenge of students who do not turn on their videos. However, cameras can be leveraged to our advantage as tools to engage students.
If cameras are worked into the instructional plan, they are more likely to help heighten student involvement in our class. Whenever I participate in a Zoom meeting, certain people verbally process information while others type thoughts into the chat.
We all learn and share in our own way, and it helps to use the chat to reach students who may not want to speak up on the microphone. People like to type into the chat for sidebar conversations or to make a quick comment, but the feature can also be bumped up as a tool to check for understanding. Suppose the lesson is focused on reflecting on the impact of a historical event on a group of people.
In addition, by giving students time to both craft a response and to read and process what they see, we create a safer space for sharing ideas. When I lead meetings online, even the best plans can become derailed by someone who wants information that is relevant to them personally, but not to the group. If these interruptions hinder the chat or verbal conversation, we risk not achieving our learning outcomes. However, if students are given a backchannel document ahead of time in which to place their questions and concerns, we can meet needs once the Zoom class has ended.
To use this strategy, create an online shared document for questions or comments. This tool can be organized however we would like and be as aesthetically pleasing as desired. To ensure follow-through with student needs, we must go to that backchannel document after each class and thoroughly answer questions.
If we do not, students will stop using it. In addition, it helps to provide a space for student names, just in case they would like to be contacted for a more detailed conversation. This strategy might be simple, but if executed well, it keeps our classes focused on serving the good of the group while still allowing us to check in with individual students. In , we had one advantage going into virtual instruction that did not exist the following school year; prior to going on Zoom, we had instructed students in person for seven months.
This year, everyone is in a similar boat. Four months of relationship-building this past autumn will be extremely beneficial for any online instructional time with kids if we maintain carefully built connections. Before class begins each day, making space for conversation both spontaneous and structured provides much-needed time for checking in with kids. In addition, try to prioritize connections to individual students by sending an email, private chatting with kids on Zoom, or making a phone call.
However we choose to stay connected, sending the message that we care and that Zoom is not forever will help kids stay in a healthy mindset.
There are very few teachers who do not look at possible instructional time ahead online with a feeling of dread, not to mention deja vu. This first month of is feeling disturbingly like March of , and that is not good; this time, however, everyone knows more than we did two years ago. A knowledgeable mindset makes a difference, and if students see teachers doing our best to keep things going, they will join us and do their best to learn.
This instability will end someday, but in the meantime, schools are still in the thick of unwelcome ebbs and flows. With tried-and-true strategies in our arsenal this time around, we can continue the school year and ensure that student learning remains the top priority. Miriam Plotinsky is an instructional specialist with Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, where she has taught and led for more than 20 years.
She is the author of Teach More, Hover Less and is also a National Board-Certified Teacher with additional certification in administration and supervision. She can be reached at www. Search Search. Newsletter Sign Up. Changing Schools: Six Questions to Ask.
Search form Search. Mood Music Before the holiday break, I helped facilitate an online training that people were visibly too tired to attend. Changing it Up Over the past two years, breakout rooms have gotten a lot of love — and a lot of hatred. Using Cameras Productively I am about to start a new semester with a class I teach in the evenings that has been online since mid Chat Waterfalls Whenever I participate in a Zoom meeting, certain people verbally process information while others type thoughts into the chat.
Backchannel Document When I lead meetings online, even the best plans can become derailed by someone who wants information that is relevant to them personally, but not to the group. Stay Connected In , we had one advantage going into virtual instruction that did not exist the following school year; prior to going on Zoom, we had instructed students in person for seven months.
Trending Report Card Comments It's report card time and you face the prospect of writing constructive, insightful, and original comments on a couple dozen report cards or more. Here are positive report card comments for you to use and adapt! Struggling Students? You've reached the end of another grading period, and what could be more daunting than the task of composing insightful, original, and unique comments about every child in your class?
The following positive statements will help you tailor your comments to specific children and highlight their strengths. You can also use our statements to indicate a need for improvement.
Turn the words around a bit, and you will transform each into a goal for a child to work toward. Sam cooperates consistently with others becomes Sam needs to cooperate more consistently with others, and Sally uses vivid language in writing may instead read With practice, Sally will learn to use vivid language in her writing.
Make Jan seeks new challenges into a request for parental support by changing it to read Please encourage Jan to seek new challenges. Whether you are tweaking statements from this page or creating original ones, check out our Report Card Thesaurus [see bottom of the page] that contains a list of appropriate adjectives and adverbs.
There you will find the right words to keep your comments fresh and accurate. We have organized our report card comments by category. Read the entire list or click one of the category links below to jump to that list.
Behavior The student: cooperates consistently with the teacher and other students. Character The student: shows respect for teachers and peers. Group Work The student: offers constructive suggestions to peers to enhance their work.
Interests and Talents The student: has a well-developed sense of humor. Participation The student: listens attentively to the responses of others. Social Skills The student: makes friends quickly in the classroom. Time Management The student: tackles classroom assignments, tasks, and group work in an organized manner. Work Habits The student: is a conscientious, hard-working student.
Student Certificates! Recognize positive attitudes and achievements with personalized student award certificates! Report Card Thesaurus Looking for some great adverbs and adjectives to bring to life the comments that you put on report cards?
Go beyond the stale and repetitive With this list, your notes will always be creative and unique. Objectives Students will learn about changes that occurred in the New World and Old World as a result of early exploration. Older students only. Besides strange people and animals, they were exposed to many foods that were unknown in the Old World. In this lesson, you might post an outline map of the continents on a bulletin board.
On the bulletin board, draw an arrow from the New World the Americas to the Old World Europe, Asia, Africa and post around it drawings or images from magazines or clip art of products discovered in the New World and taken back to the Old World.
You might draw a second arrow on the board -- from the Old World to the New World -- and post appropriate drawings or images around it. Adapt the Lesson for Younger Students Younger students will not have the ability to research foods that originated in the New and Old World. You might adapt the lesson by sharing some of the food items in the Food Lists section below. Have students collect or draw pictures of those items for the bulletin board display. Students might find many of those and add them to the bulletin board display.
Notice that some items appear on both lists -- beans, for example. There are many varieties of beans, some with New World origins and others with their origins in the Old World. In our research, we found sources that indicate onions originated in the New and sources that indicate onions originated in the Old World.
Students might create a special question mark symbol to post next to any item for which contradictory sources can be found Note: The Food Timeline is a resource that documents many Old World products. This resource sets up a number of contradictions.
Download Zoom Mod Apk (Premium, Hack)
The upside of such intensive usage? Our learning curve has been exponential. By popular demand, we launched a Zoom integration for Donut that allows your team to start meetings right from an intro in Slack. Temporary Un-mute — Tired of hovering over the mic button just to miss the moment? Hit the spacebar and hold while you speak to temporarily un-mute yourself.
Allow Multiple Screen-shares Simultaneously — This is it, the gold medal of Zoom screenshares: viewing two at once. Word to the wise: this works best if you have an extra monitor. Using Dual Monitors — Speaking of multiple monitors, use the dual-monitor display feature to place the video and screen-share layouts on different screens and take advantage of that extra real estate. Want to level up even more? We even made you some Donut virtual backgrounds to try, complete with a template for doing a virtual cheers, a GIF news chyron, and many sprinkles.
Bonus points for coordinating background Donut selfies! Did we miss any? Connectivity Remote. Have a Donut meetup via Zoom.
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