Digital Teaching

I have now completed my online teaching to my ECMP 455 colleagues, and am still teaching the grade 8 students for my collaborative project and wow is online teaching different from face to face, and I do not believe it is for me! Presently anyways.

 During my online teaching lesson google docs. to my peers I felt like I rushed things, probably because I was nervous and because it is always nerve-racking to teach your peers. I also did not want to run out of time, as I wanted to complete all of the steps I had practiced. I am not even sure how long it took me, or if anyone retained any of my teachings. 

Maybe it is just me being a receptive person but I need the audience feedback to gage where I am at. Feedback as far as body language and facial expressions – looks of confusion, boredom, or panic to learn what I am teaching. Also to see who is actually paying attention! Not as though any of my colleagues weren’t during my lesson.

While I have blogged previously about knowing my students, I am still stuck on this. As the students Kayla and I are teaching online have our email address one student keeps attempting to chat with me on gmail chat. Not in regards to the assignment, as I will ask him how things are going but just to chat. I entertain this for a few minutes by asking him how is his day, how are things with the assignment, and what is he supposed to be doing at the present moment (as this is usually during school hours). After a few minutes I say good-bye, and encourage him to get back on task. While I see no harm in this it feels weird, as I do not really know this student. Additionally, while I keep the chats short, and appropriate what if the teacher whose class he is in asked him who is he chatting to, and he replied “my online teacher.” That teacher does not know me, and may feel that I am interrupting their classroom. I guess this comes down to a level a connectivity to my online students, and should be addressed in the future with online office hours in which to contact me.