Keeping their Attention!
Teaching Students online brings an added challenge to teachers to keep students alert and engaged. How do we keep them from wandering off to the kitchen to get a snack, wrestle with their puppies, or return to that game they’re playing on their phones, while you’re trying to teach a lesson? Yes, it’s challenging! Annoying siblings, TV’s blaring in the background, and yes, parents too, can pull the students attention away from their online class.
Getting Creative!
Teachers are getting very creative these days in finding ways to keep those minds from straying. One teacher found a creative and fun way to take attendance each day by posting a Google Form with a fun question to answer. “Would you rather be a monkey or a bird? Why?” Her kids look forward to logging on each day to see what interesting question they get to answer. This gives her a record each day of which students logged in, and also give students a chance to share personal information and bond with their classmates. Scavenger Hunts are becoming popular in online classrooms as students get to find objects in their house that are cubes, spheres, or rectangular prisms. Students hunt for items to share with the class, which allows them to get up and move, a needed break from sitting in front of a screen. Flipgrid is an online site that lets students record their own videos to share with the class. Students can share something about themselves, explain the steps for solving equations, or summarize a reading assignment.
Classroom Games Teachers Use
Classrooms are changing, and teachers all over the world are getting creative in keeping students’ attention. Many teachers are turning to digital games to keep students engaged and learning. Minecraft, Quizizz, Escape Rooms, and digital Jeopardy help keep students’ minds from wandering. Some teachers are using their tech skills to create their own online games and puzzles. One of my own favorites is my Digital Slide Game. Played in “Present” mode on a Google Slide Deck, students answer multiple choice questions on a topic by clicking on their chosen answer. Each slide is linked so that incorrect answers go to a slide that tells them to try again and directs them back to the previous slide. Correct answers send them to a slide that tells them they answered correctly and allows them to move ahead in the game. My own kids love this.
Creating Games with Google Slides
Other favorites are my Number Chips lessons and Math Races. The Number Chips lessons give students the boost they need to tackle difficult topics like simplifying fractions, and solving distributive property problems. The number chips are colorful, moveable circles that can be moved around the slide and placed correctly in order to solve math problems. Every number chip on a slide is used once, so that students can use problem-solving skills and reasoning to eliminate possibilities and help find their solutions. Because they have only a limited number of options to use, it gives struggling students the boost they need to keep trying. They enjoy moving the colorful chips, and the once difficult math problem becomes a puzzle that students have fun solving. My math races are competitions to put math slides in the correct order by matching the problem on one slide with its solution on the next slide. Students can work in teams, compete individually, or just compete with themselves.
Please let me know what you need!
As I’ve stated previously in my other blogs, I’m open to ideas. These games can be used for so many different types of lessons. If you would like to know how to create any of these yourself, just click on “Need Something Specific?” on my home page and request instructions. If you would like me to create a specific lesson for you, just send me details on what you want. I will create it for you.
Let’s keep those wandering minds on the task at hand!