What remote learning takeaways can you use to improve your lesson plan?

The education sector’s last two years have been dominated by the presence of Covid-19. Teachers and schools were forced to adapt to ensure that students received their much-needed education. Remote lessons were a key aspect of students’ learning during the pandemic and new methods were adopted to ensure that pupil’s lesson time was as effective as possible.

Although remote learning is not as frequent as it has been in recent times, there are some brilliant lessons that can be learned from distance classes. Here, we discuss what remote learning takeaways you can use to improve your lesson plans.

The importance of establishing good communication in a remote lesson was critical for a student’s development and learning during the pandemic. Communication is the core of any productive lesson as teacher-student relationships have a positive impact on class participation, engagement, and ultimately a student’s achievements.

Creating a dialogue between your students can be challenging at the best of times, however, it was more important than ever with remote learning. Without any time in the classroom or being able to effectively address each student, teachers had to find alternative methods to ensure that they were communicating effectively with students. This included:

• More consistency – ensuring that both students and their parents were always on track
• Clearer expectation – reiterating what was expected of students outside of the classroom
• Support wellbeing – asking about student welfare in such tumultuous times
• Scheduled communication – creating more structure and setting aside times for communication

These are all fantastic elements of communication that can be incorporated into lesson plans to improve student-teacher relationships and to create a more productive class. Effective communication both inside and outside the classroom can help to build and foster a safe learning environment where students can thrive, prosper, and learn.

Student wellbeing was a key topic throughout the pandemic as teachers were tasked with helping students cope with stress and anxiety during lockdown, as well as managing their own mental health . Addressing social and emotional issues is an essential part of supporting your student’s education and ensuring that they are in the right frame of mind to fulfil their potential. Remote learning approaches connected students and their families with teachers, creating an efficient web of communication that benefitted the wellbeing of the student.

Social and emotional support should be an element of any lesson plan, whether it’s remote or in-person. Setting some time aside in your lesson to talk to students about the current environment, exam issues or anything that may be contributing to stress and anxiety is highly beneficial. Helping students understand their feelings and incorporating healthy coping mechanisms into their routine can result in a happy and thriving class, and a positive learning environment.

Visual and audio aids are an excellent tool for increasing engagement, simplifying complex concepts, and clearly portraying a message or lesson. Visual and audio tools were a crucial aspect of remote learning as it was a challenge to ensure that students were engaged and understood the objectives of the lesson.

The majority of teachers who taught remotely understand the power of visual aids in helping students grasp the content of the lesson, and this is a tool that should be taken into all lessons. There is great value in resources that include visual and audio prompts as they encourage students to make associations between pieces of information and digest chunks of content quickly.

Visuals also offer variation and ‘lighten’ the atmosphere as they are perceived as less formal and as a little break from classroom routine. They can be used as warmers to introduce a lesson, as a mid-lesson break or as a constant aid to support your teaching.

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