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Tips to Create a Warmer, More Engaging Online

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Your emotional state influences how well students learn. Here are tips
leading educators.
to incorporate a restorative approach to your online teaching.
By Annie O'Shaughnessy
May 29, 2020 Your email address

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Aleksandr Davydov / Alamy Stock Photo

Given the amount of time we’re spending teaching online—and thinking about the
upcoming school year—any small steps we can take to make our virtual classrooms
more relational, engaging, and supportive are important. While teachers and
students benefit from restorative practices as an alternative to exclusionary
discipline practices, they thrive when restorative principles are applied holistically
to everything we do in schools—from how we deliver our lessons to the everyday
connections we make with our students. In fact, lasting whole-school change
requires that we shift from doing restorative to actually being restorative. But what
does this look like and sound like in an online class?

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Covid-19 has brought with it a greater need for this restorative and trauma-informed
approach. Even a short pause for a check-in goes a long way to settle the elevated
stress levels and experiences of isolation, and this leads to more learning. Here are
some simple tips that create a more relational, stress-reducing, and engaging
online learning environment for both you and your students.

P R E PA R E A WA R M S PAC E
Specialists in the fields of social neuroscience and trauma-informed practices
confirm what we know to be true: Students are more open to learning when they
are emotionally and physically regulated , feel connected to others , and have
opportunities for meaningful engagement .

Your physical presence, warmly represented, provides key support to your

students, so maintain eye contact and talk in a relaxed, friendly tone. Set up your
physical space so that your face is easily visible and warmly lit. Remember—online
learning inherently feels less personal than your physical classroom, so intentionally
share something from your life, like photos of your family or pets, a favorite
painting, or items that represent your interests or hobbies.

When giving a lesson online, avoid relying too much on slides and videos—they
help focus student attention on the material, but too much time away from human
faces will drain energy and engagement and undermine the sense of
connectedness you are trying to build.

C H E C K I N W I T H YO U R S T U D E N TS R E G U L A R LY
A restorative approach is much more than a non-punitive way to respond to harm; it
is a process for building a positive classroom culture that starts at the beginning of
the year. One class activity central to this approach is collaboratively developing a
class ethos or set of guidelines. It helps establish some relational trust and
expectations for how you and your class want to be together as a learning
community.

When you start a lesson online, don’t jump right in—take a few moments to slow
down with a few mindful breaths and set the right tone for the class by sharing a
positive message, such as an inspiring quote, song, or video. Survey your students
often on what they need to feel engaged and connected. Provide ways for them to
give anonymous feedback and to be heard. Perhaps they’d like to share an item
from home that means something to them, or they need more thinking time before
jumping into a discussion.

Build in frequent opportunities for engagement during your lesson by asking for
thumbs up, thumbs down, or one-word answers in your meeting’s chat window, for
example. Pause and ask students to check in with how they are feeling, and let
them provide a silent gesture or signal that reflects how they are doing. Check-ins
do not need to be long to be effective.

At the end of your lesson, close with a reflection activity—students can talk about a
few goals they want to accomplish or share a few words of appreciation in the chat
for something or someone in their lives.

R E M E M B E R : A N X I E T Y I S CO N TAG I O U S
Your calm, grounded state has a lot more influence on your students than you know.
Offer co-regulation through your online presence by slowing down, pausing
between sentences, smiling, and being mindful of your anxiety level. Before a
lesson, take a few minutes to relax and center yourself . If you’re distracted
during your lesson, students will pick up on that, so have everything you need
ready. Struggling to find files, links, or browser tabs can cause your stress level to
rise, which students will feel and mirror. Close any programs that you won’t be
using, and print out your agenda so that you don’t need to frantically search for it
on your screen.

Your students may be feeling higher anxiety levels, so be transparent about your
process, acknowledge how challenging these times are, and remind them that their
feelings are shared by many others. If you are feeling stressed, share that as
objectively as possible. Just name it and tell your students what you are doing to
support yourself. They need to know you are human and hear what strategies you
are using, but they also need you to be a positive model and co-regulator.

FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE

Finally, take some to reflect on and leverage the positive aspects of our new
“normal.” Many teachers report an increased degree of connection with parents,
students, and each other. Support meetings for students can be easier to schedule
online. Parent-teacher conferences are seeing greater participation. School leaders
are prioritizing social and emotional wellness. As Margaret Wheatley wrote, “It is
possible to prepare for the future without knowing what it will be. The primary way
to prepare for the unknown is to attend to the quality of our relationships, to how
well we know and trust one another.”

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Social and Emotional Learning Online Learning Student Engagement All Grades

S O C I A L A N D E M OT I O N A L L E A R N I N G

Building Relationships Through Letter Writing

Corresponding with students via snail mail is a good way for teachers
to foster trust anytime—but especially when everyone is physically
distanced.
By Shveta Miller
June 9, 2020

With remote teaching likely continuing into the next academic year, we’ll need low-
tech ways to establish relationships with students whom we can’t reach digitally. An
ongoing letter communication through the mail is just that—and is also an
empowering way to build relational trust with students. That trust, explains Zaretta
Hammond , is the foundation on which culturally responsive teaching can change
learning trajectories for even our most vulnerable students.

My first year in the classroom, I saw one of my more disengaged students pass a
note to a friend. I thought about confiscating it, as my teachers had done. Instead, I
wrote her my own note the next day. She wrote back, and we continued writing
through the year, her engagement in class strengthening alongside our
relationship. Letter writing became my most essential tool for earning my students’
trust.

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S O C I A L A N D E M OT I O N A L L E A R N I N G

Going Beyond ‘How Are You Feeling?’

When students have the language to describe their feelings and needs,
they are better equipped to help themselves and each other.
By Amy Bintliff
June 8, 2020

During the pandemic, there have been many uses of the term well-being. When
teachers ask students only “How are you feeling?” as a way to gauge well-being,
opportunities are missed to teach students that well-being is a multidimensional
concept that encompasses more than just happiness. Research shows that if youth
explicitly learn about well-being, their concept of subjective well-being can
increase because they become mindfully aware of its components.

Help students understand two definitions for well-being: In the hedonistic tradition,
students evaluate how satisfied they are with their lives, how pleasurable their lives
are, and how happy they feel. In the eudaimonic tradition, they assess their
personal strengths, areas of growth, and how they contribute to the greater good.
This more expansive understanding of well-being can guide students to learn from
challenging events and circumstances.

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ONLINE LEARNING

Getting Ready to Teach Next Year

There’s a lot of uncertainty about the 2020–21 school year, but
planning for a mix of remote and in-person instruction will help
educators be ready.
By Mary Burns
May 27, 2020

Covid-19 has made the 2019–20 school year one we will never forget. With no
notice or preparation, teachers were forced to pivot to online teaching. They have
performed heroically. This isn’t just my assessment—it’s the consensus of the many
students who have shared with me their experience learning from home via
technology.

These students—and their teachers whom I’ve also interviewed over the last
six weeks—are far less sanguine about online learning, however, with real concerns
about its quality and effectiveness. Yet as school districts begin to plan the 2020–21
academic year, online learning will most likely play a prominent role in
recovery efforts as many districts will shift to a system that combines online and in-
person instruction.

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ONLINE LEARNING

Distance Learning Strategies to Bring Back to

the Classroom
When schools closed, teachers were forced to get creative—and
they’ve learned things they can use when they’re back at school.
By Sarah Cooper
May 22, 2020

Before my eighth-grade history students moved into online learning this spring, I
had no idea about one student’s affection for Cup Noodles or another’s sweet way
of talking about her 5-year-old brother. Perhaps I should have known, but I didn’t,
and I wish I had.

Distance learning has enabled these intimate glimpses into students’ lives and
thought processes, and I worry that these moments won’t happen as much once we
eventually return to campus. However, I realize that doesn’t have to be the case—
and so I’ve been thinking a lot lately about ways to translate the best aspects of
online instruction to the physical classroom.

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T E AC H E R D E V E LO P M E N T

Revising Your Teaching Philosophy for This

Crisis
For many teachers, their statement of teaching beliefs no longer
matches their work. Revisiting and simplifying it can help chart a path
forward.
By Aaron Tombrella
May 18, 2020

Like many teachers around the nation, I recently went from face-to-face teaching to
online teaching with little time to prep. I first tried to emulate my normal daily
procedures virtually—I thought the consistency and familiarity would be beneficial. I
was wrong: Although I was doing what I thought was my best for students, there
was an overall lack of engagement, even with these familiar procedures in place.

I was discouraged. I knew where I needed to go, but I couldn’t see how to get
there. When we received confirmation that we would not return to school for the
rest of the school year, I took a weekend to reflect. If I was lost during this time, my
students surely were too.

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L I T E R AC Y

Using Children’s Books to Teach Literary

Theory in High School
Literary theory can be a tough topic for high school students—a simple
story may be just the scaffold they need to start figuring it out.
By Crystalee Calderwood
May 19, 2020

I’ve always struggled with how to teach my seniors about literary analysis. Many of
them find it boring or don’t see how they can use it in their lives. After two years of
trying to justify our study of literary theory to my students, I reevaluated how—and
why—I was teaching it in the first place.

I started with the literature I had been making my students read during our literary
analysis unit. I often assigned “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a story with a lot of
symbolism and depth, or “The Oval Portrait” by Edgar Allan Poe. Although students
usually understood these stories on a surface level, I quickly realized that they
didn’t provide a solid baseline from which students could work. Without an
emotional connection to or prior knowledge of the story, students couldn’t even
provide a solid reader’s response analysis.

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ONLINE LEARNING

A Focus on Empathy in Distance Learning

Many students have a tough time learning at home, but teachers can
create space to listen to their concerns and guide them to overcome
obstacles.
By Rachel Jorgensen
June 9, 2020

As an educator, I have found the transition to online instruction to be filled with

uncertainty, confusion, and self-doubt. There is no handbook offering clear
information on how to fully move K–12 education online, and I have tackled the
challenges as best I can. I can only imagine that these feelings must be more
intense for my students.

Students don’t show up to our online classes wearing name tags that tell us the
difficulties they’re facing during this pandemic. They also don’t have a sign on their
forehead that tells us about their anxiety, their time-management difficulties, or
their home-life situation. Now more than ever, we must exercise our most effective
relationship-building strategies and flexible practices in accountability and grading
to account for the unprecedented obstacles for students.

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D I F F E R E N T I AT E D I N S T R U C T I O N

A Simple Math Activity That Engages All

Students
This engaging low floor, high ceiling activity boosts students’
confidence and helps them think creatively about mathematical
relationships.
By Kimberly Telfer-Radzat
June 8, 2020

As a rule, teachers seek economy in teaching. The more bang we can get for the
buck when we’re with students, the better. Two years ago, I began looking for math
activities that promote creative thinking, require persistence, necessitate the
practice that many believe is required for learning, and could be given to the entire
class. On top of that, I wanted to improve motivation and inspire a love of learning.

Impossible? As it turns out, it’s not as difficult as one might think.

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E D U C AT I O N E Q U I T Y

A Guide to Equity and Antiracism for Educators

Teachers shaken by recent events and wondering how to work for
change in our society and schools can start with these lesson plans,
videos, and other resources.
By Hedreich Nichols
June 6, 2020

Protesting the killing of George Floyd, a crowd gathers for a rally at Cadman Plaza Park in New York City on
June 4, 2020.

Recent events have shaken me to my core, and the nationwide protests over the
killing of George Floyd suggest that people across the country are similarly shaken.
These are dark times, but if there’s anything that seems like a glimmer of light to me
at the moment, it’s the fact that so many teachers are reflecting on how to fight
racism:

For me, a black educator and mother to a black 16-year-old who has reached the
appearance if not the legal age of manhood, these questions stir hope. Folks who
don’t look like me are embracing the idea that the fight for equity has to be
everyone’s fight. But fighting racism is a big job, and when the fires of outrage cool,
we teachers will be confronted with the reality of planning deadlines, testing
schedules, and another hundred things that are all in a day’s work. The difficult
work of equity may become just another item on a desk crowded with to-do lists.

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SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

Teachers Around the World Tell Us Reopening

is Tough, but Joyful
In countries where infection rates have stabilized, schools are
reopening. When we asked how that’s going, over 600 teachers
responded.
By Stephen Merrill, Sarah Gonser
June 6, 2020

It was Dr. Anthony Fauci who pushed back, in the early days of the pandemic, on
the understandable desire for timelines: “You don’t make the timeline, the virus
makes the timeline,” he noted tersely, in response to a reporter's question . The
implications of that simple statement have become clearer as the crisis drags on,
with no definitive end in sight.

But if there are still plenty of unknowns, there’s also a pattern of forward momentum
as countries around the world—and more to the point, various communities within
those countries—begin to open the doors to their businesses, schools, and other
institutions. One dictum has given way to the next: Just a few days ago, Fauci
appeared to endorse school openings in the U.S. in the fall, particularly as the
viral activity in some areas decreases. “In some situations there will be no problem
for children to go back to school,” said Fauci. “In others, you may need to do some
modifications.” Schools in rural Montana may look nothing like schools in New York
City in the fall, in other words, and it wouldn't be surprising to see some physical
schools closed as the traditional school year starts.

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