Virtual Teaching Methods

 This past week, I had the awesome experience of teaching a group of high school students in a plant science course for three days in mini unit.  However, this experience was all virtual.  I taught in google classroom and utilized virtual garden tours, an online landscape design software, and guided notes so that my students could follow along.  The guided notes was a wonderful idea I got from my cooperating teacher before my first day and they worked wonderfully to keep my students engaged and participating. 

However, one resource or knowledge that I wish I had read more about or know about before completing my microteaching mini unit was how to keep up communication and discussion with my students despite having the barrier of a screen.  One of the ways that I found that really worked for the three days that I taught was using the chat a lot and frequently asking for verbal communication from them.  However, the students were much more apt to use the chat than to speak in person.  From a student's perspective last semester, being online in a college setting at Penn State, I was much more apt to respond in a chat over responding virtually.

Needless to say, the one tidbit of information that I wish I had had or known about was how to put my students into breakout rooms in google classroom.  This could have greatly increased student discussion amongst themselves and with myself. Additionally, there are a few virtual teaching methods to increase student participation that I wish I had known about or utilized such as virtual show and tell and virtual forums like flipgrid.