How to build authentic relationships in the virtual Classroom MANUAL
Introduction This manual contains a number of practical teaching strategies that will help build relationships with young students and parents. Since the current situation of the world has put many obstacles to face-to-face education and now parents are a fundamental part in the education of their children, where together with teachers must achieve to transmit to students through a digital screen meaningful learning. Teachers have as a goal to continue providing quality education at a distance.
Strategy 1
Teacher with Parents - In all of your frantic thinking and planning for “how” you’ll manage a new year, let’s not forget what lies at the core of any school year: our partnerships with families and students. If teaching virtually, you’ll need their support now more than ever. As you build and nurture partnerships with parents, remember that:
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2 Get to know the people you will be working with.
1 Creating trusting, caring and honest communication between parents, students and teacher.
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Create established times when they can meet virtually to discuss student performance, where parent, student and teacher must be present.
Sharing teaching methods between teachers and parents when students have difficulties in new learning.
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Be empathetic and honest
Strategy 2 Create a climate of security. Whether in the classroom or in a Zoom conference call, your students need to feel secure in their environment before they can make connections with you or their classmates. For younger students who have little experience in this setting, this requires planning and intention on your part. The climate of your classroom relies heavily on your expectations and your initial interactions with students. You can make students feel secure by keeping these key concepts in mind.
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Provide an initial motivation that gives students security and affection. Take the time to get to know each of your students whether in virtual or face-to-face classes. Encourage active participation and listen carefully to them when they speak Tell them during class messages that are meaningful to them, for example, excellent, you're great, keep it up, wow what an amazing job, among others. As a teacher be yourself and transmit confidence
Strategy 3
Nurture empathy by fostering emotional literacy. It’s our need for empathy that punctuates the purpose of building emotional literacy. We must help our students understand and name their emotions , embrace and make friends with the feelings, and learn how to use that emotional energy as fuel, so that they’re able to process feelings as they come and go. We can help make that happen through intentional modeling, direct instruction, and lots of practice.
To be able to model and teach empathy first we as teachers must be empathetic both in our work and in our personal lives, because you could say that we are like "public figures" although we are not in school we are still teachers and we can run into any student outside of school. Emotions should be modeled to the students, as they are, that is, if you are sad tell them why you are sad but also how you do not let sadness affect you in your other activities and so on with other activities. But we must also let them know and that they themselves discover how to control them, that is, if the student is angry, let him live his moment of that feeling but then you go modeling little by little that it is not good to be angry and by himself he will control that feeling and he will become a friend of this feeling.
Strategy 4 Utilize purposeful play to engage and connect. Think back to your happiest childhood memories; was play involved? Being purposeful in play helps grow children’s intellectual and social development.
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Play games where the student can be him without being judged.
Create games that appeal to the student's attention.
4 3 Games in which the child can live and learn about his emotions.
Convey to the student how important it is for the teacher, parents, and friends to
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Games where children develop their cognitive and psychosocial skills.
Strategy 5 Keep on singing! The world keeps changing, but children are the same. They LOVE to sing, dance, and have fun with their friends. Music is magic because it’s the perfect way to nurture the whole child – physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually. Singing builds a strong bond between teachers and their students as they smile and play together. Above all, through music and movement, ALL children can feel successful. Write five great reasons to sing with children
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2 Reinforce their memory and learn new words
1 Helps to develop their intelligence and creativity through imagination.
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Experience and know their feelings depending on what they are singing about
The students relax and forget whatever situation they are going through at home or anything else.
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Helps establish school routines in children
Conclusion It is very important to take into account each of these strategies because this virtual mode of school classes is here to stay and it is important that as teachers we know how to act in the different situations that have arisen and will arise, always taking into account that we can continue using strategies that we used in face-to-face classes but now adapting them to the virtual mode because we must continue creating meaningful experiences in children and most importantly that they develop their emotional, psychosocial and cognitive skills despite the distance that stands in the way. But also as teachers to have from now on the objective of creating a stable and organized communication between the parents of the students because they have always been an important part of the learning of the students but now even more.
REFERENCES ❖
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https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/cor onavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digita l-learning/ https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/educatio nal-challenges-and-opportunities-covid-19-pan demic https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-centerchalkboard/2021/03/12/coronavirus-and-school s-reflections-on-education-one-year-into-thepandemic/