In recent years, with the popularity of some online websites such as Udemy and TutorHub, more teachers than ever have started to teach kids online. Online teaching strategies are getting in trend.
Schools lacking the infrastructure to support online education started developing and implementing strategies to support online teaching instantly. What seems to be an optional learning resource earlier has become necessary after the Pandemic. Almost all schools have activated online education to support their teachers and students.
While this online teaching may appear simple and easy, it comes with various challenges. Youngsters and adults are motivated to study online simply because of the desire to learn a new language or a skill; however, children need some extra motivation.
The lack of interest in listening and watching a slide show presentation is one of the reasons for kids to remain distracted during an online class. Children are looking for engaging and interactive lessons with a good teacher who cares about them.
You can read further and follow the suggestions mentioned in this article to spice up your online classes with children. These ideas will help you if you have recently stepped into the online teaching world and want to improve your online teaching skills with the kids.
1. Focus on Their Interests
One of the effective online teaching strategies is to focus on what allures a child the most. An ideal approach to teach children is to know their interests by talking to them. Discuss their hobbies, favorite TV or Film characters, favorite colors, favorite foods, etc.
Then as an example or as part of their lesson, bring up these elements regularly in the online classes. For instance, if a child is attracted by green color, design a green background of a slideshow or write sentences in green. Similarly, write the princesses’ names as examples for a child who loves Disney Princesses.
2. Use Props and Visuals
It is a fact that we all learn better with the help of pictures and infographics. They can’t simply read or remember things. Visual activities encourage them to see and help them remember important details and information in various ways. Moreover, it gives their young minds multiple clues to retain the data in their memory for a long time. For a kid learning about fruits, bring some flashcards of different types of fruits.
For a kid learning about fruits, bring some flashcards of different types of fruits. To take it a step further, you can have those fruits at hand to show them with other props or visuals. You can also play several games while teaching in an online class to build kids' interest. The takeaway is: Always use Props. They will surely love them!
Many small kids just begin to learn some basic things like numbers, colors, and the alphabet. You can do plenty of things to make online classes more entertaining for them than simply learning from books. e.g., if you are teaching them colors, you can ask them to find five blue things on your screen or in your background.
You can even add a slide in your lesson with random colorful pictures and play a rapid-fire game by calling out a color, and the kids will have to spot the things with the same color.
3. Use Your Voice and Gestures Effectively
Gestures play an essential role in helping kids online. It is hard for children to remember things without involving gestures. To clear your points to the kids, use your gestures and a soft sound with a wide smile on your face.
Focus on how you sound to them and keep your voice soft and gentle. A gentle voice gives positive vibes to kids, and they will know that you are happy to work with them, which helps to boost their confidence level. They will understand more, with less distraction, making your job easy.
Be very kind and friendly because they will feel comfortable engaging with you.
4. The Habit of Giving Rewards
Giving rewards to students help promote positivity. Students get encouragement and become more productive, thus learning and understanding effectively. Giving honors and gifts makes them proud and happy and motivates them to strive harder in the future.
There are many ways to reward children in an online teaching system. For example, you can ask their parents to arrange a special online party after doing a particularly challenging task. Similarly, you can even give an instant reward by playing a game of Tic Tac Toe with the outstanding student of the day.
5. Audio and Video Components
Don’t ignore this method if you really want to effectively apply these online teaching strategies. Audio and video components help us give kids information in more exciting ways.
Sometimes it can become monotonous or boring, even if you have a great voice. Change your accent sometimes during the class, sing a song or a poem for them, make funny voices, and play different recordings of their favorite cartoon characters. This will help the kids pay more attention to the lectures and be present in the class.
6. Be Funny and Silly
Being a little funny is one of the effective online teaching strategies. Children don’t like serious teachers, and it is entirely natural for them because they don’t feel comfortable talking to them.
It's okay to act silly sometimes in your online session. If you teach pre-elementary students, wear colorful clothes and silly hats in front of them, and do various funny acts with different things such as balloons to build their interest.
Play some entertaining games with kids and engage them in game-based learning. It is not a new idea but is unique in the online teaching system. Educational games can be advantageous for kids for many reasons. They will undoubtedly help their minds to experience the pleasure of learning in a fun way. Games are proven to be a very effective way of learning because they are more engaging and mentally keep the kids present.
Also Read: 11 Classroom Games for Young Learners
7. Speak Slowly
Another practical online teaching approach is to speak a little slowly. Adults tend to speak rapidly to kids and try to rattle a lot of information at once, even when talking to kids in their native language. However, children take more time to process information and sometimes even more time to understand it.
You should use short and simple sentences and take regular pauses while speaking so that kids can understand and ask more questions. Kids don’t find any difficulty hearing, but they need extra time to process several pieces of information in their minds.
8. Build a Strong Relationship with Kids
It would help if you had a strong bond with your students. To do that, you can share your own experiences in life so that kids feel more connected with you and get to know you well. Introduce your pets to them and share interesting stories about them.
A relationship with your students in an online class can be quickly built by making them feel that you are one of them and that you love sharing your stories with them.
Conclusion
Online Teaching can be fun and challenging at the same time. As a teacher, your main goal should be to keep your students focused. All strategies mentioned in this article will help you engage your students positively and learn effectively. Including games, videos, funny quotes, etc., will help you gain your students' attention.
We hope that these online teaching strategies will be helpful for you. You can check our Teachers Resources for more tips and information.
