My friend Larry Ferlazzo in California looks like he's going hybrid.
If you have been doing hybrid teaching, with students in classroom & online at same time, what is the one most important piece of advice you would offer to those of us who are likely to be starting this for first time in coming months?
— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) February 20, 2021
Larry is in California and writes about what he knows here. But the tweet has over 750 messages and counting and looks to be some great advice to glean.
As for me, my advice is a few things:
- Have a “class captain” or two in the physical classroom who also log into zoom or Teams or Meet and advocate and help those who are online.
- Have specific times to focus on each “class” because it is pretty much impossible to focus on both at the same time.
- I typically had all students turn on zoom if we were having a conversation and put the kids in zoom up on the board and included them as equal participants in the conversation. I encouraged kids in the classroom to let me know if someone had their hand raised in zoom and I didn't know it.
Realize that hybrid is a stop-gap and IS NOT IDEAL. It is hard because it requires that you have to manage two classrooms and much like being unable to have two masters, it is hard to focus on both at the same time. Schools that do the best at this will probably either have a paraprofessional or have dedicated online teachers and face to face. That said, if you're dealing with a quarantine situation, hybrid is about the only way to go.
My school has been in person since August 5th and entering our third week without anyone in hybrid learning so that is a joy. And yet, we have to help one another because we all have different circumstances!
You can do it!
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4 comments
I’ve been hybrid since October. I have all of the students who are present in class sign in to the Zoom so that they can speak and be heard by the students at home and vice versa. I teach both groups simultaneously because creating double the lesson plans was not going to happen :) I do allow in person students to do work on paper rather than digitally and some of them prefer printed materials over digital.
As you said, definitely a stop gap measure and less than ideal for all concerned.
Thanks for sharing, Jay. Good points.
This is really helpful information. There were several times during the semester that students had to be quarantined in my class and the hybrid model helped them to stay up to date with everything going on.
That is excellent, Haley. Hybrid is challenging but there are times it is necessary.