Create Hallway Moments, Lunch Moments & After School Moments

My favorite part of being an educator are the times students seek me out to chat in the hallway, at lunch, or after school.  Students love getting to know their teachers and building authentic relationships.  Students who feel connected with their school, peers, and educators are better learners in the classroom.  Effective teachers often leverage time outside of class to build those relationships: before school, after school, clubs, sports, in the hallways, lunch. With schools closed, those serendipitous moments where students connect with their educators seem almost impossible to replicate.  There is no hallway or lunchroom.  There is no finding a teacher “after school”.  Here are some ways to replicate those moments.

 

Let students know you miss them

Since serendipity is difficult to replicate, take some time to let students know that you are feeling disconnected and that you miss seeing them outside of class.  Its likely they also miss a lot of the casual encounters with adults as well.   Let them know that you are going to make yourself available during certain times and where in Microsoft Teams they can find you.  Here are some ways

Use “meet now” to make yourself available

Find a channel that your students are a part of and begin a “Meet Now” meeting with your name as the title.  You can do this in your class team … or if your school has an all school team, work with your administrators to create a channel that acts like a hallway where faculty and students can hang out and meet; your IT can set permissions so that only adults can start meetings. Just hang-out and wait for students to join.  Even if no students join you at first, they will see that you are available to them.  Be as consistent as possible.

Use Bookings to let student schedule one-on-ones

For more scheduled and formal one-on-ones use Microsoft Bookings. Microsoft Bookings is a program that connects with your calendar and allows others to make appointments with you during times you are available.   Bookings can create Microsoft Teams Meeting scheduled with the student.

Do individual check-ins with calls

Microsoft Teams gives you the ability to call students privately to chat.  Be proactive and check in with students.  You can do this even if your are running a class – like calling a student out of class for a private one-on-one.  If students are in another session they can still answer a private call and have a quick one-on-one.

Provide opportunities for students to interact

Continue your school’s SEL programs using Teams

In this remote learning environment, students need adults to create safe, virtual ways for them to interact with their peers, meet new friends, and remain connected with their school.  If you’re a school leader and your school has a House System, Advisory, or Homeroom, don’t cancel those; use these groups as ways to bring students together and tend to their social-emotional needs. Schedule times for these supports and make a Team for homerooms, mentor groups, or advisories.   Intentionally scheduling virtual meetings for these groups with the purpose of students mingling is an SEL support you can offer your students.

Throw a class party in Teams

Find something to celebrate or just have a class party!  You can celebrate a birthday or your seniors or anything!  Create a party channel open up a meeting space for students, create a flipgrid for students to celebrate a student, tell their stories, respond to a fun question, or anything. Show a movie through sharing system audio. Do something fun. Together.

Bringing it all together

Relationships are the foundation of strong communities.  Social distancing certainly creates some challenges for building those relationships that are the foundation of healthy school communities.  Microsoft Teams provides many avenues to overcome these challenges in distance learning and connect with your community.  There are no more hallways or meeting in the teacher’s classroom after school, but if school leaders and educators are intentional, they can provide opportunities to connect, celebrate, and enjoy time with others.