Shafin_Protic / Pixabay

 

‘There Is No Playbook’ for How to Do Hybrid Teaching is my nine-part Ed Week series on the topic.

 

As I shared yesterday, all the teachers and I believe most of the school-based administrators learned via a presentation at our school board meeting that they want us back in the classroom teaching in early May (see UMM, IT LOOKS LIKE WE MIGHT BE GOING HYBRID SOON….).

Since they haven’t begun talking with our union yet, it’s too early to tell if it’s actually going to happen.

But, if it does, they’d like us to use what a lot of people are calling the hybrid model but is actually a concurrent one – where students come to school two days each week and are on zoom connected to our classrooms during the other days.

So, we’re teaching both groups simultaneously.

Not a pretty picture.

I put out a tweet asking for advice from teacher’s who’ve been using this model, and received over five-hundred replies.  I invited about twenty-five educators to expand on their responses, and will be publishing a special five-part series in my Education Week column next week.

Here are a few of the key points that people shared:

*Make sure our school has sufficient wifi capacity to have all students – both remote and face-to-face – on Zoom at the same time.

* Have a water bottle with a straw so we don’t have to take masks off to drink

* Get a bluetooth headset so both groups can hear you

* Plan it like it’s an all-remote class

*Get a rolling table for your laptop

*Get a voice amplifier

*Verbally repeat questions/comments made by face-to-face students so remote ones hear them.

*Face-to-face students need headphones; need to be careful of feedback

*The teacher needs to act as a “bridge” between the two groups

*Be sure to do a “trial run” to check for audio and camera angles

*Have double monitors (which is critical for remote teaching, too)

 

I’ll be adding links here to my upcoming five-part series, which will be an extension of a two-part series on this topic that I published in October: Making Hybrid Teaching Work For Educators and Students

These three articles were also shared with me on Twitter, and I think they are useful:

How to simplify hybrid learning is by Mike Flynn.

Use these tips to help make hybrid or hyflex teaching and learning work better for you and your students. is by Paul Barnwell.

Teaching in the age of a pandemic – part 4a: Set-up and expectations for the dreaded HyFlex model is from Toward Proficiency.

Interestingly, The Washington Post published an article on this very topic today: More teachers are asked to double up, instructing kids at school and at home simultaneously

Resources for the Shift to Online/Blended Learning is from GrahnForLang.

Teaching in a Hybrid Model is an excellent Google Slides Presentation by Sarah M. Rich (thanks to Chantal Shabazz).

Using a Flip Flop Design for the Concurrent Classroom is by Catlin Tucker.

Juggling ‘Roomers’ and ‘Zoomers’? How Teachers Make Hybrid Learning Work appeared in Ed Surge.

 

Students Have Hybrid Tips for Teachers is from Middleweb.

Here’s My Tech Set-Up For When We Begin Concurrent Teaching – Let Me Know How I Can Make It Better

GUEST POST: THE FIRST TWO DAYS OF CONCURRENT/HYBRID TEACHING

I’ve Begun Having Students Play This Game In My Concurrent Classroom & It’s Been Working Well!

Let me know what I should be adding to this list….

I’m adding this post to Best Lists Of The Week: Teaching Online Amid School Closures.