FEATURE: CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY
Building a successful virtual classroom
embarked on my journey as a trainee primary school teacher in September 2019 when things were relatively ‘normal’. Since then, the world of education has had to evolve, becoming heavily reliant on technology and adaptive teaching. When returning to my placement school in
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n the first of two features this month looking at technology and the classroom,
we are delighted to hear from Paige Brown. Paige is a recent graduate from The Open University. Having attained her degree in Primary Education, she is now studying a PGCE in Primary Teaching with Worcester University. Here, she offers her pointers on setting up a welcoming and engaging virtual classroom.
Being a trainee teacher during these unprecedented times has certainly been a challenge. I am sure that I can speak for many others when I say, I never expected to be spending most of my teaching experience delivering the curriculum through a screen! I
January and knowing that the expectations for my training remained the same, I immediately started to research ways in which I could engage with the children at home, make them feel as supported as possible whilst continuing to meet the requirements of the curriculum. This is when I discovered the now very fashionable trend – The Virtual Classroom. You have no doubt seen lots of teachers sharing their virtual spaces over social media since the lockdown began. A visually stimulating and engaging environment that can be used in a whole variety of ways. Created on the computer, I share an animated scene of our classroom with all learners at home at the beginning of every Zoom lesson. Every lesson is supported with a presentation, instead of the children having to watch me talking for an hour! So, I continue using elements of the classroom throughout the presentations which are used to support the topic we are learning about each day. My virtual classroom has proved extremely
effective and the teachers I work with have now all followed my lead and created their own. In light of this, I decided to share my experiences with you. This article will explain the many benefits of the virtual classroom, how it can be used and how you can create one yourself. Don’t worry if you’re not too confident using technology, there will be lots of easy steps to follow!
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www.education-today.co.uk March 2021 Here are two examples of my virtual classroom:
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