Ninja Online Teacher Skills Detective

The Myth:

• When student go online they disappear and never come back.

Reality:

• The online teacher fights to keep that student alive on line like a life guard saving a drowning swimmer.

• Sometimes the problem is simple. 
• They forgot their password. 
• They lost the mentor teacher's number. 
• The device broke.
• Internet is down. 
• Sometimes it's a sign of trouble
• The student is not progressing. 
• The student needs help and is not asking for it. 

What the online Ninja Teacher knows:

• That if a student is not working- there's a reason. 
• It is nesscariy to  have what we have come to call Spidey Sense. 
• Look for problems before they happen. 
• You get a sense for what questions should be asked at what time. Not asking that question is a sign of trouble. 
• 
  

Reflection:

Being an online teacher requires a techie sense. You have to be able to trouble shot and problem solve across many systems. You have to 

Virtual school is not for everyone. Not every virtual school is the same. Our model is an outreadch to homeschooling families where parents engage in teacher planned direct instruction.  

The younger the student the more books and parents are needed. 

Ninja Strategies:

Build that relationship before you have to make a difficult call. It makes the difficult call easier.

• When in doubt, call. Ask more questions.
• Don't wait to respond to parents.
• Use all your tools to detect the answer. LMS reports. Communications logs. You cannot monitor their face so monitoring the data.
• Progress is a huge hurdle for online students. Communication can help.

What are the skills an online Ninja teacher has?

Ninja skill 1:Detective 

                   The myth is that we as online teachers are faceless.

                    The truth is as an online teacher I may not know their face but I know them better academically.
Strategies the Ninja Uses: 

We always have to be on the look out for things that make the spidey sense tingle. Is there a software problem? Is that tech working right? Has the student been online active enough this week? Is that really the student's writing?