Ninja Skills of Online Teaching: Organization #mlearning #k12online

The Myth:Online teachers stay in their PJ's all day and take naps.

Reality: Your still in your PJ's because you were too busy to get dressed today!
Teacher will quit online teaching because they cannot organize themselves.
Students reach out to you at all times. Sunday nights, Christmas day - because some are not Christians.

What the Ninja online teacher knows:

• The classes are there for the students 24/7. School is always open. 
• Many students are not working traditional school hours.
• Between welcome calls, weekly interactions, answering questions and live lesson, I feel like I am always behind in grading. 
• Many teachers struggling with the lack of structure. 

Reflections:

When I started teaching online it was hard to find a balance because all the student are in all different places all the time. One student might have the essay test from lesson 20 waiting for me to grade, while another is just starting composition and another is asking me to tutor them in fractions.

Grading papers during the day is great but it's often interrupted. It's hard to not to respond to every student instantly.

It was hard to find a rhythm. And that rhythm is something that changes every school year due to the students work habits. It's a balancing act between instantly responding to student, keeping up on grading, making sure weekly interaction happen, and keeping up on paper work.

Ninja Strategies:

• Make a list of what your duties are and build a schedule from that.
• When building your schedule, it's OK to have published grading time where you are not available.
• Know your busy times. The end of the semester you will be slammed. In the brick environment, I gave one test to get class at finals. In the click world those kids may submit many tests each or have retakes. Get ahead of the work in preparation for those slam times.