Write a personal welcome letter to students to introduce yourself as the faculty for this course and set the tone. Include a little personal information, background, and previous experiences teaching this course to help form a connection. Adding a picture or short video helps to put a face with the course prior to the start date or if this is a hybrid/online course.
Consider how you will build that personal contact and communication with your students. The tone and examples you put into your course is how they will engage with the faculty and the rest of the class.
Dr. Louisa Hernandez - Education Adjunct Faculty
Office: 970-555-1234 email: lahernandez@coloradomtn.edu
I want to welcome you to this course and hope that you will gain knowledge in educational pedagogy, curriculum selection, and teaching practices that will make your lessons pop! We will be exploring and creating lessons that are appropriate for a variety of elementary grade levels to meet students' different learning abilities and assist in challenging them to reach set goals to stay on track, go beyond, or reach their personal best. Students are encouraged to bring their own unique perspectives, experiences, and ideas to the course.
In this course, students will also be exploring educational technologies and resources that are commonly used in the classroom and the region. Students will be expected to gain knowledge and skills in using these technologies according to the grade level and subjects being taught. This course will require a consistent and stable internet connection and it is recommended to have a computer or tablet for this class rather than a small mobile device or smartphone due to the activities that students will be participating in.
I personally have been teaching in the Education program for the last 3 years, working with future elementary teachers across the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. I was an elementary teacher in Colorado for 12 years, teaching 3rd and 5th grades, and then was an assistant principal for five years before joining CMC. I currently work for the school district full-time and teach 2 courses for CMC each semester.
In my spare time, I enjoy biking, working in my garden, and rafting with my family and 2 dogs.
Faculty establishes culture through communication, feedback, and performance standards in their course. These guide students to ways to ask questions, communicate with each other, and gain feedback from the instructor. Providing 2-3 methods of communication that are consistently used throughout the semester is the best practice, no matter the modality or software used.
Examples:
When engaging and interacting with students in the course, faculty don't need to respond immediately. Rather let students know up front what your plans are with scheduled times and dates for communication and feedback to help students establish a consistent interaction with you and each other.
Examples:
For Student: Twice a week post to the discussion board, Tuesdays and Thursdays, due at 5 pm mountain time (reoccurring deadlines and times for student interaction)
For Faculty: General response time to student questions is within 24 hrs during the school week, but weekends may be more flexible if stated to students in the syllabus or course information.
Grading: Grading with feedback is generally completed within 2-7 days of submission to the course via SpeedGrader in "Grades" or "Assignments". This may vary depending on the type of assessment that is offered but is a good practice for weekly assignments and participation.
First Week Checklist for Students
Remote Real-Time allows students and faculty to be online live from anywhere. However, a significant challenge is attention. Studies indicate that many students struggle with paying attention to content for more than 10 minutes in an online forum, such as Zoom or WebEx. One key strategy is to involve the students throughout the live class sessions with experiential learning.
An experiential learning approach* to live class sessions engages students in active learning with key characteristics:
The experiential learning approach includes structured content, active experimentation, reflection, and pragmatic application within the live class session.
This approach segments content and activities in such a way that students are learning and engaging throughout the session. For example, one class session agenda might look like this:
To plan your class session, use this Synchronous Class Session Planning Template
*This experiential learning framework and template are based on adult learning theory resources:
Based on the technology required of the students, provide a section in your introductory module with tutorials or types of technology used with instructions and descriptions.