In NSW we were not given much notice before beginning school at home in lockdown. That meant teachers had to scrabble to turn their already planned lessons into remote lessons that students could access online. All in the school holidays. Sounds like a lot of work to me.

However, it doesn’t have to be.

Teachers if you are spending excess hours planning content or creating your own resources then stop now. Our students don’t always have to be learning from us. Use others online who have done the work for you.

There is content online that you can access and set as tasks. This includes;

• for upper primary asking students to watch or listen to the latest BTN episode and then write a summary of what it was about, their key takeaway and their wondering. Other podcasts can be found here

• Studyladder is a free resource, assign your students a password and then allocate them certain tasks to complete each day. Keeps it relevant and keeps students practising essential skills

• Create a class on SplashLearn with fun maths learning games for your class to complete. Teachers can create a detailed report which is handy

• Transum is a great site for students to practice maths skills

• Link to Once Upon A Picture to encourage imaginative writing

• Use TopMarks for students to practice their times tables using fun online games

• Online jigsaw puzzles can be a ‘can do’ activity.

• Students can read online on Epic. You just need to assign them a login.

• Directed drawings are great for your art lessons when students don’t have access to art materials at home

• For some physical education, lessons get them to check out PE With Joe or DJ Raphi has dance songs to join in with. Other active online lessons can be found here

• Find other lessons that are already planned for you here

• We Are Teachers has science experiments for your students to try

• You can suggest your students watch ABC ME on free to air TV on channel 23 for a certain period of the day

• Primary Playground has scavenger hunts which are great for your students at home to get them moving

Activities not online you can set include;

• reading for half an hour a book or books of their choice

• writing out their times tables

• practising their spelling words - writing them in flour, in water outside, using chalk on the driveway…

• take a photo of themselves learning from home

• using playdough to create letters, shapes, numbers, even art work

If you are going to hold a zoom meeting with your students, you may like to;

• allow them to share something with each other

• play a game of Kahoot on a topic been covered during the week

  
  

Home online learning should not be more work for teachers. Ultimately, you do not have to organize a lot for your students to still be learning during this time, whilst making it fun for them to want to do it without having to bother mum or dad numerous times throughout the day.

What does your school use to make planning lessons easier on teachers? We would love it if you joined the conversation and left a comment below.