Hybrid and Distance Learning Math Teaching Strategies

By: Emily Niska

Despite the hectic and ever-changing landscape of education right now, we want to help teachers rise to the occasion, support their students, and help them find success. Whether your school has adopted an in-person classroom model, distance learning, or hybrid classroom model, we’ve developed a bundle of resources to help you navigate these unpredictable and unprecedented waters. Read on to learn more about and download our Hybrid and Distance Learning Math Teacher Resource Kit.

$remote-learning-remote-learning-teaching-strategies-for-math-teachers$

Let’s face it math teachers: there is no amount of training that could have prepared us for teaching in the 2020-2021 schoolyear. There’s no class, no textbook, and no professional development course on teaching during a global pandemic. As educators, we are planners; we like regimentation and routine. Most of us feel anxious and uneasy at the thought of an ever-lengthening list of unknowns:

How long will distance/hybrid learning take place at my school?
Will we be face-to-face soon?
If infections rise when we are face-to-face, will we have to revert back to a distance learning model?
I’ve never taught virtually before… will I even be effective?
How do I make the most out of this unpredictable situation?

Navigating a Constantly-Shifting Educational Landscape

This year, all educators will have to face unprecedented challenges and adapt their instruction to fit a constantly shifting educational landscape. We can’t fix the unpredictability and accompanying frustration, but we hope to provide you with some resources that will help you navigate this uncharted territory and make some lemonade out of lemons.

This year, math educators are facing unprecedented challenges and having to adapt their instruction to fit a constantly shifting educational landscape.

This article will give you the nitty gritty on our Hybrid and Distance Learning Math Teacher Resource Kit. Hopefully, after reading, you’ll not only feel a bit more prepared for the hybrid/distance/in-person juggling routine you’ll have to do this year, but you’ll also learn…

Strategies to keep antsy students engaged during remote learning lessons
Tips for assessing, bonding, conferring, communicating, and fostering discourse in the virtual classroom
Supportive tips and advice for teachers who are beginning their careers in 2020
Fun and engaging ways to build community and get to know students (whether in a distance, hybrid, or in-person classroom environment)

Distance Learning & Hybrid Classroom Teaching Strategies Printables

Let's break down each resource included in the Hybrid and Distance Learning Math Teacher Resource Kit and the teaching strategies they highlight. From icebreakers to assessment ideas, the bundle of math activities and tip sheets in this kit were designed to help you tweak your instruction and provide the best possible education to students in any learning setting—, in-person, distance, or hybrid.

Printable #1: Ways to Keep Kids Engaged During Distance Learning Tip Sheet

I know I’m preaching to the choir here math teachers, but keeping squirmy kids engaged in face-to-face lessons can be challenging in and of itself! For many instructors, the thought of keeping kids actively engaged in a remote classroom for hours on end probably seems, well… downright impossible!

While a distance or hybrid learning model does present unique challenges when it comes to student engagement, it is possible to foster a fun, exciting classroom environment while also teaching remotely! It just requires tweaking your instruction to best fit the needs of a hybrid or distance classroom model.

Our 5 Ways to Keep Kids Engaged During Distance Learning Tip Sheet suggests how to implement a handful of key instructional strategies that are sure to increase excitement and participation in your course, including…

1.) Start each lesson with a strong hook

2.) Give students responsibilities in the lesson and "classroom"

3.) Use "Face-to-Face" time for students to process and produce, not for you to lecture

4.) Focus on "depth over breadth"

5.) Find a way to make it fun and offer rewards

Printable #2: ABCD - Assessing, Bonding, Conferring, Communicating, and Discourse in the Virtual Classroom

While there are so many new hurdles to tackle when it comes to adapting instruction from in-person to distance learning, to hybrid, there are a few specific concerns that I keep hearing over and over again from teachers.

When you download the Hybrid and Distance Learning Math Teacher Resource Kit you’ll get this tip sheet suggesting solutions to some of teachers’ most pressing questions, including:

A (Assessing):
- How do I assess my students’ understanding through a computer screen?
- How do I quickly determine what my students are picking up and what they missed when I can’t see if they’re following along?
- How do I assign summative assessments when kids can just look up the answers?
B (Bonding):
- How do I bond with students virtually?
- How do I create an online learning community of mutual trust and respect when we’re all so far away?
C (Conferring/Conferencing):
- How do I effectively communicate classroom expectations with both students and parents?
- How can I best support my students’ parents in facilitating their children’s learning?
- How do I conference with students effectively?
- How can I use conferences to provide the support my students need and also build our bonds?
D (Fostering Discourse):
- How do I foster discourse in the virtual classroom without inciting total chaos?
- How do I keep my students from becoming observers?

Printable #3: Advice to New Teachers Tip Sheet

remote-classroom-hybrid-classroom-teaching-strategies-distance-learning

As I sat in my principal’s office after my first week of teaching, tears streaming down my face and feeling completely overwhelmed and discouraged, he revealed to me something I will never forget: almost every day of his first year of teaching, he met his wife for ice cream after work to cheer himself up. That’s to say, the first year of teaching is tough for everyone!

During a traditional school year, your first year in the classroom is exciting, overwhelming, and challenging all at the same time. The new conditions and ever-changing landscape of education in 2020 makes starting out as a new teacher unfamiliar and uncharted, but you’re not alone!

Our Advice to New Teachers Tip Sheet, offers some support, encouragement, and advice to teachers who are beginning their careers during this chaotic and unpredictable time. When you download the kit you can read more about each of the 6 key tips.

Printable #4: Search & Share Icebreaker Activity

remote-learning-hybrid-learning-distance-learning-strategies-for-math_thumb_750px_1-1 This simple, no-prep icebreaker activity is a great way to get your students to get to know one another, share something about themselves, and build a unified learning community!

Adaptable across all grade levels as well as for in-person, hybrid, and distance learning settings, it’s the perfect way to start out your next math lesson or new semester. Download the kit to access this fun icebreaker instruction sheet to learn how to implement it in each type of classroom model.

Printable #5: Ideas to Make Math More Fun Student Survey

$remote-learning-hybrid-learning-teaching-strategies-for-math$ Ask your students what would make math class more fun for them—they always have great ideas! Collecting their responses on this neatly-formatted sheet is a way to discover what students do and do not enjoy in math class. Making the class more responsive to their likes and dislikes lets students know that teachers are interested in them, which helps to engage them in the learning process. With six simple questions you will get all the feedback you need to make your virtual, in-person, or hybrid math class more fun and engaging.

Printable #6: What's Your Perspective on Math? Activity

$remote-learning-hybrid-learning-teaching-strategies-for-math$ Find out what your students really think about math with the What's Your Perspective on Math? Activity. With this activity students will read a series of quotes that cover a range of ideas about math from being always-the-same, to being creative. Use the information you get back from this activity to influence, and even challenge your students' views of math, helping them to enjoy the subject and to not see it as a required, boring subject.

You can then use their answers to start an extended think-pair-share.

In Summary

There’s just no way around it, teachers, this year is going to be like nothing else you’ve ever experienced as an educator. There will be numerous obstacles to overcome, and the constantly-shifting reality of the education in this country, will require you to continuously adapt both your routines and instructional techniques. But here’s the good news, as teachers, you already have an incredible and unique ability to adjust your instruction at a moment’s notice to meet the needs of your students. If there were any profession prepared for the uncertainty of this academic year, it’s teaching. You are capable of shifting on the fly—you do it all the time. This is the same concept, just on a larger scale.

Sadlier knows it’s going to be an extraordinary, hectic year for many. We know that it won’t be easy. But we do hope that the resources offered in the Hybrid and Distance Learning Math Teacher Resource Kit will help you make the most out of a difficult situation.

You’ve got this, teachers, and we’ve got your back!