The classrooms in Korea have been totally non-contact this year. Even if we meet in the classroom it is a no touch sport. Now with the spread of Covid Delta the classrooms are all going online again.
I want to share with you some of the games I do on Zoom:
Most important is to get students to interact by raising their hand.
In Zoom class we have the interactive raise your hand icon. Please use this:
Most of my students are very young and can't use even the whiteboard on Zoom so I always ask students to have paper and a magic marker ready.
One of the classic games to start a lesson with is BINGO. I Ask students a question and then give them time to write it on a piece of paper and show it to the camera. The most connecting answers is the winner. In this case the question was very simple: "What do you want to do?"
Be sure to get a prize ready for the winner. Keep track of the score and at the end give the winners the prize. The kids at my school like my drawings so I offer a drawing as the prize to the winner.
Names are so important when teaching. A lot of teachers play pass the ball in the classroom, but did you know you can play pass the ball on Zoom? You have to use your imagination, but it is possible.
Just say the name of another student and make the "Zoop" sound. The other student catches it with "Zoop" and says another student's name followed by "Zoop".
This is how I start out classes if I have new kids. You would be surprised at the amount of students that don't know each other's names even though they spend a whole semester together.
You can vary this game by each student naming a vocabulary word and remembering those words.
Personalization is kin to engagement. Show and tell is a classic, but it gets even more fun when it comes to Zoom because you can describe the object without showing it.
Kids usually keep something close to them when they do Zoom class to keep them calm. Some of these objects can be very interesting. One kids decided to describe his dog. Another described his baby brother. We had to guess what he was describing. It was pretty funny when he said, "and it cries every two hours."
Mystery is a key to engagement. If students are thinking then then they are occupied in the class. If not then they are back to their own games behind the screen or perhaps making a POB blog entry.
Drawing Games always work. Ask students to draw just one part of their favorite cartoon character. I got some pretty interesting pictures. The funniest one was a kid who drew Sponge Bob's nose.
He said, "Whose body part is this?"
Finally someone guessed, "It's Spongebob's nose!"
One of my favorite games to play is Telephone Mime or "Say it with your body". If this game is played in the classroom students make a line where all students are facing one direction and can't see the original actor. That actor will receive the word or phase and pass the action to the next player. The last player will have to guess the action.
I played this game on Zoom using expressions from our textbook. This game is played with four or five students in a row. All four students cover their monitor with a big piece of paper so they cant see the action. Only the first student can see what action to do. Then the first student calls the next student to look. The first student does the action and passes it to the next student. That student has to repeat the action until the last student. Finally the last student guess what the phrase or word is.
This was pretty funny, especially when we got to the part of "feed the beaver". I don't write the textbooks. I just teach them.
If there is any disagreements as to who the winner is we have a rocks scissors paper battle. On Zoom rock is a clap. Thumb is scissors and heart is paper.
This usually solves all disagreements. Students can only add one icon and they do it at the same time.
Sometimes you wonder what I do all day when I am not barking abut being muted or writing some silly post or comment. I'm making stuff for kids to do to learn English. I have a ton of activities but these are basic. I suppose I could put them together to make a book, but the best place to share information like this is Proofofbrain.
Yes!! This teacher has a brain.
If you have a brain than share here.
Tell me what activities you like to do on Zoom or when you meet for school or youth group activities.
I always want to learn something new.
I have a whole Zoom camp this summer and I could use some new material.
What is your favorite thing to do on Zoom?