When you are teaching at school, everything is timely and organized. You teach your classes, do administrative tasks and take breaks at a specified time. But when working from home and teaching online, you might find that you work more hours than you did at school. And you might be surprised by this realization since you are saving a lot of time commuting. Here are tips for teachers to take a break while teaching online.
So, how is this happening?
One of the reasons this happens is because you don’t have a fixed schedule. So instead, you work whenever you find it convenient. And this makes it hard for you to keep track of the time you spend teaching and other related tasks. As a result, you end up overworking yourself. And you don’t get the breaks that you need.
Another reason is that your personal and professional lives overlap and entangle. And you cannot know how many hours a day you work. Keeping both these parts of your lives separate, was pretty convenient when you were at school. The school was where you did your work. And the home was where you lived your personal life. You can make this clear division at home by dividing the personal and professional tasks into a pre-decided schedule. And plan your much-needed breaks to avoid exhausting yourself.
Take planned breaks
When you teach online, it is advisable to take planned breaks. This is beneficial for both you and your students. Looking at a screen can take a toll on your eyes. It is advisable to look away from your screen for 5 minutes every 1 hour.
It has been shown that people work more efficiently when they take regular breaks in between. When you work continuously without taking a break, the quality and the speed of your work decrease. The brain slows down after working intensive tasks for long hours. A break gives your body and your mind time to rest and refresh. And you get back to your work with the same productivity.
What do you do in the breaks?
The breaks can either be active or passive. Passive breaks could mean people just close their eyes and take a rest. Or it could include some fun activity that freshens up the mood of the students. When creating your lesson plan for the day, make sure to plan these breaks and the activities in them. Following are some of the things you can do when taking a break from the online teaching:
Take a rest
Teaching online classes can be exhausting. Closing your eyes and resting might just be what you need at times like this. You’ll be surprised by the effect of a small rest break or a short nap on how you feel. Your exhausted and tense mood will turn relaxed and fresh. You can return to teaching with the same energy you initially started.
Students, too, benefit from this. You can see their attention dwindling at the end of a long class. It’s just difficult for your brain to focus effectively for that long. Taking a break helps in this regard. They get their rest. And you can see improvement in their focus when they get the required break.
Meditate
Meditation has enormous benefits in every aspect of your life. It will improve your productivity, make you calmer and keep you healthy overall. In addition, taking meditation breaks from teaching online will give you and your students the needed rest and improves your concentration and focus.
Do some stretching
Sitting in a chair or standing and teaching on a board can tax the body. The body becomes stiff being in the same position for a long time. Stretching loosens up the body and makes the whole working process much more comfortable for your body. Do some stretching exercises with the students. Exercises focusing on the neck, shoulders, back and wrists will loosen up all the necessary parts.
Play a fun game
Fun teaching methods like including a quiz or a small game in between the lecture can make it more interesting for the student. Experiment with quizzes, roleplay games and jokes and see if it blends in naturally with your lesson plan. Students grasp the material more effectively when you use teaching techniques that are light and fun instead of being serious and formal all the time.
Use the ways mentioned above to take breaks from teaching online classes. At Classplus, we will help you with all the technical infrastructure you need for teaching online. We will build your own teaching app where you can manage all things related to running your coaching class business. The app can handle tasks like taking attendance, uploading resources, hosting live classes and selling online courses. So give Classplus a try and make your professional life easier.
