8 Ways to Encourage Student Success in the Classroom

You probably already have tons of engaging activities in your teaching repertoire, from educational games to dynamic study guides. However, it takes more than a few activities to help your students be the best, most successful version of themselves.

So, How Can Teachers Help Students be Successful?

Here are eight ways that you can promote your students’ success:

Be Clear and Transparent

Be upfront about what you expect from your students and what will be covered over the course of the class. Keep everyone in the loop about any changes or updates in the curriculum as you move forward. With everyone on the same page, there won’t be too many surprises, and you can guarantee that nobody is left behind.

Let Your Students Set the Pace of the Class

Before you really dive into your curriculum, start off with a quiz to figure out where your students are at with the material. Does anything need to be focused on more? Could you spend less time on a certain topic? Once you gauge their knowledge a little bit, you’ll be able to teach them more effectively.

Be Accessible

Emailing, tutoring after school, and even using lunch times are all ways for students to reach you outside of class. When you make yourself more available to students, you are showing them that you truly care about their learning. If you do open your email inbox or offer tutoring to them, be sure to reply in a timely manner or stay consistent with your tutor schedule. They want to know that you are true to your word!

Show a Genuine Interest in the Students

This point goes along with the previous one, because increasing your availability shows them how much you care about their efforts. They might be stubborn sometimes and not always realize it, but their confidence will continue to rise when they notice that you will not give up on them. 

Incorporate Engaging Learning Activities

Yes, play the games! Assign fun projects where students can create a comic strip about an important event. Play your own version of ‘Jeopardy’ with class material. Get creative when you engage the students with different activities to stimulate their minds. High School English Teacher Chelsea Herron knows how important engagement is.

“There definitely needs to be an emphasis on student engagement. From my experience, I think that comes from being up to date on the latest trends or technology and making them relevant and worthwhile for the students.”

Watch and see how excited they get about something that would otherwise be labeled boring or mundane.

Give Your Students Feedback

Tell them why they got the math problem wrong. Explain it to them. Tell them what they can do to improve their writing skills, or how they can study more efficiently. Help your students by constantly pushing them to do their best with their work.

Make Everything Meaningful

All of your content should be related and mean something; Projects, quizzes, tests, and activities should align with what your students need to know to pass the class. As long as they are absorbing relevant information throughout the course, you’re doing your job.

Set High Expectations

Let your students know that you expect them to ace your class! Tell them that you want them to succeed, and that you will do everything in your power to make sure that happens. Tell them that you are in their corner. You are rooting for them!

And, last but not least, here is a bonus idea: have FUN!

Show your class that you have a sense of humor by having fun while you teach. If you’re giving students the tools to succeed, and maybe some occasional tough love, you will gain their respect and watch them do great things.

How will you promote success in your classroom? Let us know - leave a comment, or message us on Instagram @leapedlive. We would love to hear your ideas!

Live Streaming for Education: Why Teachers Will Want to Participate

The future of education is going to continually change with the force of virtual learning. Since Leaped is a live streaming platform for education, it will join other live streaming services in becoming a strong leader in live video education.

Why Should Educators Want to Teach Through Leaped?

To start, it’s an amazing way to expand your reach and talk to a larger audience. The walls of a classroom no longer contain your teaching talents; we have learned over the past year that you can teach from anywhere, at any time. Why limit yourself to only 30 people when you could be reaching thousands? Not only are you talking to more learners, but you are speaking to a targeted audience that truly wants to learn from you. And the more viewers you have, the more viewers will discover you and your content, continually building your virtual community.

The mobility and flexibility of a live streaming platform is a major advantage when it comes to virtual education. Even if you’re not a full-time educator, and you just enjoy teaching others, you can work around your schedule to make time for your passions in life. 

Increased Productivity & Maximized Learning

If you know how to live stream, you know that you are putting out content in real time. In doing this, users can watch you solve problems or teach yoga or make chicken cordon bleu in the moment. Users can send in questions or comments and you can answer them during your live video stream. You are able to explain things as you do them to people that need your help. This real-time engagement, interaction, and elevated communication from anywhere in the world is a game-changer for teaching and learning.

The pressure of raising a hand in class is removed and students are able to learn without that nervousness of getting something wrong, helping them stay more focused and motivated.

Diversity in Curriculum

Who says you are limited to traditional school subjects? Live video streaming allows you to broadcast from a home gym, your wood shop, a craft room, and more. Teach anything you want to teach. Many fitness instructors rely on social media to post workouts or post meal ideas, but with Leaped, they can set up a live stream where they can teach more in-depth on these things.

A retiree can teach his hobby of furniture flipping to the next generation. A baker can share their favorite techniques with the world. The opportunities are endless!

Leaped is a Part of the Future of Live Stream Education

It’s time to learn how to live stream and start being involved with the virtual world as it continues to grow. Leaped opens doors for educators that have not always been available, and only offers benefits to you as an educator.

How will you use a live stream to make the world a better place? What will you teach the world today?

The Positive Effects of Online Learning

Modern education has looked very different over the past year; technology has been essential as the use of live video has been a necessity for meeting with classes.

While many schools and programs have utilized various tools to make this virtual learning happen, we are here to take it to the next level. Leaped is focused on education and learning, creating a great environment to teach and learn with so many benefits to both the educator and the student.  

Here are some of the positive benefits of online learning that will put Leaped at the top of your educational live streaming list:

1. Flexibility, Comfort, and the Gift of Time

Flexibility. Being able to create your own schedule. Choosing when to go live or choosing which live streams you are able to watch. No matter what your daily life holds, it is extremely helpful to have flexibility for teaching or learning in order to get the most out of this platform.

Comfort. This is a big one, because it’s really convenient to tune in while you’re in sweats, and you don’t have to worry about all of that gas money it would take to get to your favorite class or seminar. Your audience might even engage more when they are in the solace of their own personal space, rather than sitting in a physical room with other people. 

Time. Your time is valuable, so you want to make sure you are spending it wisely and getting the most out of it. When you are participating in online learning, subscribed to a particular user, you know you will get consistent content rather than a crash course each week. Users can harness microlearning on Leaped, giving viewers 1 or 2 hours a week to go over a topic, become familiar with it, and ask questions or give feedback to the instructor before the next live video. This helps them take in the information; it won’t just go in one ear and out the other.

2. Building a Community of Like-Minded People

When you start an educational live stream, you will draw other individuals that are equally as passionate about whatever subject or activity you choose to teach. You will all be able to relate to each other and learn from one another about the process of event planning or the history of Nordic Vikings. 

You will build relationships, make friends, and create a strong community of people who truly care about what you are putting out into the world and want to learn from you. The audience will also most likely create friendships with each other, expanding their network and allowing them to work together to better understand the content.

3. Increased Instructor - Student Time

Operating through a live video stream means that questions can be asked and answered in real time. This engagement is crucial! Immediate feedback or questions help the teacher and truly benefits those that are learning because they get instant clarification or instant answers. If you are open to one-on-one instruction, users can share their screen or their camera with you to get further help. If you are into knitting, a user might show you their latest attempt to make a hat or ask you questions about the sweater they are crocheting.

4. You Choose What You Learn

On this platform, you have the ability to choose a specific course to look at. You can step outside of the typical curriculum box. You are able to learn how to make a delicious tres leches cake or learn the proper form for deadlifting weights. You will get to learn about anything and everything from passionate educators that are just excited to share their knowledge with you. Most importantly, you are in control of what you consume.

5. Accessibility & Inclusivity

This goes along with comfort, as virtual learning includes those that might be more shy in person to participate. Removing the anxiety of raising your hand or speaking up in front of others allows for more communication between the instructor and the user.

Online learning is quite accessible with a webcam and a good internet connection. However, it also does not restrict others based on their mobility, or their physical limitations. You can teach or learn wherever you are, whenever you want.

6. Improving Those Technological Skills

Leaped is for anyone, okay? If your grandfather wants to teach the younger generation about gardening and the best times to grow certain vegetables, he will eventually become proficient in live video streaming through some beginning help and repeated use of the platform over time. More traditional pen-and-paper users will become more comfortable with technology after getting familiar with our platform.

Online learning is just efficient. It gives you flexibility, the power to choose, it is inclusive, and you will meet tons of people that share your interests. You can only benefit from it!

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Teacher Burnout: Enjoy that Summer Break!

As we are hitting the end of the school year and getting closer and closer to summer break, there is one thing that many teachers have in common: burnout.

Breaks look different for everyone in the working world, but teachers are given that 2- to 3-month summer vacation every year. This is certainly well-deserved time off! Teachers do an abundance of work to make sure they are taking care of and properly educating each of their students throughout the school year. 

Planning lessons, adapting to new curriculum, working with different learning styles, and more can take a toll on educators. It doesn’t help that education is not always funded or supported appropriately, leaving many teachers to use their personal time and money to successfully lead a classroom.

Job burnout is a specific type of mental, physical, or emotional stress derived from exhaustion in the workplace. I think we have all experienced this, whether we want to admit it or not. Working 40+ hours a week without truly unplugging when you are home is something most people are guilty of doing, and this is a huge cause of burnout. You’re not letting your body or brain have a break!

For many teachers, as well as other non-essential workers, the line between work and home has become blurry in the past year. Working from home has allowed individuals to stay safe and healthy, but it has also contributed to burnout for employees. 

It can be hard to keep an eye on the clock and remember when the work day is done when you are already home all day. Teachers can end their Zoom calls and meetings, but some might stay online to grade or get a head start on next week’s lesson plans. 

It became even more difficult to keep up when schools were back and forth about having in-person classes again, having some days at home and some days in the actual classroom. Inconsistency never made work any easier for anyone!

Teachers with children have had even more work this past year as well, having to tend to their students as well as manage their student-aged children doing their schoolwork at home during the day as well. I’ve even seen many parents post on their social media about how they have a new appreciation for teachers after seeing only a glimpse into their online classrooms. 

Imagine how these teachers are feeling as summer approaches! 

“As I submit my grades, complete my end of year checklist, and turn my lights off, I look around and remember my WHY.“ said Becky King, a high school teacher and mother of third graders.

“I’m consistent when kids need it. I’m a caregiver when they could not care less. I’m a cheerleader when they feel low, and I’m equally strict when they need to know what’s what. While this school year has tried to create the worst burnout possible, my focus has been on remembering that this life - this profession that called me - is the best opportunity to nurture the future I can ever imagine,” said King.

These educators absolutely love what they do, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get tired. They are up early every day and stay past that afternoon bell. They push their classes to be the best they can be. Some students love learning and strive to do great work, while some don’t even appreciate their teachers or what they do for them.

This stress, exhaustion, and pressure continues to return every year, but these strong and passionate leaders come back with full force in August every year because they wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

To all of the educators in our Leaped community - we see you, we hear you, and we are here for you! What does burnout look like for you? How do you bounce back from it? 

Let us know in the comments!