Alex Kajitani - 101 Tips for Teaching Online: Helping Students Think, Learn, and Grow—No Matter Where They Are! (Your guide to stress-free online teaching)

Copyright 2022 by Solution Tree Press

Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked Reproducible. Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

555 North Morton Street

Bloomington, IN 47404

800.733.6786 (toll free) / 812.336.7700

FAX: 812.336.7790

email:

SolutionTree.com

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/technology to download the free reproducibles in this book.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kajitani, Alex, author.

Title: 101 tips for teaching online : helping students think, learn, and grow-no matter where they are! / Alex Kajitani.

Other titles: One hundred one tips for teaching online

Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022002834 (print) | LCCN 2022002835 (ebook) | ISBN 9781954631076 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781954631083 (eBook)

Subjects: LCSH: Internet in education. | World Wide Web. | Computer-assisted instruction. | Communication in education. | Instructional systems--Design. | Blended learning.

Classification: LCC LB1044.87 J25 2022 (print) | LCC LB1044.87 (ebook) | DDC 371.33/44678--dc23/eng/20220215

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022002834

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022002835

Solution Tree

Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO

Edmund M. Ackerman, President

Solution Tree Press

President and Publisher: Douglas M. Rife

Associate Publisher: Sarah Payne-Mills

Managing Production Editor: Kendra Slayton

Editorial Director: Todd Brakke

Art Director: Rian Anderson

Copy Chief: Jessi Finn

Production Editor: Alissa Voss

Content Development Specialist: Amy Rubenstein

Text and Cover Designer: Laura Cox

Associate Editor and Proofreader: Sarah Ludwig

Editorial Assistants: Charlotte Jones and Elijah Oates

I am deeply grateful to the educators, students, and their families who have inspired this book. Thank you for your willingness to share with me what is and is not working with online teaching, and how it could be better. I hope that your thoughts, ideas, and solutions leap off the pages of this book and land with impact.

Huge gratitude to the team at Solution Tree for all of your hard work and diligence in getting this book from 101 Post-it Notes on My Wall to the beautiful book it is today, especially to Claudia Wheatley, Douglas Rife, and Alissa Voss for your guidance and expertise.

And to my fabulous familymy wife, Megan, who is always willing to look over just one more draft; our children, who have encouraged me throughout this process (often giving me their opinions on their own online learning experiences); my mother, Loren, who always asks how things are going; and Karen and David, who got me over the finish line. Thanks to all of you for helping to turn a fun idea into something that makes the world better. What is best in me, I owe to all of you.

Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers:

Johanna Josaphat

Social Studies Teacher

The Urban Assembly Unison School

Brooklyn, New York

Kristina Nichols

Instructional Coach/Reading Specialist

Savannah Elementary School

Aubrey, Texas

David Pillar

Assistant Director

Hoosier Hills Career Center

Bloomington, Indiana

Rachel Swearengin

Fifth-Grade Teacher

Manchester Park Elementary School

Olathe, Kansas

Alex Kajitani is the 2009 California Teacher of the Year and a top-four finalist for National Teacher of the Year. He speaks internationally on a variety of education and leadership issues and delivers powerful keynote speeches and workshops to educators and business leaders. Also known as The Rappin Mathematician, Alexs songs, videos, and online programs are used around the world to help students succeed.

Alex is the author of Owning It: Proven Strategies to Ace and Embrace Teaching and coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Teachers. He also has a popular TEDx Talk and has been featured in many media stories, including the CBS Evening News, where Katie Couric declared, I love that guy!

To learn more about Alexs work, visit www.AlexKajitani.com.

To book Alex Kajitani for professional development, contact Solution Tree at .

I t was my first year of teaching, and I was sinking. I had several degrees and credentials, yet I couldnt seem to get my students to pay attention or remember any of the mathematics I had just taught them. At the same time, I realized that my students could remember every word to every rap song on the radio.

One day, while teaching (or, what I thought was teaching) my class to add and subtract decimals, I decided to create my own rap song, which I named The Itty-Bitty Dot, after the decimal point. I practiced it all night (I admit, in front of the mirror) and performed it in front of my class the next morning.

It was a complete disaster.

My middle school students laughed hysterically at me. Then they couldnt run out of the room fast enough to tell their other friends about what was sure to be the end of my short-lived teaching career. Oh, well.

But then, a funny thing happened as I was walking to the teachers lounge for lunch. I walked by the students lunch tables, and they were all singing The Itty-Bitty Dot. The next day, they entered my room with the same level of excitement usually reserved for when the bell rang to end my class. They were saying things like, Yesterday was the best day ever in math class. Are you going to rap again?

As their interest in mathematics seemed to skyrocket (along with their test scores), my students insisted that I start creating rap music videos about the mathematics concepts I was teaching. And with their help, we posted them all over the internet. The Rappin Mathematician was born, and those videos have now been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in homes and classrooms around the world (and eventually featured on the CBS Evening News). I also started getting emails and calls from students in other countries, letting me know how their teachers were using the videos to teach them in class.

Thats when my online teaching career began.

Since we filmed that first video, Ive been busy recording videos and creating online programs that help students do everything from master their times tables to higher-level algebra concepts. These videos have been incredibly well-received and effective. But I always longed for one more dimension of thema live component.