Online teaching? No problem! Technology people, technology... Now,
where's the zoom button?
Hi my name is Gemma Perry and welcome to Mooncake where ESL teaching is
made easy. If you are new here then you need to know that I make weekly ESL
teaching tip videos to help you improve your English teaching. So if you are
teaching ESL abroad make sure you subscribe below and hit that
notification bell for weekly ESL teaching tips. Also real quick, if you are
new here say hi in the comments below and let me know where in the world
you're teaching. The other day on social media I asked you what your biggest
questions are regarding online teaching and one of the most asked questions was
what platform do I recommend using? Well, a long story short I recommend using
Zoom and this is because it's very easy to use and it can effectively be used
for free. So today we're going to look at some of the Zoom features and how to get
set up. So without further ado let's get started. So the first thing I'm gonna
want to do is go to Zoom.us. Now the great thing about Zoom is that for the
majority of you you're going to be teaching less than 100 students at one
time and if you're having lessons there are for 40 minutes or less, then the free
basic plan is all you're going to need. So effectively you're gonna be able to
teach on Zoom for free. If you are teaching lessons for over 40 minutes or
holding lessons where more than 100 students are going to be logged on at
the same time, then you will need to upgrade. o once you get onto Zoom US all
you need to do is click on sign up it's free! To sign up, all you're gonna need is
an email address or you can sign up by clicking on the sign up with Google or
Facebook buttons. So go ahead and get yourself signed up. Once signed up
you'll be prompted to fill out your personal details so fill those in and
then if you click on the meeting tab over here on the left hand side, this is
where you go to see your upcoming meetings. Now you will notice that down
here at the bottom there are some additions for Chrome and Microsoft you
don't need to add these extensions but they are there if you wanted to add them.
So let's say you were wanting to start a class right away. All you need to do is
go to the top right hand side here, and click on host new meeting. Now you also
hear that it gives you a few options to either have your video on or off or to
just share your screen. Now as we're looking to hold a class online we're
gonna start with our video on, and you'll be prompted to download and run Zoom. So
make sure you give permission to do that. What happens next is they'll ask you to
either use your computer audio or to test the speaker and microphone. So if
you are using a headset or a professional mic you can test these here
to see if you are set up okay. But, for now we're going to go ahead and click on
use computer audio and you can see that once I click on that I am then in my
visual classroom. Now you will note that as I move my cursor along the bottom
here I have a few different options which we're going to go through in just
a minute. But for now, we're going to click on that invite button and as you
can see as soon as I click there, I'm able to invite someone from my contacts.
Or if you click on the button left here where it says copy URL, you can send a
link to the classroom to your students. On the right-hand side you'll note a
password and you'll need to send that password to your students with the links
so that they can logon. So once you've invited your students to
join the class, they are more likely enter the classroom intermittently and dear god
they're noisy! I am trying to teach will you please stop them from interrupting!
Well actually, we can if we go back to these options at the bottom of our
screen and click on manage participants, our list of students will appear and we
can mute their mics. Just hover over their name and you'll find that mute
button. Now if we click on the more button next to their name, we can rename
a student or even add a profile picture so we know who's who. At the bottom here
we also have the power to mute everyone and if we go into the more options at
the bottom, we can also mute students upon entry. So if they are late they
don't disrupt class as they enter. But for now we're going to exit here by
hitting that corner arrow and pressing close. Let's take a look at
some of our other options and controls down at the bottom here. You're able to
mute your own mic, so if you do need to shout at a family member to be quiet
while teaching, you can do so without your students hearing you. Just remember
that they can still see you unless you've clicked on the stop video button,
which you can find right next to the mute mic button.
Now another great feature about zoom is that we can use a virtual background, and
this works especially well if you have a green screen. But you don't need a green
screen in zoom, you can still use a virtual background by clicking on choose
virtual background. From there you're able to choose from a selection of
different backgrounds and once you click on one, you'll be asked to download the
first time you use them. I personally like the one with the Northern Lights.
Without the green screen it's still pretty good, not perfect but good, and can
make your lesson all the more fun with a bit of imagination. If you are using your
own green screen then you can switch to I have a green screen at the bottom here
which will give you better results, but you can also choose your own by clicking
on this little plus button and finding the file you want to use. For now then
we're going to click on none, exit out there and head back to our options at
the bottom of the screen, here. So far we have looked at muting ourselves, turning off
our camera, and using virtual backgrounds. So let's go ahead and take a look at
screen sharing by clicking on the screen sharing button. Now once you press that
screen sharing button it's going to give you a choice of all the screens you
currently have open and you can choose one screen that you would like to share
with students. So if you have a PPT presentation that you would like to
share you can click on that and automatically the screen is filled with
that presentation. But as you can see you are still visible in the top right-hand
corner, you can then use that presentation to teach your language
points. Once you're done, you can click on the stop share button at the top of the
screen here, and as you can see it takes you straight back out to the main
classroom area. Let's go back in click on that screen share button one more time
and this time we're going to select the whiteboard. Now the whiteboard is a
fantastic tool where you can draw, for example you can draw a picture such as
the face that I'm drawing right here,
that's just missing a mouth, if you do make a mistake or your picture is not
turning out quite how you hoped, then you can clear it by hitting the Clear button
at the top right hand side. Other options at the top here include a
torch which highlights your mouse movement so students can see clearly
what your pointing at. Other options include shapes such as stars and text
where we can type out different words if we need to. We can use the erase button. T
To erase things individually when you finish just hit that stop share button
once again. Let's take a look at the last few buttons on the right-hand side. This
button gives you the option to chat with students. You can chat with everyone at
the same time or with a single student and you're also able to send files to
students through this chat platform. So if you do have some teaching materials
that you need to pass on to the class you can do that through this chat. Next
to the chat you have a record button so if you wanted to record your class for
demo purposes or to share with other students that might have missed your
class, you can do so by hitting the record button at the beginning of your
class. Lastly there is the reactions button where you could give the class a
thumbs up or a clap as a well done. Now your students will need to be set up on
zoom' prior to your class so it's a good idea to send them all the information in
advance, so they can be ready on time for your lesson. Zoom is available in a
variety of different languages and if you scroll right to the bottom, you have
an option to change the language there. That said for countries such as China,
they'll need to use the zoom.com.CN page and there will be a to access the
Zoom page. So there you have it, zoom and how we can get set up for our online ESL
lessons. Now as I mentioned I have been working on some PPT's and other
materials for online teaching, so if you want access to some free teacher
resources make sure you check out the Mooncake English webpage linked below.
That's it for this video, thanks so much for watching. You can find me on Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter or if you're interested in a teacher Tee
by Mooncake then you can find them linked below, and of course, remember to
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