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Speaker: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Ruth Wilson: Welcome, everyone. Those of you who are joining online or in person at the college, we're really happy to be here sharing our presentation today. I am co-presenting with my wonderful colleague Jia Sun. And I am Ruth Wilson. And we both teach through San Diego Community College District.

We have been teaching there for quite a few years. And let me just start by introducing Jia first. So Jia is the high flux coordinator for our ESL program. So she is quite knowledgeable when it comes to edtech. And I am the citizenship coordinator for our ESL program.

So in addition to that, I have several years of experience teaching beginning ESL on Zoom. And both she and I have seen many other instructors in our ESL program struggle to utilize Zoom breakout rooms. So this is kind of how today's workshop evolved.

It was through part of our program's need. We kept hearing teacher after teacher say, my students don't participate in breakout rooms. And even Jia and I have both had that happen in our classes as well.

So we came up with this idea for a workshop within our program. We did an in-person workshop and a virtual Zoom version of that workshop for our teachers. And they came back with such positive feedback with our strategies.

So we felt compelled to present it at OTAN. And here we are today, happy to deliver some effective strategies that you can try in your class as soon as next week. That's our goal anyway, to make it fun and applicable.

So that's a little bit about how this session got evolved. And throughout, just we want to encourage questions and full participation. We're here to help you and serve you. So feel free to type anything in the chat along the way. And we'll address your questions.

So to start us off, we have a table of contents. And we're first going to cover challenges and solutions. And then we'll get a little further into week by week strategies, making it step by step for you so that you don't feel overwhelmed. And you maybe don't know where to begin.

And then we will get into more Zoom-specific tips and breakout room settings. There are constant new updates to Zoom that some people are just not aware of. So it's always good to be up to date on those updates.

And then we are going to share some sample activities that Jia and I came up with ourselves based on, like I was saying, seeing what didn't work. And then we were trying out things that we realized did work and was making our students more engaged in our Zoom lessons and breakout activities. So we're hoping that you can take our activities and begin using them and more in your own classes.

And then we'll talk about an all around-- we'll have an all around discussion. And then we'll wrap up at the end with a little Q&A. So let me go on to the next slide.

And here we are with challenges. These are our most common ones. And I'm sure you've seen it yourself if you're an online teacher. First most common one is students don't unmute or start their videos.

How many of you can relate to that? Maybe you can share in the chat. Or raise your hand if that's ever happened to you. It's really unsettling. And yeah, it makes you feel like you're doing something wrong or no one's interested in your class or whatever, like it can make you feel really uneasy.

Another challenge that we've come across is they don't do anything in the breakout room. And then you feel like it's a waste of time. And I've been there myself. I'm not here to preach.

We've all experienced these things. And you feel like you don't want to try it again because they didn't have a good time in the breakout room. Has anyone else experienced that?

Yeah, Jennifer says, no student experience, but definitely teachers when doing PDs. Elle says, they do stuff, just not what I ask them to do. I've also been there. And Philip says, all the time.

Yeah, so we are not alone. Luke says, the majority of the students keep their cameras off regardless of how much you stress the importance of leaving them on. Yes, Luke, I know. And so hopefully, with our tips, you can start to feel like there is a way, there's a path forward.

And then finally, our last challenge that we've seen a lot of is, I can't get all the students enter the breakout rooms. I know, back in the day, that was a big struggle of mine before I knew about a certain Zoom setting. So once again, feel free to share in the chat your experiences. And also, can you think of any other challenges when it comes to breakout rooms specifically that you've had?

OK, Karen says, other teachers claim the breakout rooms work great but really wonder what goes on in there. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, Karen. And then she also says, teachers send work enter the breakout rooms. How do I get stuff into there? Yeah, we'll cover that today.

And then Elle says, the screen share to breakout room stops when I join one of the rooms. OK, good. I'm glad-- yeah, Elle, I'm glad you brought that up. We will certainly address that.

Students on iPhones on-- yes, Philip-- iPhones and iPads. I know. Another thing that I will say something about that in a little while. Laura says, once in a blue moon, there is friction between a couple of students. OK, yeah. So it sounds like it's like a classroom management issue as well.

We're comfortable maybe managing an in-person class. But how can we take those old management skills and then turn them into adjusting for an online class? It does take a lot of thought and intention into it.

So all of these things can be very frustrating. That's the main thing that we want to establish. We understand how you feel. And we've been in your shoes.

So that was really why we came up with this session, is that we want teachers to feel supported. So if you think of any other challenges along the way, feel free and put them in the chat. I think we can go ahead and move on to the next slide. Yeah, if there's anything else.

So now that we've talked about those challenges, what we have hope for you-- we want to talk about how to overcome the challenges. And Jia and I came up with a little handy way to remember it. We call it the "3Ps" or-- double quotes there. They are Patience, Persistence, and Positivity.

So let me start with patience, first of all. Just trust in the process. That old saying, Rome wasn't built in a day, students adjust to Zoom breakout rooms gradually, just like with anything else. It's a gradual-- over time, it can happen.

So that leads us into persistence, believing-- once you have your patience, then you can stay persistent. And just because you run into a hurdle during the first week or the second week of class, it doesn't mean that it's time to give up. Quite the contrary.

When students see you serious about managing breakout rooms, they will respond accordingly. And they'll know that it's a safe, boundaried environment where the teacher has the control or the capacity to manage the breakout rooms and the Zoom. I think it's when the teacher starts to feel insecure. And that's when students can start to engage less.

So persistence with the process. Give your students the benefit of the doubt. And try and keep up clear expectations and communication. And I think you'll see results if you just keep trying.

So the patience and the persistence, I think that's the first two. That's why they're at the top. And then the last one is positivity, which-- sometimes we have to put on a fake happy face. But over time, the more you try these out, the more you'll see the results.

And then I think it can be easier to keep and stay positive even in the midst of challenges. And just know that you're not alone and that you can do this. We've been there.

And so those are the 3Ps. We hope you can remember them. Next time you're feeling really frustrated, just hopefully that will pop into your mind. And then that way, you can keep up with when you're teaching online and you're feeling like all is lost.

I know I've felt that way before. And then we found this quote by Thomas Edison. "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up." Sorry, my captions are in the way. And I can't read the whole thing. Maybe, Jia, if you could take over the quote there.

Jia Sun: Yeah. So "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. And the most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." And do you want to-- can you go back? Yeah, thank you.

So hi, everyone. My name is Jia Sun. And I also work for San Diego Continuing Ed. Part of my job is as the ESL digital literacy coordinator. So I support online beginning-level teachers and also the HyFlex teachers and a lot of through one-on-one mentoring. And a lot of time, when I see teachers come to me and say, it's not working, the breakout room is not working, the students are not doing anything, it's because at the first, the mindset, the goal the teacher for the student at the beginning of the semester is way too high.

Our goal is to have successful breakout rooms. But it's more towards the end of semester or after a few weeks of practice. If a teacher try for the first day, try for the second day and it was not successful and then to give up, then you don't see the students really improve in your class. So really is to understand that this won't be very successful day one.

It won't be very successful day two, maybe not even the first week or the second week. But the students will start to learn the routine. They will start to get that when they go to the breakout room, it's their opportunity to practice. So, Ruth, can you go to the next page?

So here, we want to present a week by week strategy. And as you can see here, to make the breakout room work takes weeks. And it won't be successful for the first week.

And this is what I've been doing for my class. And I'm currently teaching a fully online beginning literacy class. I've been teaching lower levels for over 10 years. And for the past four years, I've been teaching either fully online or HyFlex.

So for the day one, sometimes teacher will try to create several breakout rooms, put the student in the breakout room, and assume they know how to work in a small group with other students. But what I've been doing is just create one breakout room. And I will join that breakout room with all the students together.

Now, we are very fortunate for lower levels, fully online, we have an Instructional Assistant. So for the day one let my, IA stay in the main room. And I go into the breakout room. And if there's any student, even though I check the setting to automatically send all the participants to the breakout room-- but if there's one or two students, they are still staying in the main room.

That means they still have the very, very old version of Zoom. That's why they don't have this new feature. So they are not automatically pushed into the breakout room.

So I could let my TA write down their names so that I email those students, hey, these are the instructions. You need to update your Zoom. And in the breakout room, that's a great opportunity for me to teach them the vocabulary, What is breakout room? and let the students to understand breakout room is their opportunity to practice.

Now, thinking about adult ESL learners, a lot of them come from other countries and very different cultural background. And just from my own cultural background, for a classroom, it's for the teacher. It's always teacher-centered. The students are supposed to be working with each other. We are supposed to be listening. The teacher's giving us the instruction, giving us the lecture.

So to help the students really understand the breakout room is an opportunity for the students to practice. If the students listen, that's great. But they need to practice so that they can improve their listening skills and speaking skills. So the day one is really important to let them understand the concept that there's always a breakout room each day in the Zoom session. And it's their opportunity to practice. Now, of course, the day one, I will be the facilitator of the breakout room. I will call on the student's name, try to encourage them to unmute and practice.

Now, in week one and two, I will create two breakout rooms. And I will be the facilitator of one breakout room. My instructional assistant will be the facilitator for another breakout room.

So this really helps the students to understand the routine that each day, there is a few opportunities. They go into this room. They see that message, teacher sending you to a breakout room. And they see that's the opportunity. Teacher start to call their name. Students take turns to answer questions or read so they understand the concept.

And then on week three and four-- and as we are all teachers, we start to get to know the students. We know all the students' name. And we know there's always a few students-- they volunteer all the time. They answer questions.

They are not afraid of speaking in front of the whole class. And we know their level's probably a little bit higher than other students. Then that's the time I add a third breakout room.

And before I send them to the breakout room, I really praise the students a lot, make sure they'll feel so good about themselves. They are the best students. They're doing a great job. They participate very well. That's why they got to send to this like good student breakout room. And they don't have a teacher as the facilitator.

Now, before I really send the students to the breakout room, we need to understand that they answer the question. They know how to participate. It's because there's always a teacher to facilitate it.

But now they are working independently-- a group of students. How do they know where to start? How do they know how to get started to practice. Then we have to pre-teach the language.

I read first. Your turn. And sometimes, one student know to unmute and practice. But other students are not responding. So teach the vocabulary. Unmute. And sometimes they finish earlier. Then they can practice again. So really prepare them before I send those two students into that third breakout room.

And on week five-- or it really depends. Sometimes, the students get the concept really fast. Or sometimes, you have a group of students-- they're just eager to participate versus other times you have lots of very shy students. But depends on your own timeline. When they are really comfortable, you are adding the third room, fourth room. Many, many students are ready to practice and participate in the breakout room.

Then I start to identify a few model students and train them to be the student leaders. I call them the teachers of the breakout room. And now they are having another layer of the job, is that they need to be the facilitator.

I pre-teach them the language, like call the student's name. Please mute. Or they start to practice, like a dialogue. They need to identify who is A, who is B. So I teach them the language.

I am a URB. Or we always have this-- we use-- the textbook we're using is Ventures Basic. And on the lesson A, there's always like a big picture full of different things that we use to practice speaking, listening, and vocabulary. And I teach them the language that I always use to facilitate. What do you see? And other students in the group practice. I see.

So this is how-- I think by week five or even by week six, that's kind of the breakout room that we're assuming they want the students will be able to do. But really, that's the time that it takes. And if we think about our students, how many things are going on? They have their own lives. They have their job. They're learning a totally different language in a new culture. And also, they're learning technology.

So with so many things going on, it takes time to let them feel comfortable and confident to speak in front of a whole group of people. So I see some message in the chat. Are there any questions? OK. So yeah. Any questions about a week by week strategy? OK, no. OK, can we go to the next slide?

Yeah. So along with the week by week strategy, how you group the students is also important. Like, when we talk face to face, we know all these students are from the same country. Put them together so they could help each other. It's the same thing.

So currently, my class, I have two big groups-- a big group of students from Haiti and the big group students from Afghanistan. So I start-- at the beginning of the semester, I try to put the student who speak the same language in the same group so they feel more comfortable if they have a question. Or if students are not unmuting, they could help each other in their own language.

And for each day's class, I have at least two or three opportunities for the students to go into the breakout room and practice. And I usually put the same students in the same group. So when they go back to the group, they know they are working with the same group of students. And that's for the beginning of the semester.

And I try to see all these students, probably they know each other. Or they can be friends. So try to put the students together so that-- it's important for the student and me to make connections. But it's also important for the students to build connection, to create this classroom community. So I try to put the same students in the same group for the beginning of the semester or for the first one or two activities of each lesson so that they know each other. They feel more comfortable working with each other.

But after a while, after a few weeks, the students already know each other. They are very familiar with the breakout room activities. They know that's their opportunity to practice. Then I start to mix the student from different countries and regroup the students so that they get more opportunities to work with different students.

And another strategy I want to share is after week five, you have several groups that they could practice together. But you know there's always some students-- they're very, very shy, that you know if you are in the breakout room, maybe you call their name several times. They are able to unmute. But it's harder for other group leaders to do the same thing.

So you could hold those students into a separate breakout room. Sometimes, I would just facilitate that breakout room. And sometimes, if you have a TA or IA, you can let your instructional assistant to facilitate that group.

I see a question from Philip. When I put the students together that speak the same language, they don't speak same-- yeah, so that's what I'm talking about. At the beginning of the semester, put them together. They are communicating, which I think is a good thing because they are making connections.

They either know each other or they don't know each other. But they know they speak the same language. I think one thing really helped the students to persist is they have a community feeling, the same as the in-person class. They start to become friends. They want to be together.

They exchange their contact information. They help each other. So I think we are trying to create a similar community even though we are online.

So at first, yes, they are not speaking. They're speaking their own language. And sometimes, I'm there. I ask, OK, so yeah, good, good, but do you want to practice them? We could encourage them to practice.

But over time, as we know that they are ready to practice, then kind of mix them. And tell them, oh, the students all speak different languages. Or this is English time. It's more important we practice English. Yeah, thank you for the question. So, Ruth, can you go to the next slide?

Yeah, so the first link is a document that I created. It has some screenshots to show how to create a breakout room. Can you go to that link? Yeah, so the first few steps are pretty simple. But if you can scroll down to the second page. Thank you. Step 5. Scroll down a little bit more. Thank you.

Yeah, here is a setting I want to mention. The first one is automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms. So I think most of the teacher probably already know this setting. But this is extremely helpful because otherwise the students need to confirm. And sometimes, students don't understand what is breakout room. They don't understand they need to confirm that they join the breakout room. So that's one very important feature.

Audience: You got a copy of this document or the slides?

Jia Sun: Yeah, it's linked to the slides. So if you can email me or Ruth, we're happy to share the slides.

Ruth Wilson: Yeah, I'll put our email addresses in the chat. And one more thing I wanted to mention about this is something that I've changed in my Zoom breakout rooms, is changing the countdown timer to 10 seconds rather than it being a full minute.

I think some students just start to see the timer. And then they stop talking. So it might as well just end within 10 seconds. I've seen it be more effective in my classes. And so just wanted to mention.

Jia Sun: Yeah, thank you. thank you. Yeah, definitely. And sometimes, I accidentally open the Zoom breakout room and have to close it. And having the-- I think the default setting was 60 seconds. And that's just way too long for you to restart the breakout room.

Ruth Wilson: Yeah, I'll go back to the slide here.

Jia Sun: Yeah, and the second resource I want to share is the breakout room reminders that I created that I share with the students before I send them to the breakout rooms. So Ruth, can you open the second.

Ruth Wilson: Sorry, just finally sending chat.

Jia Sun: Yeah. So I got inspired from our colleague Monica Quilila. And I kind of adapted to the-- because I teach lower level to-- this is more like for beginner level breakout room. And I show them the visual mute sign. But at the same time, I have a physical copy of the unmute sign that I always show the student, hey, now breakout room, your time. You have to unmute and practice.

And at the beginning, when they don't know each other, it's very important they say each other's name so they know how to take turns to practice. And I encourage them if it's possible, if they are in a safe environment, that they can turn on the video, then it's better to turn on the video. And I also have the language here. I read first. You read first. Let's read again. And there's also a-- if they have questions, I give them the visual where they can click a button to ask teacher for help.

And these are just some visuals to help them because sometimes the student don't know that they could rotate the phone to get a bigger screen and how to zoom in because a lot of time I'm sharing the content for them into the breakout room so they could read. And if they're on a mobile device, they need to learn how to zoom in so they can see. And that's just a Zoom breakout room video there.

And with the breakout room activity, it's very important that you start with very, very simple activities. I've seen some teachers start from, oh, we've just learned this new grammar. Let's go to a breakout room and take turns to practice. And the students are super shy.

But they're super shy because they barely know what they just learned. And very few students could just-- after they-- it takes time for them to observe. So it really starts from very, very simple activities, like just reading some simple vocabulary or a daily news activity I will be talking about later. That's a very simple daily routine that all the students know how to do in my class. And that's my highest participation in breakout room activities.

And also, it's very important to demonstrate how to do the activity before sending students into breakout room, demonstrate how they participate, but at the same time, as a teacher, also demonstrate for the teacher, the lead students, how to facilitate, how to ask other students questions. And also, even though my students all have the textbook-- but I always, always share the content into the breakout room. Not all the students know how to manage this one cell phone, talking to the students, and then read their textbook. It's just too challenging for them. So I always share the content into breakout rooms for them to see.

So then I remembered earlier, there was a question in the chat that, OK, now the students are in the breakout room. I'm in the main room. And I'm stuck here because I'm sharing the content. I cannot join the breakout rooms.

So that comes with the second device. So when I'm sharing the content, I see my students are in the breakout rooms. I will just mute myself. And then I will use my cell phone to join into the Zoom session as a participant.

I named my cell phone as Jia's phone so I don't get confused with which is my computer hosting the Zoom session, which is my mobile device. And then I move my phone from room to room to see what the students are doing or facilitate one of the breakout rooms.

And the last one is just one very important tip. At the beginning of the semester-- actually, throughout the semester, it's very important to help students get access to technology. At lower levels, it's OK maybe just with the mobile devices. But when they go to higher levels, it's very important-- the laptop will give them a lot more access to the functions that they will use in class, like sharing in the breakout rooms.

So we're very fortunate. In San Diego, we have many other programs. But this digital navigator program offers a free digital literacy class and also one-on-one mentoring and multiple locations. And it also offers Wi-Fi and computer at a very low cost.

So I'm not sure about at other counties and cities. But there is always a resource there. So it's very important to share that information with the students because that will really help them to be more engaged and participate in the class.

Audience: Can I ask a question?

Ruth Wilson: Oh, sure. Go ahead.

Audience: So when you talk about entering on a second device on your phone, is it is it possible then, as a participant, you can just pop around breakout rooms?

Ruth Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Audience: You can because I've never done that. I've always been a teacher.

Jia Sun: No, you are moving yourself with your computer.

Audience: Oh, I see. You move your own.

Jia Sun: You're the host. Yeah, you just have to--

Audience: Yeah, I get it. I understand.

Ruth Wilson: So the trick is not to confuse yourself as host and then your other self as co-host.

Audience: [overlapping voices]

Ruth Wilson: It's really funny because it feels like you've cloned yourself. And it can be confusing at the beginning. But once you do it, you'll get into the habit. And it'll become second nature.

Jia Sun: Yeah. At first, several times I was like drawing the breakout room. And then my student lose my shared content. So that's why I changed my cell phone into Jia's phone so I always remember I'll move my phone.

Ruth Wilson: Were there any other questions about the second device? And also, like if anyone else has ever tried that before, you can say so in the chat.

Audience: I'd like to know if anyone's tried doing that using two different browsers. I use Microsoft Edge, which you can split the screen really easily. So I think it would be possible to do it from the computer on two different instances?

Ruth Wilson: Interesting. Something to look into. I don't know about that, Laura, but--

Audience: OK.

Audience: We'll just see.

Audience: We'll all try.

Ruth Wilson: Yeah, we'll report back.

Audience: But I do want to--

Audience: I have done it on two on a laptop and a PC, where I-- well, I haven't gone into a breakout. But I've done it where I can see who's in class on one. And I can see what my lesson is on the other.

Ruth Wilson: Oh, wow, that's great, Karen.

Audience: Because I lose track of whether people are still there. So if the class is more than 10, I put two devices.

Jia Sun: So if you got a dual monitor, actually you can have-- but you still need to monitor to screen. But you can have just one device.

Audience: And you definitely have to turn the audio off on one of the devices.

Ruth Wilson: Right.

Audience: Yes.

Ruth Wilson: I was--

Audience: I doubt if I went to a breakout, then I'd have to turn the audio back on.

Ruth Wilson: So what you have to do is-- I don't know if I have space on here to make a note. I'll try and fit something in here. But you-- the first step is you lower volume on primary device. This is what I do anyway. And then I-- when I sign in on Zoom on second device, I-- let me put this down there, I make sure and join with audio. And also, you want to really make sure that you are-- that you stay the co-host and that you don't take over as host.

The options all pop up at once, and it can be really jarring. So just slow down, just do one thing at a time. OK, join with audio, check. Stay co-host, check. And then you can go from there on your primary device and start moving your second self among the breakout rooms.

Jia Sun: So if you can see, I'm currently using my PC on my computer. And I'm using my headphones. And so when I'm sending the student to breakout room, I would only need to mute myself. And then I go to my cell phone and I use the speaker, and there's no echo issues. The only thing I need to remember is to leave meeting before I come back to the main session.

Ruth Wilson: Oh, yeah. Yeah, maybe that's step number 3. Or I guess, monitor breakout rooms is step number 3. And then leave-- did you say leave the main session?

Jia Sun: Yeah, leave meeting-- leave the meeting.

Ruth Wilson: Leave the--

Jia Sun: So I-- yeah.

Ruth Wilson: On-- when you're on your second device-- through second device. Are these notes helpful? I don't know.

Audience: Sure.

Ruth Wilson: I'm just making notes for myself. But--

Audience: Yes. Thank you.

Audience: I'd like to mention another approach, but I know a lot of classes would not be able to do this. But luckily, my classes, usually, all the students have access to two different devices, even if it's a cell phone and a tablet. And so I use the Remind app. And I just send screenshots of the lessons on Remind. And then they're on Zoom on their other-- hopefully, a laptop, we have Laptop Loaner Program. And so I don't have to do that.

Ruth Wilson: That's so great that you have that program.

Audience: It is.

Ruth Wilson: Yeah, not all schools have that.

Audience: Right.

Ruth Wilson: It makes all the difference.

Jia Sun: Yeah, that-- yeah, that makes things so much easier to have two devices.

Ruth Wilson: Yes.

Audience: I have a question.

Ruth Wilson: Oh, sure. Go ahead.

Audience: When we do the civics or we take the students into the breakout room and they test one at a time, but they get confused on how to leave the breakout room and go back to the main session.

Ruth Wilson: Yeah. We're piloting doing some tech training for students in the first few weeks of online class.

Jia Sun: As the host, you are able to move the student back to the main session. That's what I've been doing. I would have--

Audience: Can you show me how to do that? Please.

Jia Sun: How to-- when you create a breakout room-- let me see if I have a visual.

Ruth Wilson: Yeah.

Jia Sun: Can you go-- Ruth, can you go back to the breakout room on the instruction, that work document? You have it on the tab, the last one.

Ruth Wilson: Oh, yeah, yeah. The breakout?

Jia Sun: The comment. Yes, the one to the left. The Google Docs. Yes. Can you scroll up? Yeah.

So over here, when the students are in the breakout room, you see, you got the option to move the student. And now with the newest version of Zoom, if you click Move To, you will see one option says Main Session. So after the student is done with the assessment, you can move the student back to the main session. So that's how they leave the breakout room. You don't have to teach them. Yeah.

Audience: I think I need to update my Zoom.

Jia Sun: Yeah.

Ruth Wilson: I think the update we're looking for, or at least as far as I know, is 5.17 something, something, something.

Audience: Do you have to check with that in settings, that you can move them to the main session or you can just do it?

Ruth Wilson: I believe it's an Automatic setting with the new update. Is that right, Jia?

Jia Sun: Yes.

Ruth Wilson: OK. Let's see. Where-- well, yeah, if we have any other questions, feel free while I find our last slide.

I was going to mention something else about getting access to laptops. I wasn't even aware of this not too long ago, but a lot of public libraries offer free Chromebooks, free Wi-Fi, and other technology for low income students.

Also, CalWORKs. Many of our students are part of CalWORKs. Are you guys familiar with that at all? Have you--

Audience: We heard about.

Ruth Wilson: Yeah. So I like to double check or just check in with my students and make sure that they know that the funds that they receive through CalWORKs are supposed to go towards any student needs, including technology. So I believe, it's something like, they get $500 per semester, so then they can put that towards a low cost laptop. Just simple reminders, things that they're already-- that they already have access to, but they maybe just didn't know that they had the access.

I see a question in the Q&A. Jia, do you see that as well?

Jia Sun: Oh, I think that's a comment about the changing the breakout room setting from 90 seconds to 10 seconds, because if you don't know how to move the student back to the main session, you could just quickly close that breakout room and create a new one. And it won't take too long.

Ruth Wilson: Not in the chat box. I'm seeing a notification in the Q&A button that there's-- Marisol [muffled voices]--

Jia Sun: Oh, yes.

Ruth Wilson: --says--

Jia Sun: Can you--

Ruth Wilson: --can you-- oh, yeah, you go ahead.

Jia Sun: Can you tell me how to get the classic whiteboard? The new Zoom update took away my board, and I don't like to use the new whiteboard.

Ruth Wilson: That's an interesting question, and I'm not sure if I know about that.

Jia Sun: So Marisol, what do you mean it take away the classic whiteboard? I think you still have access to your traditional shared screen whiteboard.

Audience: No, I don't.

Ruth Wilson: They updated it.

Audience: Yeah, they updated it and forced it on us.

Audience: I had to be blunt. It used to be able to share screen and then have a choice of the classic whiteboard. Now I click on Share Screen and that's-- yeah, that's the new one. And I hate it. It's terrible. That's terrible.

Ruth Wilson: You know what, Marisol? I'm seeing a little window in the right, the top right. It just said, Use Classic Whiteboard. But it disappeared, that little option.

Audience: Yeah, I've been looking for that option.

Ruth Wilson: It was there for like 10 seconds and it disappeared.

Audience: Yeah.

Ruth Wilson: Jia will see it pop up on her.

Jia Sun: I still have the old whiteboard. I wonder if I need to update my Zoom.

Ruth Wilson: Oh, OK. Yeah.

Jia Sun: So that's the old whiteboard, right? Or should I not update my Zoom?

[laughter]

Audience: Oh, yeah, right. Because I updated my Zoom.

Jia Sun: See, it says, use whiteboard classic. Yeah.

Audience: I don't have that.

Jia Sun: So if you--

Audience: I don't have that option.

Jia Sun: --click quick enough.

Ruth Wilson: If you're fast, you can do it.

Audience: I'm not fast.

Jia Sun: Or go to your Zoom settings. Check your Zoom settings for whiteboard.

Audience: I did. That's why I'm asking here. Yeah, I've been checking.

Jia Sun: You're ahead of us.

[laughter]

Audience: I think it's just an update. And I have to go-- I have to go searching for it. And no fair, because I can't find it.

Ruth Wilson: Marisol, if you put your contact info in the chat--

Audience: OK.

Ruth Wilson: --I can keep up with you and-- I mean, in the future, and see if there's-- maybe down the line, there might be a setting for that.

Audience: That would be great. Thanks.

Ruth Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Everything changes so rapidly on Zoom that it can be just a lot to keep up with. So--

Audience: I'm-- right now, I'm seeing something that says new whiteboard or existing whiteboard. So you can go back to one you already made, but that doesn't mean you can go back to the classic. Yeah, that-- it's probably the only nice thing about the new whiteboard is that it saves all your whiteboards and you can go back to them and find them. Whereas the classic whiteboards, they disappear after you get out of that session. Once you get out of that session, they disappear. But maybe it's me, and I'm not that tech savvy, so I will just keep trying. Thank you.

Ruth Wilson: Yeah. Someone had their hand up for a second. And then they put it down. OK. Maybe they don't have a question anymore.

Well, yeah, I'm glad we got into that. Oh, yeah, yeah. No worries, Julie. OK. So next up in our session, Jia is going to share about a sample activity that she created herself. Jia, your video disappeared. Are you still there?

Jia Sun: I am. Can you see me now?

Ruth Wilson: OK. Oh, there you are.

Jia Sun: OK. Great. Great. Yeah. OK. Thank you. So everyone, this is the Daily News activity that I've been using for many, many years. And I use the same activity for my fully face to face class also. So pretty much as a teacher and as a non-credit, open entry, open exit class, we often have new students coming in in the middle of the semester.

And the teacher, we need a little bit of time to check, are they all on our roster? And we need to give the information. OK, this is what they need to know. This is the textbook. You need that little extra time to help the new student. And I also take attendance for my online class. So I need a little bit of time to check, OK, who is here today?

But at the same time, I don't want the whole class to be waiting for me. And at some of the workshops that we had, some teachers said, oh, she has been playing some music at the first 5 or 10 minutes of the class. And gradually, students start to realize, OK, the first 10 minutes, there's nothing happening. OK, I can come a little bit later. So that became an issue.

So this activity can be very handy because the students are using that time to practice writing. And this is a daily writing and reading practice that really gave them the opportunity to practice writing and reading on daily basis. So can you click one more time, Ruth?

Yeah. So pretty much every day, come to the class. I will-- beginning of the semester, I will use my document camera, and I will run write on a piece of paper, and to really demonstrate for the student that how I'm copying, I'm writing the news in my notebook, to teach them the vocabulary, to teach them, this is a routine that students do every day.

Later on, as you can see, I could show them the presentation slides. And they understand that they are supposed to copy and write the news in their notebook.

So pretty much for the first five or 10 minutes of the class, when I'm helping the new students, I'm taking the attendance as students copy the news. And then I will explain the vocabulary. Students repeat after me. And then we all read the news together. And I send the students to breakout rooms. And the student take turns to read the news. And then when we come back, I usually just invite two or three volunteer students to read.

But if we look at the content of the news, at the beginning of semester, it starts from very, very simple, just to-- just a day, the date, the weather. And it's very-- the class I'm currently teaching is beginning literacy. It's very challenging for some of the students to spell the vocabulary. And since they are learning online, I feel like it's less practice for them to do writing and reading. So it's-- this activity is very important. It's a good practice for them to really force them to write with a pencil, not just do a screenshot, take a picture of the information.

Ruth, can you click the Daily News? No, click the Daily News link. That's going to take everyone to the slide. OK.

So as you can see at the beginning, I may just show a-- yeah. Write a Daily News on a piece of paper with a document camera. And go to the next slide. And I gradually move to the presentation slide, gave them the gift to show that they are supposed to write in their notebook, not just take a picture.

And I start from very, very simple information from introducing their teacher, me. Then you can you go to the next slide. Then start to tell them how to spell name, gave them a chance to spell their names. Go to the next slide. And then-- and you can see by the date, this is within one semester. That's probably happening in the first week I start to teach them. When there's a new student, we welcome the new student, introduce the new student.

And next slide. Thank you. And then I start to introduce, hey, this is our schedule. What days do we have Zoom? What days we don't have Zoom? Class schedule. So the content is usually important information for the students, some grammar review, some vocabulary review. When there's important holiday, there's no class. Is there-- or when there's very important test or there's a unit test, the CASAS testing, I tell them that information. You can go to the next slide.

Ruth Wilson: Sorry, I was fighting with someone here.

Jia Sun: Yeah, no problem. And you can see, it gets longer. And I change the color of the word and tell the student, hey, this is Jia's information. You can use your own information. You can go to the next one.

And as you can see, that's one month later. That's in March. And it gets longer. The text becomes longer. And we-- that's a practice of the writing that we are doing that day, is to write about the family. Yeah. And if you click, you can see a picture that I took when I did it. I think this is HyFlex or in-person class. Yeah.

Yeah, it can be used for HyFlex, and online, and in-person-- in-person too. So that's a very great activity. And this-- for my own class, this is always my highest participation. I've had student-- when I was in the breakout room, smaller breakout room, I had one student read the news. And it was-- I could barely understood what the student was saying because it was very broken English.

And the student, I think her native language was either Arabic or Farsi. So she reads from right to left. And when she was reading, it was like, there and here, it's not even a complete sentence. But she was able to unmute and read in front of a few other students. That shows how much she wants to participate and how much she understands that this is something that every student participates in the class. Even though she knows that her English wasn't good enough, she participated. So yeah. And I've shared this with other teachers and also got really great feedback that she said that this activity is her highest participation in the class. Thank you. Yeah.