Zoom is a great tool for distance learning! With Zoom you can meet with your students via a video call.
You can teach lessons, share a read aloud or just check in with them. You can even record your meetings so that students who didn’t come can watch it later.
You don’t need any fancy tools or a degree in computer science!
Zoom is free, but usually you are limited by the length of the meeting and the number of attendees. But, Zoom is offering a free account for teachers during these times that does not have these limitations.
Click HERE to get signed up for your FREE Zoom account.
Then, watch this video as I share how to set up your meeting, share the link with students, and manage the meeting. I even show you how to share your screen so that you can use PowerPoints, videos or websites with your students during the meeting.
Click to watch the tutorial!??
I know that some schools do not allow teachers to use Zoom. If that is you, then I hope you are able to use something similar.
Our students need to see our faces during these tough times. The connection is so important!
Have a Not So Wimpy day,
5 days of election activities for grades 2-5!
Thank you!!!?
This was so helpful!!! Happy Zooming….
You’re a peach. Thanks a whole bunch for this
Thank you
You’re a Godsend! Thank you so much for the info, I was lost! I’m going to set up a meeting this week to see those sweet kiddos faces!❤️
Thank you soooo much for sharing the “how to ” zoom video.
Well, I must say out of all the tutorials I have seen, this has been the most helpful for someone that is not the best with computers. I now feel ready to give it a try with my daughter and a few close teacher friends before trying it with the kids in 2 days. Thanks so much for giving me the courage to give it a try.
kari Reifel
Kari,
You’re going to be amazing with your students! You’ve got this!
Jamie,
Thanks so much for the Zoom video. This is perfect! We use it on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings for our religious meetings because of covid19. I always join as a participant. I hadn’t thought of using it for my scholars. I am a private tutor, so my sessions would be one-on-one. I am a retired English teacher, and now I am not affiliated with just one school. Most of my tutoring sessions are 30 – 45 minutes, but I do have a few one hour sessions. I’m wondering whether I should use the link you provided to open a new account, or could I schedule a meeting using my current account? Do you know? Also, could you walk me through the steps for sharing a document or a PowerPoint from my laptop?
This was SOOOO helpful! Thank you a TON! You mentioned that you can upload the recorded meeting to Google classroom. Will it work with Seesaw?
You should be able to copy and paste the link into a Seesaw activity.
I wish to read a story to them but uI wish for them to follow with the book that I have. How do I do that please?
To have students follow the book you are reading, you could hold the book up to the screen as you are reading. You could also choose an ebook then share your screen so students can follow along. If you have a document camera, you could project the book using the document camera as you read.
Jamie –
I can’t believe the serendipity of the timing of finding this video. I was just opening my computer on my way to Zoom to try to determine how to use it for teaching my classes online. And, lo and behold, there was your video!
I am certain that you saved me several hours of time! So, thank you Jamie. Stay healthy and happy!
Ubuntu!
Barbara
Thank you for sharing this. I used Zoom for the first time today just to try it out and to see my kids. Your video helped me think of other things I could do with this. I am technically challenged and our present situation is stretching me. Thank you!
Thank you so much!!! I have been watching so many videos on how to use zoom and other apps for distant teaching. This is by far the best one I’ve seen as far as being applicable to what we are doing. You always have such amazing things.
This was so helpful! Thank you!!!
Thank you for your tutorial, it was very helpful. Can you see or monitor the chat between students as the host to make sure it is appropriate?
Thank you! I had never heard of Zoom, and now it’s everywhere, and it seems people just expected that I knew how to use it. This is awesome! I do have a question for you. What utility did you use to record yourself and go back and forth from your computer screen to yourself? I have an iMac, and I cannot figure out how you did that. I would love to be able to. Right now, I’m making two videos for my students–one where I record myself and one where I record my screen. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Screencastify works well!
Thank you SO MUCH for the Zoom meeting video! It was super helpful.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I really am a bumbler when it comes to technology and to know that my students are going to see me struggle through this makes me antsy. I miss them very much and really want to see their faces, so I am going to give it a go! Say a little prayer for me. Also, do I have to choose reoccurring for the time. I may want to do different times due to the fact that some kids may have access in the afternoon and others in the morning and I may jump around just to meet that need?
Thank yo us so much it was amazing and super helpful.
Thank you, Jamie! That was helpful to me for getting started with online video teaching.
Thanks so much for taking the time to help others during this unprecedented time in our history. It is so challenging for some of us to keep the learning going with our lack of tech skills. Your video was sooo helpful! You are a gem!
Thank you so much for sharing. One of the things I have learned from this horrible situation that we are in is that so many people are willing to share! I agree that this tutorial has saved me many hours of learning. I do have one question that has come to mind however. We set it up to be available everyday from now until we go back to school. But…… it will only play if you have something schedule with the students correct? I don’t plan to meet with all 7 sections through zoom each day… I plan to spread it out over the week so I am not dealing with every group each day. I am at the high school level and they have a lot of us using zoom. Setting it up for everyday will be a benefit to me but shouldn’t cause a problem for this kids, right? Just want to make sure before I begin-we are on Spring Break this week so I have time to figure it out.
Thanks for any help you can give.
If this is the case I would set one class say period 1 meets every Monday and Period 2 is a separate meeting that meets on Tuesday. This will create a different link for each class so that period 1 students are not dropping in on your period 2 meeting. I hope this helps.
thank you this was very helpful, I had a meeting with my kiddos today , when I was sharing my screen they were able to use a market or pencil setting and actually write over my screen sharing, Do you know how to avoid this?
Thank you for taking your time to do so much for us. How did you make this recording? Did you just use your laptop camera to record and share your screen. I understand how to share screen in Zoom, I meant how did you share your computer screen to record this session?
Thank You! That was so helpful for me.
I am looking forward to using this platform to meet with my kiddos every day.
You are such a blessing.
So very helpful. 🙂 Thanks!
I am having trouble uploading the file to Google Classroom and/or YouTube. Ugh! Do you have a video tutorial helping with that? 🙂
I have a tutorial at the end of this blogpost. https://www.notsowimpyteacher.com/2020/03/free-at-home-writing-video-lessons.html
Thank you so much! Your video was very helpful.
Do you ever put your link on your google classroom so that students/ families can just click and go?
Thank you so much for all you do to help fellow educators! I really appreciate the time and care you put into your products!!
Jamie,
Thank you so much for this video! It was amazing and very helpful!
I really appreciate it. 🙂
Thank you so much. This was very informative and made this look easy… I do have one question…
When I end the meeting are the students also ended or can they remain and chat? I do not want them in a video chat without me…
When you go to leave the meeting you are given the option to just leave or have everyone leave the meeting.
I really appreciate the step by step process for using Zoom. I am so excited to use it with my class.
Be Well,
Luz Barragan
4th Grade
Phoenix, AZ
This is great! Thank you for sharing!
Does anyone have an ideas they can share for a short activity for my kindergarten class that I can do for my next Zoom meeting? We have stuck to our morning routine and do prayers and our days of the week and months song as well as read aloud books. I am trying to come up with a short game or activity that everyone can be involved in. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Yes! I have ideas galore but need to learn the tech part! I teach kinderg. I will dress up/read a story. Use a puppet to teach. Make a sandwich using sequenced steps/transition words. Read a story and stop for kids to fig out rhyme part. Draw geom shapes as art tricks like ice cream cone for cone,etc. Measure things around my place w goldfish crackers as a standard unit. Make up a song w rhyme. Have kids sit or stand as they listen for a certain word pair, etc. Draw tricks to remember letters. Show silent e as magic e w my magic wand. Pretend we are on Sesame St and “count” numbers as Count Dracula. Do story comprehension. Draw Noun Town. Do math with stuffed animals. Introduce my cat. Cook and tie into math/science.
Question…when you read a book on Zoom, is the book backwards to them? I want to do a read aloud but can’t figure out if it looks backwards to them or now…your tutorial was so helpful!
Having same problem with pictures/books being flipped 🙁
I do directed drawings with my kinders once a week. https://firstgradeblueskies.com/ has a selection of free ones! I just tell them to bring a blank paper or whiteboard and something to write with. It takes 5-10 minutes and is a great listening/following directions activity. I model on a whiteboard I have in my teaching space. Then I let them hold up their drawings and we celebrate how unique they are even when we all followed the same directions. I tell them they can add their own details and color them once we are done.
Your tutorial filled me with confidence. I practiced with a coworker, and am super excited to meet with my kids tomorrow!
Super helpful. Thanks!
I loved your zoom training and what a great hubby helping you out!
Jamie and Scott, thank you for teaching me how to use Zoom. My district will be letting us know what we will be doing this week to roll out next week for our kiddos. I am NOT so tech savvy, so I REALLY appreciated this step by step walk through, you always save me and once again that was the case today! Thank you for helping us “NOT SO TECHY TEACHERS” out.
Thank you very much for the Zoom tutorial. It’s very helpful. One question- what kind of microphone do you use? Any suggestions on possible microphone/headset combination? I have a document camera but not sure if that would work. Thanks.
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Question Jamie . . . What program did you use to create the ZOOM video above? I like how you cut from footage of you speaking to your computer screen.
I used Ecamm . However this is a paid program and you can do the same with zoom which is free for teachers right now.
Thank you so much for this tutorial! I have one question. I am planning on just recording videos and then putting them on Google Classroom. Can I do this with Zoom or do I have to create a live meeting and record it?
You can do this with zoom. Create a meeting but don’t invite anyone and record it.
I have a class Facebook group. Can I upload it to FB?
Thank you so much very useful. Simple and straight forward. LOVED IT
Thank you so much for the zoom tutorial video. Highly appreciated!
Hi Jamie, I am having trouble finding the link to the unlimited zoom for schools? thanks.
Try this. https://zoom.us/education
Thank you!!! Now I can do this with my kiddos…I know they all miss each other and this is a good way for us to act as a class during this time.
Thank you!!! Now I can do this with my kiddos…I know they all miss each other and this is a good way for us to act as a class during this time. Technology isn’t always my friends so this really helps.
Have you used Google Meet? That’s what our district uses. A tutorial like the one for using and setting up zoom would be great! Thank you for everything you are doing. It is so helpful.
Hi, Jamie!
This was indeed helpful. I tried Zoom class meeting for the 1st time with my Kindees . It was all prepared with powerpoint and all tips you gave but it was kind of a fail. I tried to insert video files as hyperlink in my powerpoint. But they cant be viewed by the attendees/students. Not even sound was heard. I recorded it but when i played it back, i just embarrassed myself for dancing all by myself hahahaha. (hope you can give suggestions)
But overall it was a good one. Thanks a lot!
Can you use the record option on the free version?
yes
This is very, very helpful. Thank you!!!
Thank you for the helpful tutorial. Can you please tell me where the recorded lesson is stored? How do I access it and then share with others?
Thank you for this tutorial! When screen sharing, should students still be able to see your video in the corner or is the whole screen whatever you’re sharing?
Hello,
I have a new computer and I’m having issues with the audio when im on zooom with students. You can hear me fine when I speak to the kids but when I read a book and I’m pretty close the students can’t hear me. I’m using the same volume but the kids tell me they hear faraway. I hope you can help. Reading to my kids even from far is one of my favorite parts of teaching. I don’t want to show them a video. I want to read it myself.
Thanks