#Free zoom backgrounds for teachers professional#
#Free zoom backgrounds for teachers tv#

#Free zoom backgrounds for teachers professional#

“Some educators might find this approach to be frivolous and less professional - but it was a huge, necessary, morale booster for me and for my students.

#Free zoom backgrounds for teachers tv#

Russell, on the other hand, pairs backgrounds from TV shows and movies with costumes to bring “some humor and levity” into his lectures.

Seeing their teacher’s face and the faces of their classmates is the comfort that they need,” Clowers-Gwynne told Digital Trends.ĭr. “We need to keep in mind that for some students, the teacher’s live, online distance learning hours may be the only thing right now that they have to look forward to. For a lesson on habitats, for instance, she would travel between pictures of a desert, snowscapes, and more. In addition to projecting charts and diagrams to compensate for the absence of a whiteboard, she alters her Zoom backgrounds to match the subject she’s teaching. With practically no physical contact for weeks, people have turned to Zoom backgrounds to express themselves and their interests.Ĭlowers-Gwynne, a science teacher for the Orange County Public School System in central Florida, employs Zoom to pre-record her video lessons and later plays for our students over BigBlueButton, the school’s web-conferencing tool of choice.

The feature has grown into a cultural phenomenon. Zoom, the video-conferencing platform that has been dominating headlines, allows users to virtually set pretty much any image as their backgrounds during calls without a green screen. The first action teachers can take to keep students’ attention is clear, consistent, and caring communication,” John Watson, founder of the Evergreen Education Group, the parent organization of The Digital Learning Collaborative, told Digital Trends. I would guess that more students and teachers are struggling with remote learning because they are new to it and because they did not choose it. “Many teachers are finding that engaging all students and keeping them engaged during remote learning is hard. In an Angus Reid Institute study, more than half of kids aged 10 to 17 surveyed said they were “unmotivated” and didn’t like the learning arrangements brought on by distance learning. While many students are still adapting to the pedagogy of telecommunication tools, others have simply found it challenging to connect with everyone as they would in a traditional classroom. Daniel Russell, an acoustics professor at the Pennsylvania State University, appeared in front of his 49 graduate students over Zoom in a Batman costume with a picture of a Batcave as the background. One moment, students watched her shiver and rub her hands in warm clothes, and in the next, she complained about the heat wearing a cap in a desert. Making lessons fun with Zoom backgroundsįor Clowers’ session on “living things and habitats,” she switched between multiple backdrops of different environments such as the ocean and forests.

Over the last few weeks, however, some teachers have figured out a better way to educate remotely: Zoom backgrounds. Instead, she was taking advantage of Zoom’s virtual backgrounds to record more entertaining and engaging classes - coupled with a few props and drama.Īs the coronavirus pushes schools and universities toward remote learning, teachers have struggled to keep their students focused from their homes. Clowers wasn’t inviting her class on a real field trip in the middle of a pandemic. Alright, guys, get ready and meet me there,” science educator Lainie Clowers-Gwynne told her middle school students while donning a lab coat in front of a mural of the inside of the Millennium Falcon. You might also want to put some snacks in there, gloves, and a heavy coat. Grab your book bag, get your passport, ear muffs, a hat, swimming goggles, sunglasses, some sunblock.