In addition to regularly using physical and tactile elements to engage students’ senses, teachers at The Siena School use many visual tools:

*Color-coding is essential to aid learning. Color-code in a graphic organizer, math/writing assignment or calendar using highlighters or different font colors/styles for emphasis. Collecting highlights under Chrome’s Read & Write helps students transfer text into writing assignments.

*Mindomo allows for both teacher- and student-made mind maps to visualize learning and brainstorm ideas.

*Sketch Notes enable students to visualize their ideas and notetaking, which they could then record and explain with a screencast.

*Screen sharing lets students see visuals relevant to lessons. When providing auditory instructions, supplement with visual guidance, for example through a Google Doc or the chat feature. Write the day’s agenda and objective and screen-share it; to make the class’s progress feel more tangible, check off items as they’re completed. Share the screen while taking notes or annotating, akin to using screen projection in the classroom. Zoom’s advanced screen-sharing allows the use of a USB document camera, mirroring of mobile/tablet device’s screen, playing music, and sharing videos or sound.

*Google Drive is user-friendly and collaborative. Teachers share a document, allow group editing privileges, and then students see themselves create content. Groups of students work on different sections of the document (possibly in different colors).

*With classes running quickly, setting up a visual reminder system such as a green cup for 10 minutes left, a yellow cup gives for 5 minutes, and a red cup means 1 minute. These prompts are especially helpful for quiet work completion.

Good teachers are, among other things, good adapters and always willing to learn new techniques. Utilizing the senses as instructional strategies help teachers recreate the classroom he classroom experience as much as possible.