5 Experts' Opinions on Morning Meeting Greeting on Zoom

Teaching over Zoom certainly has its challenges, as well as some benefits. As a classroom teacher, one of the biggest adjustments I needed to make when switching to Zoom was starting the day off on the right foot with a classroom greeting.

Before switching to virtual learning, I always met my students at the door as they entered the room and greeted them with a handshake, a hug, or a high-five (whichever they preferred). Then, once they were in the classroom and unpacking their bags, they had a few minutes to greet and chat with one another before we really got the day started.However, as you may guess, this structure didn’t work well when we switched to virtual learning over Zoom. At first, I felt lost. I didn’t really do any official greetings and just tried to get right to start with my lessons.

It was long, though, before it became clear that skipping the morning greeting wasn’t a good idea. My students weren’t as engaged in the lessons, they seemed to be distracted, and many were calling out questions to the other students about what they did that morning or over the weekend.It was clear that I had to come up with a solution, and fast. I realized that I couldn’t skip the morning meeting greeting that was such an integral part of my classroom experience. However, I’d have to make some big changes to make it work in a virtual classroom over Zoom.

After a little bit of trial and error, I landed on the right morning meeting greeting that worked for my students and had the effects that I was hoping for. My students were more engaged and seemed truly invested in each other and learning new content.However, I figured that this post would be even more effective if I wasn’t the only one sharing my morning meeting greetings on Zoom with you. I chatted with some expert teachers to see how they are using Zoom to conduct their morning meetings and the types of greetings that they have found to be effective.

Continue reading to find out what the different expert teachers I spoke with had to say. They’ll share their answers to the following questions:

What’s your favorite morning meeting greeting?
Which app do you use for distant learning?
Do you think that greetings are important?

Our experts:

And what they said:

“Good Morning Friends!”

“I love greeting my students with, “Good Morning Friends!” I’m fact, I always used “friends” when addressing my students. It sets the tone I want in my classroom all day… all year. “Boys and girls” feels unnecessary… to me. That expression never really felt right to me. “Students” also felt off… impersonal. So… “friends” stuck with me”.

Deedee is the author behind Mrs. Wills’ Kindergarten

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“My Name Is Wesley And I Am a Good Friend!”

“My favorite morning meeting greeting includes positive affirmations. In a circle, instruct children to greet their classmates with “Good morning!” and something they are good at. For example, “My name is Wesley and I am a good friend!” ”

Elyse Rycroft The founder of Pround to be Primary. She provides educators with unique, thorough curricula that are fun and engaging for students.

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“Good Morning, Mrs. Weis”

“I am a big fan of morning meetings and so are my students. What is my favorite morning meeting greeting? This is a tough question because I have so many favorite greetings but my favorite greeting is the thumbs up greeting. This greeting may sound boring or too simple, but is good for any grade level and for classes who don’t have much time built into their schedule for a morning meeting. We even did this greeting when we were virtual and hybrid. All students put a thumbs up, and I begin the greeting by greeting a student. They greet me back. Then that student greets whomever they’d like to greet. Students continue greeting one another until all students with a thumbs up are greeted. Children greet each other by name with a smile and eye contact. It sounds like, “Good Morning, Jason.” Good Morning, Mrs. Weis.” “Good Morning, Justin.” “Good Morning, Jason.” And so on until all students are greeted. The last student ends the greeting by greeting the teacher. You can do this greeting in a variety of ways too. Students can greet with a:

Wave Bow or Curtsy Air Hug (instead of a hug)
Salute Foreign Language (“Bonjour, Mrs. Weis”)
Formal Greeting- students greet each other using a Ms. or Mr. followed by their last name

For a little movement and fun, I may add in a ball (plastic ball or beach ball) or balloon because they are easy to wipe down afterward. Students can toss the ball to the person they are greeting”.

The creator of For The Love Of Teachers– Christine Weis.

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“Let Me See Your Faces And Activate Your Cameras”

“I teach adult students on a Monday morning. So the first thing a sometimes say is: “Good morning everyone! Let me see your faces and activate your cameras so I can see who looks radiant today, and who still looks tired after the weekend. ;)””

Book Widgets is an interactive educational portal for teachers to help you diversify your lessons. Lucie Renard is one of the teachers of Book Widget.

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“A”Secret” Class Wave”

As I mentioned earlier, it took me a lot of trial and error to find the right morning meeting greeting to use with my students over Zoom. My previous greeting of a hug, handshake, or high five wouldn’t work through the computer screen, so I had to get creative.Ready to find out how I structured my morning meeting greeting? Well, I decided to make it a little more fun and to give my students more say about how we greeted one another.

One day, we made a list together of different ways we could all greet each other. Some of the ideas included virtual fist bumps, a “secret” class wave, a short song we made up about the weather and the day of the week, and so on.After we compiled our list of ideas, I added them to a slide that I display at the beginning of the morning meeting. Each day, a different student is in charge of choosing the greeting and getting the meeting started.They begin by saying good morning to everyone, stating the date, and sharing what the weather outside looks like. Then, they choose which greeting to use and lead the class.

Here are my top three tips about morning meetings over Zoom:

Keep students engaged and get them up and moving at some point during the meeting.
Play some music as all students are logging in and give them some time to chat with one another while waiting on everyone else.
Each day, choose a quick activity to get students excited about the day. For example, you may choose to do a scavenger hunt, Simon Says, or a freeze dance – Simona Johnson

Simona Johnes is the founder of our educational website Science and Literacy.

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Final Thoughts

The morning meeting was always such an important part of my day as an in-person classroom teacher. And, you can’t have a successful morning meeting without a greeting between the teacher and students. I’m so glad I was able to find a way to modify my morning meeting greeting to make it work over Zoom. I’m also excited to try some of the different ideas that our experts shared here today. I hope you’re as excited as I am to implement some of these morning meeting greetings over Zoom with your students.

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Simona Johnes

Simona Johnes is the visionary being the creation of our project. Johnes spent much of her career in the classroom working with students. And, after many years in the classroom, Johnes became a principal.

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