Miss Cristina, a math teacher at Avenor College, sends a message to the entire community through the Avenor blog. She shares the experience of the first days of virtual teaching and tells us about the attitude of the students, about the emotions of the first hours online and about the benefits of teaching in this new reality.
“My dears,
Learn today, enjoy tomorrow! It is a principle that I try to instill in my students’ minds every day.
At the beginning I was worried about the news that I will only teach online for the foreseeable future, but after all when we saw each other in the virtual space I began to feel better about this situation. I realised that I am the same, my students behave the same and that the only thing that has changed is the meeting place. It is no longer a room with a number written on it, but a room in which the key is a simple push of a button. One of my goals this year was to introduce technology into teaching. I used Google Classroom (to post lessons, materials, announcements, puzzles), MyKoolio (to make lesson information more attractive) and Mangahigh. From the beginning of this school year, I realised that the Internet can be both our ally and our enemy as teachers. On the first day of online teaching, I felt like I did eight years ago, with conflicting emotions. The most important thing for me was for everyone to be present and healthy.
Now, after seven days of virtual teaching, I can tell you that the biggest advantage of this new reality is that we can continue the learning process without taking long breaks. I am also glad that we are able to save all the documents and lessons, so the students have access to them even if they cannot be present. Now students can leave questions in the chat so as not to interrupt the lesson, they can receive individual and punctual answers. I am happy to discover that my students have more time for individual study and to reflect on concepts.
I have to admit, I miss the interaction between student and teacher. In traditional teaching you can easily observe the positive and negative reactions, you can have moments of reflection in which you can observe the individual work of the student and the ease with which they can learn new concepts, but at the moment I think that online teaching is beneficial to all. It keeps us connected and helps us interact, keeps our relationships alive and authentic.
As a teacher, I am glad that the challenge of teaching online has taken me out of my comfort zone, and has urged me to look for strategies to keep my students as close to our goal as possible: Learn today, enjoy tomorrow! Together we will co-create the best future for each of us.
With love and good thoughts,
Cristina”
At Avenor College, we know that ordinary teaching cannot be simply replicated through virtual learning, but our teachers are making extra efforts to ensure quality virtual learning experiences. We invite you to access our virtual learning plan here.
