MY JOURNEY AS A TEACHER IN PANDEMIC
“Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.”
Teachers play a prominent role in children’s life. They imitate and follow us religiously. So, it is our responsibility to set the best examples in front of them.
The teacher’s role is to create an environment which is conducive for learning, but not limited to it. The teacher’s ability to develop students’ competence, interest in subjects taught, and perception of self-efficacy are all important factors that influence students’ motivation to learn. It is rightly said
“Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together.”
– Scott Hayden
Not only do they guide students in academics or extracurricular activities, but teachers are also responsible for shaping a child’s future, making him/her a better human being. A teacher imparts knowledge, good values, tradition, modern-day challenges and ways to resolve them within students.
The scenario took an unforeseen turn when we were asked to shift the teaching altogether on a new interface. We were asked to prepare lessons and activities online and teach the children virtually. One of the biggest challenges was ‘attention of children’. Our whole team in Vidhyashram worked with great enthusiasm to accommodate with new environment of virtual classes. It was totally a new experience for children as well as parents. To my surprise parents at home fully supported the children to understand the platform.
With gradual training and support of my team at Vidhyashram I started having faith that the teacher’s role doesn’t change with teaching platform. And the teacher’s utmost goal should be encouraging support to students’ autonomy which in turn increases motivation to learn. As students are motivated to learn, they are more likely to achieve the goals set for them, either by themselves or by the teacher.
Soon our virtual classrooms were flooded with hands on activities, celebrations, competitions, synchronous and asynchronous online discussions, online self-assessments, virtual field trips, virtual labs, case studies, simulations, problem solving, concept mapping, and interactive learning objects..
Gradually, the integration of information technology in education has accelerated and online education has eventually become an integral component of school education.
