TEACHING IN THE NEW NORMAL
EDRALIN M. RIVERA
Students and teachers had entered a new environment, the “New Normal”. It is a way of teaching and learning through distance learning. When the Covid-19 outbreak had started, no one was certain on how to continue the teachinglearning process. The pandemic has greatly affected the overall education institutions. However, DepEd never stopped finding ways just to continue learning while we were still in the state of pandemic. They proved to people that pandemic is not a hindrance in learning. EXPERIENCE. It is the word that education in the new normal is best described. As my personal experience of teaching in the new normal, it was truly challenging. Changes did not become easy. I had to prepare myself with the knowledge, skills and mindset that would be necessary in the new normal. I asked myself how to educate students without face-to-face interaction. I had the feeling of “the impossible became possible”. A new learning environment was set up. Traditional face-to-face learning became home-based learning. Different learning modalities were introduced. Students and parents together with their teachers had to work together to create learning experience. Teachers were trained to be knowledgeable and skilled in different learning modalities. In the end, it was a challenging but worthy experience. Teaching in the new normal has served as a motivation for me to explore, discover and learn new things. Setting your mind towards adapting to the new normal would lead you to a positive impact. Thinking it would be hard to adapt will just lead you to confusion. Everyone in the whole world faced challenges due to pandemic. The challenges and experience we encountered helped us grow stronger. With the help of the people that surround us in the teaching field, teachers were given the chance to learn, explore and share their skills. We took and overcame the challenge. Teaching in the new normal was not hard. Instead, we should always love and embrace it.
-oOoThe author is Secondary School Teacher III at Angeles City National High School