“New Normal” Teaches Teachers

Christian O. Escoto

Since March 2020, classes were suspended, schools were closed, students saw their classrooms for the last time and teachers worked from home. It was a drastic change that everyone did not see coming. Teaching and non-teaching personnel stayed online to finish work and students completed their remaining academic requirements. Months passed and fast forward to October of last year, at last, school reopened in the Philippines but in a different perspective, amidst the pandemic the world is facing. Inevitably, parents and students seem to be at lost in some areas, while teachers learned things that only experience can unfold.

Teaching Technology

Teachers learned a whole new world of technology. Certainly, most educators have used audio-visual equipment before for teaching. Some have taken advantage of the social networking sites for performance tasks.

However, with the new normal, teachers were enlightened to more online platforms that made work easier and teaching more fun. The laboriousness of paper works transitioned to online submission and consolidations with a few clicks.

Reaching out to students in the safety of their homes was made possible by video calls and online class. While some are expert at this, the novice teachers had to learn the use of video conference applications for the first time. They would resort to Google sheets and classrooms occasionally.

Teaching with Papers

In some schools, majority of students opted for printed modular learning modality. This meant that teachers prepared from the reproduction and sorting of modules down to the sorting of retrieved answer sheets.

Teachers mastered the art of completing clerical work with various tactics and strategies to simplify work. Some used baskets for sorting while some used boxes, and some spent hours while some in minutes.

Teaching Strength

Teachers discovered a lot about their own resilience and determination in a whole new perspective as the “new normal” welcomed school year 2020-2021. Having no face-to-face teaching affected teaching but never the quality of dedicated teachers who would painstakingly spent hours in a day for preparations and implementation of various tasks. Busy was indeed an understatement.

Holding online classes may be conflicted with interrupted internet connection or unmotivated students, but teachers made sure to get through these hurdles. They get tired, but never gave up.

Teachers stayed true to their oath of upholding highest possible standards of quality education despite the challenges and health risks of today. They adapted to the changes and it resulted to a functional and efficient “new normal” education, in the hopes that one day, they may get to stand in front of their students again in their classrooms.

The author is Teacher

--oOo-

II at Dolores National High School