YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ISSUES THAT COUNT
Classrooms may look different but we still all have a job to do
Read EMMA KAY on
Teachers and school staff have had to become technician tacticians in a multi-layered labyrinth of learning. Adapting just as much as parents have, if not more, we need to applaud their efforts. For the wavering internet connections, the interactive PowerPoints and embedded video disasters. For their determination and passion that despite all the problems, education must prevail and the show must go on.
The pandemic is a chance to rethink and reform the way we access learning.
In Woop Woop (Australian slang for middle of nowhere), children have been learning remotely since 1951. Initially using a two way radio, but now with a satellite link, they log on each day for group lessons. The 125 pupils, covering an area the size of Texas, email their completed schoolwork to teachers living hundreds of miles away, to be marked.
Creativity is their key to deal with the remoteness.
There will always be some who will be critical or complain that schools have had to adapt and change with the pandemic, just as the rest of us have. Love or loathe online learning, everyone has an opinion on it, but they rarely ask what it is like for those of us who are actually in the spotlight behind the school walls and trying to keep everything running as.
The trials and tribulations of online learning come with many frustrations and laughter.
Learning has become a ladder of lost connections and laborious checks to see if everyone is present for seniors and an impromptu house tour of cuddly toys and wide-eyed pets for primary staff.
From my own experience of being in a virtual classroom there have been many experiences which provide much needed entertainment. From pupils taking screenshots of their pets just because they thought the image of their dog would cheer us all up (it did), to pupils posting and sharing better and more descriptive online science videos to aid with the lesson.
Classrooms may look temporarily different but we still all have a job to do. Whether you are a teacher or a pupil, you are still here.
The show must go on.