Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
Nope, we don’t celebrate it in Indonesia, however, I see this as a good opportunity to support teachers who are working remotely and show them that we are in this together. I invited some of my fellow educators teaching in different countries to share their experience in teaching online amid this pandemic situation. I hope reading their experiences will motivate you as much as it does to me. Enjoy!
Nina Septina, Indonesia
1. Where do you teach and in what country?
I teach at EF English First in Semarang, Indonesia.
2. What level/s do you teach?
Young learners to adult learners.
3. What app are you using to teach online?
Tencent Classroom (TalkCloud).
4. In your opinion, how is online teaching different than offline/face-to-face teaching?
The energy we spend in virtual and real classroom.
5. What do you like about teaching online? *
I like getting to know the students better by meeting them in their environment.
6. Can you share the best activity you’ve done when you teach online?
Using the Tencent online teaching platform, what I like best is when we give students a question/quiz, we can ask students to participate by giving each of them access to write/draw on a personal mini whiteboard. All students are active at the same time. Then when I take back the access to the whiteboard, students won’t be able to write/draw anymore and that’s the time to reveal each individual students’ response to the class and discuss further with them orally. Each student is unique, they often respond in an interestingly unexpected way. This makes the class atmosphere more fun and lively.
7. If things are back to normal, would you like to continue teaching online? Why?
Yes, but not all online, combining the offline and online teaching once in a while would be nice.
8. What advice would you give to teachers doing remote learning amid this pandemic situation?
Keep learning, exploring, and experimenting with new things! Make mistakes and make more new mistakes!
Andy Boon, Japan
1. Where do you teach and in what country?
I teach at Tokyo Gakuen university in Japan.
2. What app are you using to teach online?
I’m using Teams, Zoom, and Line.
3. In your opinion, how is online teaching different than offline/face-to-face teaching?
It’s more stressful and more multitasking. We need to prepare and students need data plan and equipment.
4. What do you like about teaching online?
No commute and students do homework more.
5. Can you share the best activity you’ve done when you teach online?
I’m only just started so it’s hard to say.
6. If things are back to normal, would you like to continue teaching online? Why?
Yes, I’d prefer to continue teaching online so I could move to Indonesia and live with my wife.
7. What advice would you give to teachers doing remote learning amid this pandemic situation?
Be prepared and be calm.
Vicky Loras, Switzerland
1. Where do you teach and in what country?
I teach at a private school in Switzerland, teaching all levels and all ages.
3. What app are you using to teach online?
I’m using Big Blue Button, Teams, and Skype.
4. In your opinion, how is online teaching different than offline/face-to-face teaching?
It is more demanding, as we need to be alert especially with larger classes – emotions are not shown, lack of understanding may happen, and we might be receiving a lot more information in the form of messages than we would offline.
5. What do you like about teaching online?
I love that I don’t have to commute, and that the results are the same as face-to-face.
6. Can you share the best activity you’ve done when you teach online?
I have all of them in camera and surprise them with questions – they love it because they don’t know who’s next!
7. If things are back to normal, would you like to continue teaching online? Why?
Yes I would, it’s very practical. I also have more time for other things.
8. What advice would you give to teachers doing remote learning amid this pandemic situation?
Don’t panic, we are all in this together and you’re doing your best – and the students know it!
Anna Loseva, Vietnam
1. Where do you teach and in what country?I teach in a university program in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
2. What level/s do you teach?
It’s difficult to use the terminology of “levels” in my students’ case. Let’s just say students need to achieve at least IELTS 6.0 to enroll in the courses of the program.
3. What app are you using to teach online?
My school has been using Zoom for online classes.
4. In your opinion, how is online teaching different than offline/face-to-face teaching?
Online teaching is different from face-to-face in too many ways! The interaction patterns that are at play, the time that each activity takes, the time needed to get response from students, to name just a few.
5. What do you like about teaching online?
I like the chance I have to give my student instantaneous feedback – and share it with everyone. In certain ways also I feel that students can be closer to each other
especially with some class members that they would normally never get a chance to talk to. Well, and on a selfish level, I like the fact that I can make myself some tea and have a fruit snack during class while still working! =)
6. Can you share the best activity you’ve done when you teach online?
I was happy how my students performed working on critically analysing web sources
in groups in their shared documents – and I could leave my comments to their work IN
the moment.
7. If things are back to normal, would you like to continue teaching online? Why?
Here in Vietnam at the moment, things ARE sort of back to normal and kids are back to school. My university decided to proceed with blended learning and I approve of that choice and look forward to it! I would like to have a chance to teach some courses/classes online in the future as I think sometimes it can be more efficient!
8. What advice would you give to teachers doing remote learning amid this pandemic situation?
Take it easy and lower expectations – for yourself and for your students!
My life as a teacher 