The 'New' Normal - Online Teaching (My experiences)

When online teaching was enforced upon teachers, the first to stand up and accept the challenge was Coaching Class teachers. It was really difficult to adapt to the new way of teaching. MCOA, our parent association, swung into action immediately and taught the new ways to be adapted and various tools available for online teaching. The  most experienced teachers were the most affected ones as their age was not allowing them to Shift the Paradigm. Their belief in the existing system of Classroom teaching was strong and the students in front of them are better manageable than those who hid behind their names on screen was very true. 

Starting early gave them control over the way the lectures were being conducted. Some additional time was now invested for preparing PPTs to make lectures interesting and improving typing speed for better reach to students.Kudos to each teacher who took efforts at this level for this mammoth task on hand. With dawn of August, it was almost 4 months of online platform teaching and everyone in the industry had adapted to this New Normal.

Students too had to make lot of adjustment at their end too. Their screen time had increased affecting their vision.Also learning through new online portals was new concept for them. Exams through various online toosl was not easy adaption too. The advantage the students drew home was they could listen to LIVE lectures and also look at the recorded videos uploaded through Youtube. They had to write down the notes which was shared to them through PDF format. But the question arose - How many of the students actually took benefit of this facilities?

This blog is with regards to this aspect of what student took home in these 3 months. To say about me in few words, I'm CA Vishwanathan H Iyer, teaching Book Keeping & Accountancy to Students of XII Commerce over 25 years.When I teach, I'm in a flow which is an essential element of "IKIGAI".Even when Covid-19 affected business big time, the love for teaching this subject helped me overcome the crisis at hand.

During all these tough times, I had various interactions with parents and through whattsapp group gave information about various initiatives taken during online teaching, online exams and so on. Also to reduce screen time, we had promised to provide Notes as soon as permissions for starting the office was received. Finally during Unlockdown 3, we got an opportunity to Start our office from August 1, 2020. After finalising schedule for distributing notes to students, it  was also decided to check their BK note books after 3 months.

Today  11th August, 2020 was the day when students were called upon to show their notebooks and collect the printed notes. Being a teacher, I was pretty excited as I would be interacting with students directly after such a long period of time. The initial lot of students brought note books, checking which was a formality and I had beautiful interaction with them as well.

However, things took an ugly turn after some time. The next lot of students were unimaginable. Some of the students who came later confessed to have not completed their note books initially. Accepting the fact that nothing much could be done, I asked about the level of incompleteness. It was shocking to see that some had not written anything for over  2 months. Their parents were illiterate and the students had taken advantage of this fact. Few others simply lied to their parents about nothing being given to write during the online lectures. Also, a few students who were called did not turn up at all. The reasons may be different (gone to village) but I was sitting in disbelief. How can Students be so 'Cool' being so irresponsible?

On one hand, we had left no stone unturned to deliver our best to students and on the other hand, there were these students who did not bother to even complete their notebooks for over 2 months. What can be said? What can be done? As teachers, we know, there is only a small section of students who are committed to studies but this kind of lethargic attitude disturbed me to the core.

Calling their parents and making them aware of the existing situation was the least I could do and I certainly did but the eye-opener was a shocker and put off all the energies of a enthusiastic teacher. Giving them motivation every day through videos, sharing motivational stories was what I had been doing but the real fact that only 10% were listening and remaining just logging in to mark their attendance dawned upon me today.

This blog is not to point out to the students who had not done their work, I just realised the role of teacher is not just teaching the best and leave upon students the remaining part. Our work involves keeping a check on them through innovative methods. We, teachers, are expected to create magic everytime and everywhere

As and when lockdown opens, the challenges we would face as a teacher is mammoth. Completing syllabus satisfactorily to all students is one major task but imbibing discipline amongst this lot of students will be a bigger task on hand.

I'm sure every teacher who reads this blog will start taking immediate actions and do all things necessary at their end too. My final submission is A Student is a student at all situations and what bring out the best in them is a teacher through his actions and consistent counselling.