Online Teaching – The strategies working wonders for me!!
Distractions… Disturbance… Disruption.. Disconnect,,, these 4D’s have become synonymous with online teaching. Learning is happening, there’s no denying the fact but not at the pace or way it was happening during physical school.
But, there is an old saying, “Where there is a will, there is a way”.
This was the time when I cautiously attempted to work on self-management strategies not only for me but for my students as well. So, here I am with my share of self-management strategies that I integrated into my classroom teaching and it has worked wonders and continues to.
Being new to the system and joining during the pandemic, my connection with the students seemed challenging. But as the Holy Bible quotes,” Whosoever sows sparingly reaps sparingly and whosoever sows generously will also reap generously”. With the backing of the Holy Bible and belief in myself, I started my journey. The first thing that I worked on was …. Establishing a rapport with my students and building a culture of learning.
Greet and goodbye in HINDI
The students will have to greet the teacher in Hindi else she will not respond,
This has worked wonderfully and now whenever you enter the class, the words like – नमस्ते शिक्षिका जी, सुप्रभात अध्यापिका जी, शुब मध्याहन, etc are heard.
Deep down I feel satisfied and also motivated to walk that extra mile.
Sit with 5 in the class
What’s this 5? Well, at the very start of my write-up, I mentioned the 4D’s; to combat them I have introduced this step. The student has to sit with
- Hindi reader
- Hindi Grammar
- Notebook/ notepad
- Book Of Organizer
- Water bottle & Stationery
The result is – Students don’t leave their seats to get their things and I need to repeat less.
Adding an element of Humor
Humor keeps my classes alive, energetic, and light.
E.g. modulating my voice as per the characters in the story, having a race with students to check who will complete the task faster – me or them, have been doing wonders
Students also look forward to such things, hence the attendance factor in my class is taken care of and another reality is… I too get a breather for sometime :))
Refraining from using “Google Mata”
Since I teach Hindi, I have observed that in the past 1.5 years students have become too dependent on Google for completing their assignments and assessment. They write the answer in English and put it in the translator and get the result. They copy the same thinking about how smartly they have done the work without any effort.
I have now started saying “Google Mata Tumhe Kuch Nahin Aata”. Instead, I have started asking them to refer to the Hindi – Eng / Eng – Hindi dictionary to look for the meanings. I am also working on making them realize that there is no knowledge retention without effort,”
Finally, I insist that students should always “Aim for Perfection, but don’t forget to take the road of Consistent efforts”.
