Teaching Strategies during pandemic
With the outbreak of pandemic COVID-19, everything has changed and has started running with entirely new measures. There are restrictions everywhere and we have to manage things keeping those restrictions in mind. Education system too is dealing with such restrictions. However, the system has found out various ways to tackle the situation such as online virtual classes. This made the responsibilities of teachers increase and now they have to learn the teaching strategies during pandemic.
If you are a teacher and in future when your learners tell everyone about your teaching method during a pandemic, then what will you want them to explain your teaching methods during pandemic? In spite of dealing with tough situations, people from the future will judge only on how smartly you have taught your students during a pandemic? In such a case, you will definitely want them to remember you as a teacher who dealt with situations nicely, who cared for students, adjusted as per the needs of students and helped them in maintaining their calm and some sense of normalcy while everyone was falling apart.
But saying is always easier than doing! Teaching during this not-so-favourable time is a hard task and even maintaining the level of teaching is a new challenge. Teachers have to work hard so that the educational year of the students will not suffer and they get the quality education. Some teachers are still in the process to figure out which is the best strategy to follow to teach students during pandemic in virtual classroom setup.
The entire last session 2019-2020 of the school year passed through online classes and even exams were taken online and students were promoted but regarding this session, it was estimated that everything would be normal but it broke hearts yet again as board exams got cancelled and other exams took place via online medium. It is all due to the virus and its consequences of the social distancing. The situation is the same even now and teachers have to admit that they will have to teach online this year too. So do not let Corona dampen your love for teaching. Follow these teaching strategies during pandemic.
Teaching strategies during pandemic
Follow these tried and tested teaching practices during pandemic to ensure maximum student engagement:
Embracing Adaptability and Technology During Pandemic
Gone were the times of customary, in-person instruction. With social distancing estimates set up, schools needed to rethink how knowledge was conveyed and gotten. The response?
Distance approaches teaching during COVID arose as a lifeline, utilizing online learning platforms and tools to connect teachers and students virtually. Video conferencing software carried classrooms to living rooms, interactive whiteboards worked with constant collaboration, and learning the board frameworks gave unified repositories of resources and tasks.
While the initial shift to online learning introduced its arrangement of challenges, it additionally opened ways to additional opportunities. Teachers explored different avenues regarding nonconcurrent learning, allowing students to get to pre-recorded talks and materials at their own pace.
Flipped classrooms turned out to be more predominant, where students learned ideas independently beyond class time, freeing up face-to-face meetings for more profound discussions and cooperative exercises. These adaptable approaches catered to different learning styles and needs, fostering a more customized learning experience.
Past Technology: Building Connections and Fostering Wellbeing
However, technology alone couldn’t imitate the critical social and emotional components of in-person teaching practices during pandemic. Recognizing this, educators focused on areas of strength for building with their students, even amid the actual distance.
Customary registrations, virtual social occasions, and online learning networks opened doors to interaction and backing. Building connections and fostering a feeling of belonging turned out to be a higher priority than at any other time, as students wrestled with the nerves and uncertainties of the pandemic.
Furthermore, teachers turned out to be acutely cognizant of the effect of the pandemic on students’ psychological prosperity. Social-emotional learning (SEL) exercises were integrated into the online learning educational program, equipping students with tools to oversee pressure, explore feelings, and fabricate flexibility.
Mindfulness practices, appreciation exercises, and open communication channels encouraged a place of refuge for students to share their challenges and get support.
A Look Forward: Examples Learned and the Future of Teaching Practices During Pandemic
As the world gradually rises out of the pandemic, the learnings from this extraordinary period continue to shape instructive practices.
The increased utilization of technology is digging in for the long haul, offering adaptability and enriching learning experiences. However, technology is not a substitution for human interaction.
The significance of building solid connections, prioritizing prosperity, and fostering social-emotional skills remains central.
Gamification: Learning Through Playful Engagement
Customary classroom conditions and teaching practices during pandemic can some of the time feel inflexible and monotonous. Gamification injects a portion of tomfoolery and rivalry, transforming learning into an engaging and interactive experience.
These teaching practices involve incorporating game-like components, like points, identifications, lists of competitors, and challenges, into the educational program. Students acquire awards for completing assignments, participating in discussions, and demonstrating dominance of ideas.
Gamification teaching practices during pandemic can cultivate pride, spur students to push their limits and empower sound rivalry that drives them to succeed.
Microlearning: Bite-Sized Knowledge for Busy Minds
In today’s high-speed world, the capacity to focus is shorter, and information over-burden is a genuine concern. Microlearning tends to this challenge by delivering content in short, edible pieces, typically ranging from 3-10 minutes. This bite-sized approach caters to the shorter focusing ability of advanced locals and allows students to learn at their own pace and accommodation.
Microlearning modules can be conveyed through recordings, infographics, interactive tests, or short webcasts, making them effectively open on different gadgets. This strategy is especially compelling for introducing new ideas, reinforcing central issues, and providing fast boost meetings.
Project-Based Learning: Active Participation and Genuine Application
Instead of latently consuming information, project-based learning (PBL) urges students to play an active job in their learning by collaborating on true projects. This approach submerges students in meaningful assignments that expect them to apply their knowledge and skills to solve problems, lead research, and make arrangements.
PBL encourages decisive thinking, collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills, preparing students for the requests of the 21st-century work environment. Projects can be lined up with different subjects, from science and engineering to history and language expressions, making learning applicable and engaging.
Customized Learning: Catering to Individual Necessities and Styles
Each student learns in a novel manner. One-size-fits-all teaching methods frequently abandon a few students and neglect to cater to individual learning styles and paces. Customized learning plans address this by tailoring the learning experience to every student’s necessities and inclinations.
This involves using technology to survey individual qualities and shortcomings, providing admittance to differentiated learning materials, and offering choices in learning exercises and projects. Customized learning allows students to advance at their own pace, centre around areas where they need more help, and extend their understanding of topics they find engaging.
Global Collaboration: Connecting and Learning Past Lines
The pandemic featured the significance of global interconnectedness and collaboration. In the post-pandemic world, educators can use technology to connect their students with peers from around the world. This can be accomplished through online learning forums, project collaborations, virtual trade projects, and visitor speaker meetings.
Global collaboration encourages intercultural understanding, expands points of view, and allows students to learn from different viewpoints. It prepares them to become dependable global residents who can work and speak with individuals from different societies and foundations.
Practice makes a man perfect
We all heard that practice makes a man perfect and in this case, it will make you (a teacher) perfect. When you chose a teaching job, you were not asked to teach online and you didn’t learn how to teach online. Teaching online comes as a shock to many teachers and all thanks to viruses and the resulting social distancing which gave birth to the need of teaching online to students.
Everything requires practice to become perfect. Starting teaching online for the first few days is definitely not smooth and hence you need to practice. You should start practicing like there is no tomorrow. You should put your efforts thoroughly into practicing to teach online.
You can start practicing with making or recording videos online for your students in the virtual classroom. Your videos should be of good quality. For that, you need to try different lighting and sound and adjust to the perfect one.
You will require to practise to respond to students’ emails, texts, or WhatsApp on a regular basis. You will need to practise speaking to students and listening to students for hours. You should try to prepare a new curriculum amidst the crisis everyone is facing and teach your students as they need it to know.
Start practicing to use apps and technology. Also, teach your students to use apps for smooth running of the classes.
Communication is the key
In online classes, communication between students and teachers is the key to successful classes. You do not need to hesitate about anything. Infact, you should bring an elephant in the room, which means you should talk about the pandemic in the class and try to relax students. It will make students comfortable and refocus on studies.
Make sure that your students should know what is the right information about the pandemic and what they should spread. Teach them on what to believe or on what not. Give them suggestions about believing on only trusted sources when it comes to the information about the pandemic.
Your Availability can make a difference
As explained in the earlier point, communication is the key. So communicate with your students and show your availability to them. They must have a lot of queries about what is going on. So, clear those queries. Teachers are continuing taking online classes, students have a lot of thing to ask such as
- How can I cope with depression while trying to get my schoolwork done?
- What classes will be live and what won’t?
- How are exams going to work during the pandemic?
- Does our syllabus still apply?
- What’s changed in our class?
- What’s due and when?
- Is there any make-up work I can do to help boost my grade?
Making a timetable to send out a weekly email explaining about new videos, readings, and assignments for the upcoming week will be good. It will give an idea to students in advance about their upcoming assignments. It will be helpful in organizing them.
Teach them the importance of Community
A community has to do a lot with teaching online. You can understand it like when you were teaching in the classroom, your students were learning in a community of their friends. They discuss with each other and share their opinions and ideas to complete the assignment. They study in a community. But, with this sudden change, they might be thinking like in isolation. So, teach them the importance of community. You can initiate the process by forming a WhatsApp group of your students and encouraging them to exchange phones. By this way, they can sense a community.
Making a routine will work
Social distancing is not allowing students to attend their regular classes and hence they are missing on their regularity and routine. So, make sure to have consistency and regularity in your online class schedule as well.
Do not stress students
Students are already in a stress mood due to the online class system. They are not quite really enjoying the new process as they are missing out on their friends, the environment etc. So, you should be easy with them. Assign only that much work which they enjoy doing. You should also offer them help by sharing study material and clearing their doubts. Do not be strict, in fact be communicative, comforting, and engaging.
Be Optimistic
We all know time is not ideal but what the future holds is also unknown. So, it is important to be optimistic and encourage your students to be optimistic. Address the future with positivity. It will help them in their confidence and will boost the student morale.
Your main aim is to teach students and they learn from you. So, spread positivity and make your students happy. Then only they will show enthusiasm towards the online class and give their cent percent to the class.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these teaching practices during pandemic are enough to make your students engaged. The pandemic has filled in as an impetus for innovation in training, pushing limits and challenging conventional standards.
The approaches teaching during COVID have opened the way to additional opportunities, offering significant examples that can be applied to advance teaching and learning even past the pandemic.
The future of schooling promises to be a mix of custom and innovation, technology and human connection, preparing students to flourish in a steadily changing world.
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