How learning tech for the virtual classroom made me a better teacher.
DECEMBER 12, 2021 / ADMIN / 0 COMMENTS / EDIT
Take-off is easier than landing.
As school closures due to Covid-19 were confirmed in early 2021, UK teachers were thrown a gauntlet: teaching is going online. Be ready. In my case, I had five days to learn how to use Microsoft Teams to maintain learning for students who were in lockdown at home while volunteering to teach key workers’ children in person at school.
This dystopian universe of remote learning challenged me and every teacher I know to take a massive leap upwards on a vertical tech-learning curve.
This came several weeks after I’d written a blog Why Virtual Classrooms Really Matter. It was borne of anxiety and hope of rescue; that tech could step in if, when, schools closed. I was off work sick, setting lessons from under a blanket on the sofa as rolling news and government briefings warned of impending lockdown. Tense times.
Old dogs, new tricks.
Phone calls with teaching friends didn’t help.
“There’s talk of teaching online — I am bricking it…”
“How am I going to get my head around this while I have my own kids at home with one iPad and a PC between us?”
“I’m a bloody English teacher, not a computer genius…”
…and other conversations that can’t be published.
Inevitably, schools closed. Magnificently, teachers mobilised, remote education was up and running, in days.
No pressure, then.
So, that week, my tech learning journey began. I experienced everything from sheer panic at the onslaught of new information on using Microsoft Teams, to growing relief that I could navigate the platform and grow my confidence. It didn’t happen by magic. Wonderful, patient computing teachers and IT technicians at school became best friends and go-to gurus overnight.
Many video tutorials and virtual training sessions later, I learned how to import data to set up classes, record lesson PowerPoints as videos with my chirpy voiceover and make the ultimate transition from being a learner of tech to becoming a teacher of tech. After all, I was about to be responsible for teaching over 150 young people how to continue their education from screens, from scratch. It needed to be done properly.
A powerful journey from ignorance to proficiency
Yes, there were issues, and remote education can’t replicate the classroom. Launching my first live lesson was as daunting as it was surreal. From scheduling correctly, to crossing my fingers that my students had the bandwidth and hardware to join, and that I’d remembered to set the controls correctly so that students were waiting in the lobby, were muted and my screen was sharing correctly. Oh, and that the chat function has a similar potential for distracting learning as a wasp has in a classroom.
Teams worked for us all, teachers and students. It wasn’t perfect, but the journey from ignorance to proficiency was incredibly powerful. Teaching children to engage with reading, improve writing and build their own tech skills via a virtual English classroom makes me very proud of myself.
It went both ways too. My versatile, open-minded 11 and 12 year old students proved that with participation and collaboration, they could derive value from my lessons. I remain in awe of their resilience and ability to learn new skills in challenging times.
Learning to learn something which feels daunting is the most important lesson a teacher can have. To empathise with students, to be a better teacher, and most importantly, to explode myths about tech being for ‘other people’ and realise that tech is accessible and empowering for everyone.
