Reem Al-Qallaf wrote :How has this pandemic affected how we teach?

How has this pandemic affected how we teach?

The sudden and shutdown of our countries educational establishments due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to face the most rapid change of perhaps any profession in history. Within a moment’s notice, teachers were asked to leave their classrooms indefinitely and, in many cases, to reinvent a learning environment that is 100 percent virtual.
As challenging as that reality was, it represents possibly the best-case scenario in what’s proven to be an incredibly inequitable landscape during the pandemic. Whereas some school districts are conducting online learning in what’s been described as a fairly seamless transition, many others are struggling simply to connect with students and families to ensure that they have the capabilities to be able to connect online. Just as the education systems responses during the pandemic have varied widely, so too have teachers’.

The change to teach remotely/virtually has changed me as a teacher. I can honestly say that the change has been for the better. This change has encouraged me to expand my technical know-how to be able to provide my students with the best educational experience as possible considering this is also new to them as well. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to make this transition as simple as possible so that my students dont feel overwhelmed with this change yet embrace the new reality we are currently living in. As for staying in contact with my colleagues, I feel we were already connected virtually whether though social media platforms such as whatsapp or via email. The initial concern was how the students would adapt to this change, and whether we had the infrastructure in place to conduct online learning sessions. Although we had very minimal time to adjust to this change, I feel the ministry of education provided us with the necessary platform to continue to educate.

By :Reem Al-Qallaf