Staying Connected — Teacher Mundeep Bhamra on Time Management While Teaching Online
May 7, 2020
Teachers and staff across the District have suddenly had to re-think how we deliver, not only education to our students, but also how we interact with them, and one another. We need to stay connected, even though that may look differently than it used to. During these unprecedented times, our teachers and staff have been working hard to maintain the safety and supporting the health and well-being of our students. They have been delivering the Continuity of Learning Plan, while trying to follow provincial physical distancing guidelines.
So, what does that look like for our teachers and staff? As part of this new Staying Connected series, just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week, we got in touch with some educators, so they could share their experiences.
Mundeep Bhamra
Grade/subjects: 8
H.D. Stafford Middle School
Our team began preparing for third term at the end of the last school year. We like to connect our subject areas so students can see cross curricular connections as much as possible. Though our day to day lessons are not planned that far in advance, our unit plans and ideas certainly are.
We like to save our most personalized assignments for the end of the year as the kids know us better and are more likely to share and dig a little deeper, poetry for example. However, in light of the remote education happening right now, units like poetry can’t be taught with the same effectiveness. We can still teach the figurative language of it, but the passion and personal nature of poetry gets lost over emails, chat messages and conference calls that keep cutting out. So yes, we have had to change a lot of what we had planned for our third term, making it more differentiated and interest based with room for extending learning independently.
Our role as teachers still remains “brain coach” or facilitator of learning, but we are more focused on student wellness: asking students to journal, keep gratitude journals and take time for mindful moments during the day. The workload has slowed down quite a bit to give students a chance to find a schedule that works for them, allowing them to balance the tech available to them if they have to share with siblings or help to look after younger children in the home while their parents work from home.
Students, like us, are balancing life and school at the same time. I can tell you first-hand, teaching while simultaneously co-parenting three toddlers is so much more challenging than teaching in the classroom. I imagine many of our students are facing similar challenges in their own homes. In essence, I think the District would like us to be supportive of our students needs in general, not just their learning needs during this time.
In relation to preparing for the rest of the semester, well right now we are just going week by week, figuring out how much our students can handle, and how much we can manage as well. Overcoming tech challenges, making sure every student has access to the lessons and can be a part of our learning environment is the phase we are currently at. Once we hit our stride, and I am sure it will happen in the next week or so, I think the semester will look like kids researching, building, creating things that are directed by their passions and talents. And we will help facilitate the process as best we can, supporting them with readings and websites, and lessons to learn new skills they need to accomplish what they have set out to do.
I think it is going to foster a great environment of self-motivated and relevant learning, where we can “sneak” in some traditional lessons and have them graduate the year with a full skill set they need for next year – even if the delivery format is a little different.
Parents have generally been really supportive and appreciative of our slow-paced start. They have been given time to wrap their heads around timetabling and the tech they need to help their kids with. Most of the parents I spoke to were sad their kids were missing out on their school year, but ultimately very touched by the personal contact teachers were making.
Being able to connect with parents, and my students, in the first week after Spring Break was priceless. I miss the kids so much and I know they miss school too.
We are all using Office 365 and are able to communicate as much as we need to through Teams. I have set up a class chat where they can “hang out,” and connect on a lunch break type level, and a Team where it is more like a classroom where discussion is more academically based.
The main difference is the hours I am keeping. If students are messaging me in the evenings, I am responding as much as I can, as I know they may not be able to be online during the traditional school day – I certainly can’t be in front of my computer from 8-4 with my three toddlers running around, so flexibility has been key. The students, parents, and my colleagues have all been very understanding of this, and all around I think we are all practicing a lot of grace for one another and encouraging self-compassion as well.