What, next?

Hello Readers!

As I have stated before, I am also using this blog to document my journey to becoming an English/ESL teacher. With that being said, this is me documenting what has happened so far and my plans for what comes next!


 As I'm sure you all know, the COVID19 pandemic has affected the lives of many worldwide. Personally, I had to move back off of campus during what would have been my spring break, and later resume all of my classes online. In my state, all schools were closed in-definitively around the end of March as well, and I'm sure other states experienced similar circumstances. Thankfully, I was one of the few groups of students that work at my University that were able to keep their job. I consider myself very lucky to be working from home, but because of all of this, I was really wondering how the transition must have been for teachers, and even if it would change the look of teaching forever! Me, being a student ,  could not experience firsthand what teachers were going through, but I could tell that my professors were just as confused as I was, especially if they had never had any experience teaching an online course before- and they were all very upfront about that, which made me feel better, too. Within my community, I could see the efforts made by teachers to stay connected to their students: driving through their neighborhoods, hosting check-ins via Zoom, sending goodies to their houses, and more. It was all very inspiring to see how passionate teachers can be, and how valued they are in their student's lives. 




A YouTube Video showing the efforts of one Teacher to stay connected with her students during the COVID pandemic


 I digress.

🍎Updates🍎


 As far as my journey, I am registered to take my FIRST EVER teaching course (TLED301) this upcoming fall! It is a teaching foundations class, and I am very excited. This school year will still be a big change, though. My institution will be offering more online courses, and also hybrid courses, where students may be able to meet face-to-face occasionally, and do online work as well. I am taking two online classes and two in-person classes. I have been signed up for this course since before I had to move out of my residence hall, and I had been waiting to see what would happen. TLED301 also includes a field experience, meaning, I would get to visit and observe classroom instruction! I did not think this would be possible because of health reasons regarding social distancing procedures and whatnot. However, my institution has recently announced that classes with field experiences will be conducted with proper safety measures and PPE (personal protective equipment). I am glad I still have this opportunity, but also very curious as I feel that so many things have changed, so much so that I wonder what "normal" will mean in the upcoming semester and even future school years. 

💭Future Impacts?


On the other side of things, I'm sure this will impact students as well. This is just my train of  thought, but, I know that students were forced to learn online, many for the first time ever. This, no doubt was a learning curve and may have affected their grades. Perhaps, depending on the location, schools may  not have even finished the semester and had curriculum that was cut short. Now, (bear with me here), wouldn't this affect students as they move up grade levels? It may be necessary that teachers will have to adjust to make sure students are leaning what they need to. In fact, This may even cause other unforeseen problems for students like increased headaches due to more screen-time, or trouble retaining information. 

Of course, there is no way to tell right now, but as we are all collectively apart of this transition, and I get the opportunity to learn and witness how this affects my future profession, I hope I can look back on this and be able to answer some questions- as this surely is a time I won't forget! Thanks for reading.

From my Desktop,
Kanya
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

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