When we hear the word teacher, what comes to our mind is a school and the practice of teaching etc. However, now everything around has been changing, there has been a lot of change in 21st-century teaching-learning process. The global pandemic has changed the scenario at once. Now, teachers no more go to the schools where students come and teaching take place. Teachers no more get up and get ready for the schools, on the other side, children also don’t get ready for attending a class traditionally.
Pandemic has made us capable of having virtual classroom and shaped us with all the possibilities needed. It has been more than a year we have started virtual teaching and has comfortably settled with it. With this we can say that we are now capable of conducting virtual classrooms and can ace the virtual teaching skills. Nevertheless, we all know that this shift from physical classroom that we attended yesterday to the virtual classroom that we are attending today is not easy. In fact there can be lots of issues that you can face at the initial.
Following are few tips for teachers to ace their virtual teaching –
1. Settle children: It is very important to settle children into the online mode of learning. This is something new if you are dealing with young learners especially. So it is very important to comfort them and make them aware of the use of technology.
2. Set ground rules: It is very important to set ground rules so that learners have the same respect about the teacher and the learning, children don’t take advantage of the virtual learning.
3. Understand learner’s access: All children are different and have different living standard. All children might not have tablet or laptop or system. You can build portal or activities or do sessions that don’t need expensive devices to connect or go through. You can keep your sessions that are friendly to smartphones.
4. Teaching skills: Keep your virtual teaching same as you would do for the physical classroom. Plan lessons with various activities, worksheets, games, etc. so that it makes the lesson more interesting for the learners. Make the online sessions engaging and interactive for learners. Set goals for the lessons. Frequent feedbacks, tests, comments on assignments make the lesson more communicative. Make online learning as creative and innovative as you can.
5. Build connections and encourage connection: Even if it is online teaching – learning process, it is very important to build connection with students and their parents. Teacher should help children bond with each other. And build connection with their peers.
6. Assessment: It is very important to have timely assessment sheets with the learners to know the effectiveness of online teaching.
7. Have ‘Me time’ and reflect yourself: It is very important to reflect your skills, ideas, innovation and have time to understand yourself. Take efforts to make the lessons more interesting for the learners and improvise on the teaching aids every time.
Virtual teaching career is now taking robust start and there is no end to it. There are more innovative ways to come into practice and more to experience in virtual classrooms. So as teachers this is our high time to upgrade yourself to the technology, thus creating a very innovative virtual classroom.
Now-a-days due to the situation, there are many professional courses available for the same. With a few upgradations in our skills we can surely be the best virtual teachers with the best skills needed. Online learning is our future and all we need is to gear up to be a 21st-century skilled teacher.
Written By : Rituja Badade
