Here is an edited version of some free writing (Approx 10 mins) I did at a Writing Retreat on 19.05.21:
Ok so here we go, I am going to talk about teaching online, and do a little reflection of how it has gone. It has been emotionally draining since March last year (2020) and so many hurdles have come my way, being new to teaching it seems I have now had more teaching practice online, than I have face to face. As a planner I always like to be prepared and give my lessons the best possible chance. In face to face lessons things would go wrong, like the projector not working or maybe the licence of the software isn’t connected, which would stress me out, but the pandemic has enabled me to become a slightly more calmer person, maybe that sounds weird because I am still me, but now I take it more within my stride, as online teaching throws different curveballs everyday. It may be my internet is not working, students don’t show up to my lessons, they are having difficulty connecting.
At the beginning of the pandemic the students had no access to the software and I thought “OMG am I going to lose my job?” how will we do this!!! But somehow, we got through it with a mixture of presentations and demos, coming up with little exercises for the students to participate in whether that was drawing on the white board, experimenting with padlet or breakout rooms – which was a nightmare and feel like we needed additional support to facilitate the breakout rooms, but the CAD/CAM group have been there for each other.
WFH has been stressful, when sharing my screen not being able to see the chat box, also having to rely on technicians to let me know if there was any questions, as I was only working from 1 screen at this point. I got a second screen in the summer, but no one really encouraged to get one, and never having worked this way before, I didn’t think it would be that useful, but it has been such a gamechanger. I also had no access to a printer, and had to find new ways of working “online” – I transferred all my work to the OneDrive, so my lesson notes I keep in OneNote and it is amazing, everything is so organised and in one place. I can display my lesson notes, see the collaborate window and share my screen with the students across the 2 screens.
On another note, I have had so many internet issues over this past 14 months, I might as well put PlusNet on speed dial. I have had to abort lessons because my internet connection is so bad, stop sharing my screen and reshare, I have been thrown out of the room numerous times, etc. Alongside I have had to make IT decisions at home from my own initiative, which I found super stressful and I’m not going to lie I have had my fair share of meltdowns, but my saving grace has BEEN GOING FOR A WALK. But we managed to get through lockdown 1.0 pretty much unscathed, the students ended up producing pretty good work, and in hindsight, we must have taught them something considering they had no access to the software for a whole term, as this year some of them have created some really nice work on the software, so that is a bonus.
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