Teachers' Day: Talking about the pandemic, teachers opine that the difficult time made them more "tech-savvy"

Learning loss, attention spans, and loss of focus are a few of the many topics that come up when we talk about the pandemic, children and education. But teachers have had a tough journey as well. Learning new ways and adapting to them quickly so that technology could be leveraged.

It wasn't easy, but teachers have also stayed resilient. Why? Because their primary goal — to teach students — did not change, it was just the medium that changed.

EdexLive reached out to a few teachers on the occasion of Teachers' Day to understand how they braved the pandemic when it comes to teaching.  

Before the pandemic, offline classes were really good and it was all going fine. But during the pandemic, the classes switched to online, in which, the strength and the attendance of the students was very low and most students were not able to attend classes because they didn't have access to devices to attend the classes. And we received various reports from parents of students misusing the internet and these devices.

After the pandemic, we are back to offline classes and it has been really effective. We could see what we were losing out on during online classes. The offline mode is very effective and students are learning properly. Classroom teaching is definitely more effective than online teaching and we can see the difference evidently.

Md Wajahat Mirza, Math teacher,  Sri Chaitanya Techno School, Hyderabad

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Before the pandemic, everyone, the teachers and students, were habituated to the offline mode of classes. In the offline classes before the pandemic, we were able to interact with the students face-to-face and also note the performance of each and every student.

After the pandemic, it has been a little difficult to manage the students as they are coming back to school again after a long time. I also feel that due to the pandemic, parents have become more conscious of their health, so students take holidays very frequently.

Managing the classes during the pandemic was hard because it was my first time understanding and getting used to technology. Many students did not have access to a mobile phone, so they could not attend online classes. In online mode, it was also not easy to know whether the students understood what was being taught as it was a new thing for students as well as teachers. The shift of classes from offline to online taught me more about technology and it was not easy in the beginning.

Personally, I feel that there was a huge shift in the mode of classes for everyone. Everything became virtual. I feel in online classes, parents could also check on the student and they could attend the classes from anywhere, whether in the village or city. Still, there were also disturbances such as technical and network issues and the interaction between students and teachers also became less.

Now, after the pandemic, the students are attending classes in classrooms and I was glad to see them after a long time.

Banita Dash, Hindi teacher, Primary Section, Sri Chaitanya Techno School, Hyderabad

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Classes before the pandemic were running very smoothly.

After the pandemic, it was a great challenge for the teachers to get the students in form as they have lost their writing skills and lost actual interest in understanding the concept of a particular subject. We had to have healthy interactions to clear the doubts about the concepts which were taught.

During the pandemic, the classes were going on but it was only one-way interaction, only the teachers were interacting. It was not at all a healthy teaching-learning process.

Online meetings were very stressful as continuous screen time really affected our eyesight.

I personally feel that we, as teachers, have a great responsibility toward shaping future generations. It is our sole responsibility to enable an effective teaching-learning environment so that the students are benefitted from the betterment of our society and our country as a whole.

Kirti Sharma, English teacher, Delhi School of Excellence, Hyderabad

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Before the pandemic schools were running smoothly, children were adapted to a system and everything was systematic.

After the pandemic, we are teaching children from the basics because it took some time for them to settle, and as a facilitator, we also don't want to burden our children, so we started from the basics and made them comfortable.

I tried to make my classes more interesting by showing them different videos regarding the subject and preparing different TLM (teaching-learning material) to make the classes more interactive. We enjoyed our sessions. Many students and their parents really showed interest and I feel that even during the pandemic period, we were successful in teaching our children.

Initially, online classes were a bit hard as it was completely new for us, but with the guidance of our management, we could conduct them successfully.

After the pandemic, it took some time for children to settle down, because they were at home for two complete academic years. But now everything is running smoothly.

D Vijaya Bharathi, Hindi teacher, Edify World School, Hyderabad
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The academic year 2020-21 and 2021-22 were trying times for teachers. The pandemic brought tremendous changes in education worldwide. Classes before the pandemic had a “chalk and talk” environment. The pandemic changed it to a “click and teach” environment.

Without much familiarity with technology, I was forced to move online for teaching and assessment. I was left scrambling to adapt to the new environment of teaching. I learned to “turn a curse into a blessing” by updating myself via different online teaching platforms and assessment practices.

After the pandemic, the classes took on a hybrid model. It was even more challenging since I had to familiarise myself with the students and them being back in classes. This increased the levels of stress and resulted in health issues. However, I consider the pandemic to be a blessing in disguise as I can now call myself tech-savvy.

S Hemamalini, English teacher, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan senior secondary school(PSBB) Chennai