Simulating in-class experience when teaching remotely

Dhaval Shah
For a few months now, virtual classrooms have become a reality and it looks like they will continue to be so for a few more months moving forward. While educational transactions have continued without too much of an interruption thanks to applications like Zoom and Google Meet, the fact of the matter is that these applications were designed primarily for business use and do not completely cater to the requirements of a school. And this is why a set of parents, who are also tech experts, got together to design an application specifically for teachers to use.

Ideas for a communicative English virtual class

Anubha Rawat
Virtual classes are here to stay, at least for sometime. While we all agree that there is nothing to beat the freedom and joy we experience in a physical classroom when we teach, we have to try and find ways to bring a little bit of that joy into our virtual classrooms as well. Here is how I tweaked some of my language activities to suit my e-classroom.

Books as a solution to teen issues

Nikhil Eyeroor
These days there is a lot of focus on the mental well-being of students. With more and more young adults falling prey to depression and social isolation, their emotional wellness is something that schools have to take care of. Reading or listening to stories can be a great way to heal. Here’s how bibliotherapy can help emotionally troubled students.

The role of a teacher amidst the pandemic

S S Verma
The pandemic has hit everybody hard. We have all had to reimagine the way we work and live and surely it has been most difficult for the teachers. Several teachers have lost their jobs, new teachers are not finding jobs and yet as a community they have not let their students down. No matter how difficult the circumstances they have worked and it is our job to support them in any way that they need.

What teachers need to know about conducting assessments online

Shantanu Rooj
Half the academic year has gone by and with little respite from COVID-19, it seems like it will be a while before schools can reopen. Under the regular academic schedule, this is assessment time. Schools would have been gearing up for half yearly exams. More and more it looks like, assessments too will have to be conducted online, at least for now. So what should teachers keep in mind while conducting online assessments? Read on.

Home/House-work

Usha Raman
Are we working from home or working for home? The boundaries are no longer clear. With COVID-19 still controlling how we live our lives, what once seemed like the ideal is now proving a difficult task. As we continue to work from home and also stay on top of our household chores, our pre-COVID lives with clear-cut boundaries seem more and more like a sweet dream.

Choice and accountability

Yasmin Jayathirtha
As schools shut down amidst the heat of the pandemic and classes moved online, students and teachers became aware of a new reality–if learning was to be achieved, students would have to become more responsible, purposeful and disciplined. This awareness led to questions about choice, freedom, responsibility and integrity. Questions about how to let go of our students’ hands so that they can walk on their own, how to trust our students, how to break down the existing structure and build something new. Have these questions crossed your mind? Have you found any answers?

Are our students ready to learn on their own?

Vibha Singh
With online classes being the norm and the control over learning titling towards the students, where earlier it was firmly in the hands of the teachers, how are teachers coping with this new reality?

The language of life skills

Gummidelli Mahender
Language is one life skill that is taught in school but there are several others that we expect children to acquire on their own as they progress in life. Why not impart these other life skills too to children in their language classrooms?

A treehouse of learning

C. Rama Devi
When you have an enthusiastic principal, a group of excited children and teachers willing to experiment what you get is a treehouse in your very own school. Here’s how this group of people in a school came together, worked and learnt a lot over building a treehouse.