DAY 49 – Online Teaching! Part 3 #CircuitBreaker #EmbraceDyslexia
OUR RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT TEAM SHARES THEIR ONLINE TEACHING EXPERIENCES
V NITHYA
Moving to an online platform from a classroom setting at DAS
If there is one thing that is constant in all our lives, is that there will always be change, no matter who we are or where we are. It is up to us to be flexible and adapt ourselves accordingly when the time comes.
Here at Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS), we were thrown a curveball at the beginning of Term 2 when Ministry of Education (MOE) asked to suspend all after school activities/classes for students. However, due to some forward-thinking of the DAS, we had already prepared our hearts for this and were anticipating the jump to online teaching for our students.
No matter how much we had prepared ourselves for the jump mentally, the actual act of the jump felt exactly like that! It was an actual jump into an unknown destination. In Star Wars terms, we had used our hyperdrive to make the time/ space jump and ended up in completely unknown territory. We were all so apprehensive and worried the first week we had to do online classes.
It was truthfully very messy the first week, as it was completely new and novel to the DAS teachers, their students and these students’ parents. The first week was a lot of “Please use your DAS email to sign in please”, “Please check your Wi-Fi and connection”, “Let me share my screen with you to show you what needs to be done”, “Hold on, let me help your friend having problems logging in” “Can you guys mute yourselves for a bit, it’s too loud!” etc.
We were trying to teach classes while juggling talking to confused parents who wanted to help their children, while WhatsApping students their email and giving step by step instruction to come online. The amount of multi-tasking was unbelievable.
Another issue DAS teachers faced was that prep time for classes significantly increased as we had to scour for online tools that will be the best fit for our classes. Then it was announced that Week 3 of Term 2 onwards, we would have to teach from home due to the national circuit breaker, which was yet another curveball thrown our way. By this time, we had expected for this change to happen and were not taken by surprise and instead, all of us just rose to the occasion, by packing all our work things and lugging them back home.
So thus began another round of adjustments as we settled into carving out a space for us to work and teach out of in our respective homes. By this time, we had become a lot more resilient and adaptive to the changes coming our way. When DAS made the decision to not follow the MOE May holidays, we all just continued striving and working hard for our students.
At this point, we have fallen into a rhythm and routine with our students, while they have also gotten used to the routine of online classes. We, here at DAS, have proven that we are more resilient and adaptive than we thought. In the beginning, online teaching seemed like a mountain that we could not conquer, and yet here we are, slowly but surely trekking little by little to the summit with our grit. I feel all of us have truly stood up to the occasion.
Therefore, holding on closely to what Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “The only constant in life is change,” we continue to strive forward with each other’s support in DAS.
V Nithya, Educational Therapist & Resource Developer, Sengkang Learning Centre
DAS English Language & Literacy Division
DONT FORGET TO Join us for the UNITE SPLD 2020 CONFERENCE ONLINE!
Since the start of the COVID-19 situation, DAS has had to respond to delivering our remediation classes as well as all of our training online! We decided to go ahead with our Preschool Seminar as an online webinar and since then in March we have become quite adept at doing things online. So preparations have been going well for this next online experience and we look forward to having you as a participant at UNITE SPLD.
DAS has been overwhelmed with the support of our local and international colleagues and we appreciate their continued support of our SpLD community.
We look forward to delivering you a “different” conference this year, we will not let the virus stop us from learning!
Ticket sales will be available on 27 April 2020 @ $75 each. DAS Parents get a discount – call our hotline: 6444 5700 (Office Hours)
REGISTER NOW! tinyurl.com/UNITESPLD2020
