Being a teacher during the pandemic: a personal account.
Íris Seixas (English teacher at ESEQ)
It’s the 19th of May and as I’m driving to school I’m hit by an uncharacteristic bout of anxiety. At first what I’m feeling doesn’t make any sense to me, after all I was a student at ESEQ and in recent years I have had the joy of teaching at this school. As I sit in my car and wait for the gates to open, I notice the employee at the gate who he is wearing a mask. Suddenly, everything falls into place.
It’s the second day of class after three months of lockdown. Everything has changed in this period of time due to Covid-19. Everyone had to stay at home and only went out for the bare essentials. No gatherings or outings were allowed. ESEQ, like all the schools in the country had been closed. Both teachers and students were required to very quickly adapt to e-learning. No more classrooms filled with up to thirty students. All classes would take place from home. Tasks would be allocated, including articles/texts to read, grammar worksheets, listening exercises, videos to watch and comment on, just to name a few. All these would be corrected, commented on and returned to the students via various tools, including Zoom and Google Classroom. Initially, all of this proved to be a major challenge. Both teachers and students were required to almost instantly adapt to this new form of teaching and learning. This took resilience and flexibility. It was demanded that teachers be able to captivate their students and keep them motivated via e-learning. This was not always an easy task, even though teachers in the last few years have been using different types of tools in their classrooms. However, solely using e-learning was a novelty and it required quick adapting and transfiguration. Students were expected to be more autonomous and in charge of what and how they learnt.
Now that the school year has come to an end, I believe it’s time for teachers, students and the teaching community, in general, to draw conclusions from this entire process. I think there are both advantages and disadvantages to be considered. In my opinion, not everything concerning e-learning should be forgotten once the new school year begins. I believe that as a teacher e-learning enriched my teaching experience. Do I prefer being inside a classroom, being able to be face-to-face with my students, undoubtedly. However, I want to be able to take full advantage of tools, such as Zoom and Google Classroom in the future if I choose to. In my opinion, with these students became more autonomous and independent concerning their learning. However, this does not mean that some students were not left behind, some unfortunately were, either for not having technological equipment, internet access or the digital skills required.
It is important that we walk away from this entire process with important lessons, given that it is not clear if in the near future we will once again be in lockdown and be forced to rely on e-learning. Come what may, I believe that both the teachers and the students at ESEQ know how to adapt and transform hardship into an enriching learning experience, as we have proved ourselves capable of.
Hats off to us all, teachers and students alike.
