Despite the fact students thrive on structure, remote learning has thrown students into an unpredictable situation, often with little of it. As a teacher, balancing the needs of your students against an ever-changing world landscape can feel almost impossible.
With disrupted routines, students found themselves struggling and failing to thrive in remote learning environments. Your techniques of teaching large groups of students may not be so effective in an online classroom.
So, what do you do?
You’re not alone in your struggles with remote learning. The Washington Post notes that children and parents alike have had significant trouble coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly from its inception here in the US. Countless students are losing fundamental skills in core subjects; all the while, they’re struggling with increased stress.
Many federal agencies are continuing to prepare for never-before-seen mental-health effects, especially as these young students have been exposed to such heavy stress levels due to the effects of the pandemic on their personal lives and families.
Students, especially middle-school-aged ones, thrive on being able to have some knowledge of what their day looks like. Rigid schedules and predictability are one of the most effective ways for students to succeed.
However, when students have no idea whether or not structured events like their standardized exams will occur, their ability to predict suffers.
This impacts you as a teacher as well. It can be challenging to motivate students if they feel as if their standardized exams may not happen as planned, despite increases in vaccines aiding students in returning to the classroom sooner rather than later.
While it can sometimes feel that all students have is time, with being home all day every day, that’s farther from the truth. Many students, especially students who may have larger families or come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, find themselves needing to take on more household duties than before.
In addition, before the COVID-19 pandemic, younger students never had to learn or use time management skills before, as teachers planned their entire day for them. Being put in a situation where they suddenly need to manage their own time can be stressful for students and cause them to underperform.
You might be experiencing something similar. Being in the classroom helps you keep the mindset that you’re at work. Being in a situation where you suddenly lose the schedule that kept you going can be tricky to manage.
Being a teacher means you’ve now discovered the magical ability to juggle more schedules than ever before. Usually, all you’d have to do is manage to show up for your course times, handle class preparations, and go home. All of your students were there, and you took attendance by scanning your eyes across the classroom.
Now, though, you might be finding that students are opting into optional virtual learning while you’re somehow expected to keep up with two different classrooms: one virtually and one in person.
But, you’re also faced with the task of enforcing mask-wearing and sanitizer usage. All the while, ensure your virtual students log in, show their face, and participate as often as possible. How are you supposed to give every student proper attention when some are right in front of you, and some are miles away, struggling with their own stress?
Finding your balance between these problems is critical now more than ever, but it isn’t impossible. Reducing stress by including your virtual students naturally and without force helps both you and your students feel significantly less pressure over an unpredictable and uncontrollable situation.
De Alba Match Center understands that while you’re doing your best to keep it together, your students will eventually notice that you’re overwhelmed. Maybe your lesson plans aren’t quite so tight, or you did a problem wrong when explaining it to the group. Stress can make you enter fight or flight mode, and that’s never a great thing in front of impressionable youngsters.
Now’s the time to utilize all tools at your disposal. You can help your students re-discover their energy and desire to succeed, and you can take a breather through our foldables, handouts, and digital instructional videos.
We have all of the tools you need to teach during an unpredictable situation and ensure your students won’t feel the stress that you’re feeling. Our tools integrate seamlessly into online learning environments like Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams, making your job even more accessible.
Reach out to us here today, and find out what products and services we have that can take a load off of you and your student’s shoulders today.
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