Challenges During Flexible Learning

October 12, 2021

Hello beautiful and gorgeous readers!

I was not active here a few months ago, since I was very busy with paper works in school. On top of that, the academic year 2021-2022 has started. The class formally starts last September 13, 2021.

Last school year, the school implemented flexible learning, where the students can choose either modular or online classes. In the modular class, the students will secure their modules from their adviser and pass them every week or two weeks that depends on the subject teacher. During the online classes, the teacher will virtually discuss the lessons and give the discussed topics in a form of a PowerPoint Presentation and PDF. However, if the teacher will give activities to students, they will answer the activities and send them via Gmail or messenger. The students can even take a photo of their answers and send it to the teacher online. If the students cannot access the internet, they can hand in their outputs to the teacher personally abiding by the proper health protocols.

Thus, our school is very accommodating to cater to students' needs. On the teacher's part, it is hard for us to create some modules for the students who have chosen the modular class and at the same time conduct a virtual meeting with those students who have chosen an online class. The teacher needs effective time management to create the modules and at the same time to meet the students virtually.

I have listed here some challenges I've encountered last school year.

1. The teachers were shocked with the new normal learning on the verge of the pandemic. Most of the teachers including me are not equipped with the technology. We only knew few things about computer applications. We need to train ourselves first about zoom meetings, google classrooms, and other computer aid applications that can boost teaching using the virtual platforms. In short, the school and the teacher are not ready to adapt to the new-normal learning. That is why the school decided to conduct a seminar to equip ourselves with these virtual platforms. Although the school is only 50% ready is forced to adapt flexible learning wherein the students can choose between modular instruction and online classes.

2. The LGU will not allow the students to go out, but if they will, there must be limited students inside the campus, ten persons at most. The challenge here is that we had more than 500 students, and the students who will pass and retrieve their modules shall take turns to go to school. It will take two days to complete the process, and it will occupy so much of the teacher's time.

3. When the teacher conducts an online class, there is always an internet connection on the students' part since they cannot afford enough amount of internet data. Sometimes the teacher will only have less than half of the students who can attend the virtual meeting. In the middle of the period, many students decided to shift from online to modular. Thus, another module to print, and another adjustment is to make on the part of the teacher.

4. When the students pass their outputs, especially the tardy ones, they are only allowed to leave the hard copies in the guardhouse, and there were times that they will forget to write their names, and it will take so much time for the teacher to trace the owner of the output. The challenge here is that the teacher had more than 30 students per section, and the teachers handled at most 20 sections both day and night classes. By the way, our school is the only school in our town that accepts night classes to cater to the working students, and these students were enrolled either in modular or online classes. The working students can either attend day and night classes depending on the availability of their schedule.

5. Checking the students' output is also a challenge since we need to see our Gmail, messenger, and even the Google classroom to make the students very convenient in passing their outputs. One of the challenges here is that when the students take a picture of their answers, the teachers need to copy the picture so that they can zoom in and zoom out while checking. It will take so much time to check students' output especially if the picture is not well taken. Even if the students are always reminded to take photos of their answers clearly, they will repeat the same mistakes.

6. During the periodic exam, we used Google forms. The school did not apply the paid account subscription of the Google classroom where the teacher could monitor the students' movement and students' screen whenever they will take the exam since the school cannot afford it. The challenge here is that the teacher cannot monitor the students when they take the exam. The teachers will be doubtful whether the students' scores are reliable or not. The students could cheat anytime if they want and can utilize many alibis like there is a disruption of connection. Thus, they cannot send the response on time. They cannot take the exam at the scheduled time because there is no internet connection in the area. There is an electric disruption in their place, but the truth is they are not yet ready to take the exam.

These are some of the challenges I've encountered last school year. Right now, I learned from those experiences I had last year. So, I considered some changes with my ways of teaching to cope with the new-normal mode of learning that could be convenient to students and teachers.

These are the corrections I've made to avoid some of the lapses I had last year.

1. The experiences I had last year have given me many information and realizations, especially in terms of computer applications like Zoom and Google meet. I preferred to use Google meet during the virtual meeting since when I used the Zoom app, the students will complain about their data consumption. I've realized that Google meet is convenient for the students and teachers.

2. During the enrollment process, the students are discouraged to choose modular classes, therefore, the school only offers online classes but still, there are online modules provided where the teachers give activities to students to be answered for a week or two. The students are discouraged to go to school to avoid the crowd so all the outputs must be sent online. Even so, our first-year enrollment now has doubled as to last year's. We have almost 600 students in total now.

3. The teacher will only conduct an online class 2 times a week. On my end, I will not give activities to students since I cannot assure that the answers to the activities are their own. What I did is I sent them the modules enclosed are the lessons for the entire week and I will ask them to study in advance because I will conduct a virtual oral recitation during the scheduled online class. I will prepare several questions to be answered during the virtual meeting. In this case, I can say that their answers are solely theirs not coming from the internet and from someone who can help them just when they will answer their activities at home during modular class. Maybe you have questions, how can I accommodate students to answer in just an hour? For that, I used another strategy, those students who cannot answer during the oral recitation shall be given 3-4 questions and these questions should be answered for 20 minutes only and they will take a video of themselves with their eyes closed and they will answer the 3 or 4 questions in not more than 5 minutes after that they will send their video to me.

4. The mode of passing with their outputs is via Google classroom alone so that I will not waste my time looking at their outputs in my messenger and my Gmail. It is a bit convenient for the students and me so that they will only focus on the google classroom as well.

5. In taking the quizzes and periodic exams, I will see to it that I will give them the very least time possible to answer so that they do not have time to look from their hand-outs. I will always remind them that we should have mutual trust when they will say that there is a loss of connection or any disruption I will believe them and my patience is long and if they lied they are not cheating with me but they are cheating themselves. What I need from them is just to simply be honest. I will also remind them always that failure to pass their response at the time limit, their scores shall be deducted just to prevent them from cheating but the truth is I will give them extra time from the time limit so that they will not be deducted.

A month passed, and we are now conducting the prelim exam this week, so far the process is very smooth, unlike last year. Eventually, the teachers have adapted this new normal mode of learning and finally embraced it with acceptance.

Final Thoughts

Teaching is not easy. You may teach a group of students this way and it is effective but you could also teach students another way so that they can effectively understand the lessons. In short, there should be ample strategies and techniques that shall be employed in the teaching process because in every classroom there are differentiated learners. The teachers should be always ready to take the challenge whether in the normal setting or in the new normal mode.

In this pandemic, both teachers, students, and parents experienced so much difficulty. But little by little, in learning from the experiences there could be a change that is better from what is before. The bottom line here is that in this new normal setting, teachers should extend their patience, and students should be honest at all times and approach their teacher politely and courteously if there is difficulty with the subjects so that the teachers could take prompt action. They should not go to social media and write everything there as a one-sided story. There should be mutual trust between the teachers and the learners. As to the parents, the pandemic has taught them somehow the side of the teacher teaching a great number of students. Parents will realize how hard it is to teach their child and how did teachers teach so many students from different backgrounds and families. They will eventually understand that it is a must to discipline their children just how the old curriculum students were disciplined before.

Thank you for reading my modest article my friends.

Keep safe always and God bless!

Lead Image Source from: Unsplash

Love lots,

Soledad💖💖💖