Online Classes: The Reality

Online classes: the reality that enveloped us all in Venezuela due to the pandemic.

Last Friday, March 13, 2020, a national and even international quarantine was declared due to the COVID-19 pandemic that was already wreaking havoc in some countries.

I remember that day because at that time we were at school in a geography expo of Venezuela of my daughter who was in her first year of high school, it was about 11 in the morning when through social networks and Whatsapp groups it became news that in the national chain they had said that the quarantine began in the country and therefore suspended classes at all educational levels.

We were all dismayed we could not believe it, how to assimilate the news was the confusion of the moment and at the same time the chaos because it was almost time for preschool and elementary school dismissal, the central courtyard was full of representatives and everyone wanted to take their children. Over the microphone, the coordinator announced the suspension of classes until further notice and that the quarantine was beginning, many took out the account and said that in 40 days we would be back in May. And we did not return.

My daughters were my priority, the four of us were inside the car and they asked a thousand questions, they did not understand anything, we turned on the radio to know more and they only repeated the same thing that the quarantine was starting and we all went home; the main question was: will we not have more classes? Will, we not go back to school? It was up to us parents to answer and we did not know what to say.

Thus, in an untimely manner, classes were suspended and to this day that was the last normal day of classes at the school, more than a year has passed. The school was not prepared for that, neither were the students and neither were we parents, imagine the shock, we will never forget this moment in our memory, it will go down in history.

We started this unknown path of online classes, at least for our country Venezuela, where classes are always held in schools. In the first week, there were no activities because the directors and staff of the school began to coordinate how to give the classes, they had no plan, there was nothing prepared and I understand them. But there was no turning back, the classes would be from home, it sounded easy but the reality was different.

Here patience, skills, abilities and ideas to face this without panicking were put to the test, because it was not only the mortification of the pandemic but now who will teach the girls, us parents but mainly the mom. We know that every human being reacts differently and the Whatsapp group of the school exploded on the part of the moms, it was terrible because tolerance and patience had disappeared.

I took courage because the situation warranted it, I have two girls in different grades and there were only a few days left to finish the second term and start the third and last of that school year. First of all, my husband and I documented ourselves about the pandemic and what the quarantine meant because the girls were waiting for an explanation, then we assumed that the classes were at home and the main guide was going to be mom and dad because the teacher would be through the computer or the phone, it was no longer face-to-face, it was virtual.

There is something particular with my daughters and I am not going to generalize because I do not know if it happens to other children, is that teachers and professors for them are like their heroes and what they say is done; then I am not the teacher but their mother and as such, they saw me, the first situation that had to be faced at the beginning of classes at home, because although I teach at the university to older children, it is not at all the same to be a fourth-grade teacher and a first-year high school teacher.

So the first thing I did was to be clear that the adult was me, that just as it was not the school's fault this situation was not the girls' fault either. Patience, as I already mentioned, it required a lot of patience and empathy, yes a lot of understanding because the girls were also anxious about the virus and what the quarantine meant, a real radical change in our lives. So we started this new journey for everyone, the house became a classroom, and everywhere there were sheets, books, notebooks, materials, phones that did not stop ringing, the use of the internet, emails, pdfs, in short, unexpected classes at home.

It was not easy at the beginning, but after a year I make an evaluation of all this time and we have learned a lot, we are more organized and each one has her own space for study, we had to make some necessary investments to adapt to this new mode of classes, the school has improved communication channels and implemented a virtual classroom system, thanks to technological means such as zoom, meet google, classroom google, classes and communication with their teachers is productive, my daughters are defending themselves with all these tools by themselves, they know how to convert work into PDF, send emails, upload tasks to the virtual classroom..

It has been hard, they need to go back to school, of course, they do. This is a different way of studying and perhaps they will never forget this experience, and I will always be by their side guiding them so that they always feel and know that they can count on me.

My admiration to all the teachers for the hard and praiseworthy work they do.