Hi!
Welcome back! Today I would like to share some thoughts about Speak:art Webinar "Teaching Young Learners Online led by Mrs. Ada Chmielewska and Mrs. Natalia Nesteruk in May 2020.
Mrs. Ada Chmielewska and Mrs. Natalia Nesteruk run a language school called Speak:art where they hire almost 30 teachers. They support non-public schools in Warsaw.
In their presentation there was a pyramid of priorities of online teaching in coronavirus time and the most important part was about teacher's relationships with students and parents and relations between students. Then there was community support and supporting resilience and the smallest part was actually effective online teaching. It was eye-opening to me that during this tough pandemic time and online teaching it is essential to keep these relationships in good condition.
They promote interactive live lessons for the remote education as well. The speaker has shown some advantages of online lessons according to the parents and teachers. Among them I was able to see not only kids' development (computer skills etc.) but also change of parents' point of view when it comes to teachers' job. Moreover there is no commute time which makes teaching and learning more convenient.
The presenters said that the perfect lesson is all about keeping the balance. As teachers we have to focus on the personal interactions in front of the camera (using realia, props), choosing good online materials to share via screen sharing mode and hands-on activities for students. Mrs. Chmielewska and Mrs. Nesteruk were showing some examples of online lessons in their groups. They used realia to grab students' attention. Their lessons were involving and full of authentic materials, pictures. Slideshows and online interactive games are also a good way to stimulate kids' thinking skills. What is interesting - teachers can make students move during online lessons too! Bringing a few objects to the camera can make a difference.
To conclude, I enjoyed the video and I would love to implement some of these tips into my online classroom.
What do you think? What do you find the most challenging in online teaching?
Let me know in the comments!
Zuzanna
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