Lockdown Blues – Not Anymore

Where are we? Well, at home since mid-March and only God knows until when. Some say it’s all about staying alive. Others sayit’s all about not killing one another as we are locked down together as a family for the longest period of time in the history of mankind. Whatever it is for the world, for a small group of people called “Teachers” life in these circumstances is not about where we are or how. It is all about finding new ways to teach children who are scattered all over the place because of the pandemic.

Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that in 2020, I would be taking online classes or teaching children virtually. But here I am doing that. I am glad for one thing though, we live in a world where we can reach out to children and interact with them virtually. What would have happened if we had to face this situation 15-20 years ago when internet was not as easy to access or even 10-years ago when it was prohibitively expensive. Add to that the fact that the smart phones were not so smart, and neither was it cheap to put laptops on everyone’s laps!  We are lucky that it happened now and we still have the option of teaching and interacting with children.

Teachers today not only deal with children, but also end up managing parents. I am glad most parents are realizing what it means to be a teacher as they are homeschooling their children. Some parents genuinely thank us for our patience, others wonder at us and a few others ask “When would the school reopen?”We had an online parent orientation and interestingly some parents asked us to share ways to deal with children, how to keep them engaged and above all how to make children listen to their own parents.The emails and messages that some parents send are wonderful. However, sometimes those emails make me wonder if parents didn’t think that I worked just as hard even when inside the school, during regular classes.

The inside of me said, “Seriously dude; you can’t handle one or two children at home but expect the teacher to handle twenty-five, perfectly in school?”. But on second thoughts that is why I am a teacher and I can move mountains like all my fellow teachers. We do the impossible because we believe even the word impossible says I ‘m possible. You see we are teachers and we can read in many ways!

My story apart…

Dear parents – I would like to share some links that provide parenting tips. They talk about how to protect your child from cyber threat and how can you keep them engaged during these testing times.

1. UNICEF and “Parenting for Lifelong” have this link for us https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/covid-19-parenting-tips
2. Five tips on keeping children safe online during the coronavirus outbreak.https://www.facebook.com/unicef/videos/231654641506232/
3. Things to do with your kids during lockdown. https://www.wander-lust.nl/things-to-do-with-your-kids-during-lockdown/

Remember there is no perfect parent. We all learn and grow up on this road to ageing. We try and be perfect for our children because we know what is best for them and as each child is unique we have to come up with unique ways for them.

Information given in the links is not the ultimate solution. They are things tried by others and worked well. We can tweak and improvise if for our kids.

Till then stay safe and keep our little ones safe.

Srijana

English Department

Tatva Global School, Hyderabad