To Teachers and Parents Everywhere
Nine months after my first letter, we are once again at the threshold of the strictest lockdown ever.
But that is not the reason it took me nine months to write this. I remember that I ended my open letter to all with great hope that I was going to be an effective e-learning teacher.
Now, wiser and the grade of my eyeglasses a notch higher, I look back to 2020 and cannot remember clearly anything I did.
It was a blur of late-nights trying to drag texts and resize images on Google slides.
To teachers everywhere, do you agree that for a first-timer, it takes 3 hours to create a Google slide for a 20-minute online class? Or that it takes more than half a day’s work to check 20 submitted entries in Seesaw (especially videos)?! My students submit a total of 68 entries every Monday and Wednesday. So, many times in my teaching journey, I really wonder what I should do first—create a slide, practice storytelling, send an announcement or check a submission?
I prayed every day to God, the Mighty Counselor, to keep me sane and joyful. I prayed for little things, too. I prayed that the boys who lost in the virtual rock, paper, scissors game would show up in class the next day or that the little girl who got angry at my joke would forget about it.
But it’s true what they say, the rainbow appears after a storm, and that there is always a pot of gold at the end of it. As an e-learning teacher, my most prized treasures are:
✦ Meeting my co-teacher online before midnight, when her face pops up in a shared Google slide. To see an esteemed colleague’s picture profile online in the silence of the night has been a source of comfort to me that I am not alone, even if it often feels that way.
“Come on, children, let’s pull the turnip!”
✦ Hearing my students say, “Yay, it’s Phonics Time!” after a frantic morning of dragging and resizing texts, yet again. Preschoolers are the most appreciative and well-adjusted bunch of kids in the world!
✦ Watching parents coach their child with enthusiasm, echo every word I say, or coax their child to behave and then reach for the mute button when situations become desperate.
I have been a teacher trainer for many years. But the leap Young Seed parents took to be teachers are extraordinary. Indeed, a parent’s immeasurable love makes all things possible!
Although being an e-learning teacher has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, being one has also been the most fulfilling. Thank you to my teachers and to Young Seed parents from the bottom of my heart.
Most especially, thank you, God for taking care of all of us in Young Seed!
