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Learning Never Stops at ACS Athens, and We Are Always Ready for New Challenges! by Dr. Tonia Fyrigou, Academy Greek/French Faculty
F
ollowing the words of Ghandi who said: ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow, Learn as if you were to live forever’, I decided to move from my last book chapter titled: Evaluating the i²Flex Educational Experience via the Community of Inquiry, Book Title: K-12 Blended Learning through the i²Flex Classroom Model, to my new book chapter that is currently under review for the enhanced edition of the i²Flex 2016 book (Avgerinou & Gialamas, 2016). Teaching online during the pandemic was an entirely new experience not because of virtual reality but mostly because of the unique conditions. During this period, everything had to change from one day to the next. We were all lucky to have had prior teaching experience with the i²flex methodology and blended learning. Personally, I was even luckier, having already experience in teaching online courses. In any case, however, the virtual setting was a new reality for administrators, teachers, students and families. This collaborative effort had different phases and was created based on students’ needs. We had to identify our students’ potential, energy and level combined with teachers’ instructional design ability. The most important was then to continuously try to be proactive in teaching and identify the needs of our students for this specific period.
Excellence is not an accident, it’s a full commitment process with a lot of effort! The priority of this virtual teaching was the clear direction and clear communication with the students. The pandemic conditions and the emotional status of students and families didn’t allow any unclear directions for the technological part. The use of the Big Blue Button which was very familiar for me, since I had used it a lot in previous online courses, was the biggest challenge sometimes for students due to technical issues. There were two different areas of concern, the first was the quality of internet connection for some students at home and the second one was the full transition from the class environment to the virtual one. Students’ presence was different, teacher’s presence was different, and the same goes for social presence. Students with learning differences reacted in a different way throughout this educational virtual period and especially during the synchronous sessions. The preparation time before every face to face session was long and varied. As a teacher, I had to invent new methods, new assessments, new activities and new tools in order to maintain the excellent quality of teaching and learning. Our success story was different every day and always based on how students perceived their learning. Collaboration and good communication from parents was extremely important and we all invented new ways to communicate with each other. What was really amazing though was the very successful collaboration among colleagues. We called, messaged, and emailed each other many times throughout the day to make sure that we were delivering the clearest, most creative, and powerful lessons to our students. We felt that we were not only the teacher of the class but also the connection between the extreme situation of Covid-19 and the school community. We all put in many hours of endless work, day and night to offer our students the sense of belonging and the sense of smooth continuity from the school environment to the virtual environment. For all of us the continuous collection of different types of data which proved the students’ and parents’ satisfaction was the biggest gift. I will never forget the appreciation that our students and families expressed many times for our work and our dedication to the students and school. For all of us, teaching virtually covered the biggest part of our day and we all put our energy and positive thinking to overcome the challenge of Covid-19. We are ACS Athens, a powerful team of professionals with ethos and principles and we care about each and all our students! And we are ready for whatever the new academic year brings! ■
