38
Every week, I was teaching, reading, writing articles and doing assignments, meeting with my professors through Skype, meeting with other classmates to discuss and do group work and I was doing great! I was using technology in so many diverse ways, I was learning through a variety of tools that the professors utilized and I was enthusiastic! And then, there were more assignments and more articles to read and more exams; I had to balance those multiple identities; I was juggling, I was trying to keep balance between teaching and learning, let alone parenting….. and I started to feel frustrated, incompetent, I felt like giving up; my time management skills were at stake! I, an experienced teacher, who had consciously chosen to go for a Master’s Degree at this age, was not following, submitting assignments at the last minute, assignments which were overdue. This is when I came up with a planner; yes, I had to write down my “to-do-lists”, but now I was planning my day around my studies. I started prioritising and I managed to balance work, studies and family. I was a coach to myself; I had a plan and I had to stick to it. And I did it… My first draft of my thesis was finally done and sent… And then it struck… COVID-19! Our world was turned upside down; nothing was the same anymore; everything we did or knew existed in changed form; even simple acts like going to the supermarket could not be taken for granted.
Continuing Education In Times Of COVID - 19: Learning To Teach, Teaching To Learn; A Two-Way Relationship by Venie Gaki, Middle School ESL/EFL Faculty
I
n April 2020, my thesis “Creating a sense of Home; the role of a social studies teacher in an international school in Greece. Fostering identity and inclusion” was submitted to the Hellenic American College as the end product of a long journey that was interrupted for personal reasons in 2007, a journey on which I embarked again ten years later, in 2017. My goal was finally achieved; my dream, which I had to digress from due to the multiple identities a woman of the 21st century is requested to have, such as being a full time mother, wife, teacher and friend, had finally come true. And it became true mainly because, as of 2015, the MAAL Program which I so eagerly wanted to attend, being a passionate linguist, switched to e-learning.
Teachers were asked to switch to online teaching overnight and ACS Athens was ahead of the game, once again. We had moodle, we were already using platforms, we installed the Big Blue Button and everything was running smoothly! The students were enthusiastic about this new development as they were on top of things, they were eager to participate, to write in the public chat, to take a poll, to work in breakout rooms, to do projects, to present; their netiquette skills were amazing; they were muting mics, respecting each other’s time and changing their icons to a raising hand if they wanted to ask something! And gradually this enthusiasm started to wear off; assignments were submitted late, students had difficulty meeting expectations. Students were frustrated as they could not meet deadlines, and were submitting work late. As for interaction, microphones started not to work, cameras were off; students were reluctant to speak, they were feeling exhausted, frustrated, incompetent, they felt like giving up …..And then it dawned on me; what I was dealing with was the dame kind of feeling I had when I was an online student. I could see myself in the faces of my students; I could feel their frustration and anger and I could not help wondering; if I, an adult, had difficulties keeping up with due dates and workload as a student, then, how could an adolescent feel during these surreal circumstances? It was not only the new type of learning they had to adjust to, but it was also a new condition, a new reality they had to familiarize themselves with overnight; they could not hang out with their friends anymore, they could not giggle in the hallway, they could not have real eye contact with their teacher; they could not give their teachers a sign to let them
