The novel coronavirus has affected all our lives. As the pandemic continues to be our new normal we take a look at some of the challenges faced by teachers especially as students and their parents are struggling to cope with the disruption caused by the virus.

Parents have to be face-to-face educators, work from home, as well as manage their children 24/7.

Students are cut off from their peers and forced into excessive amount of screen time. They also have to sit for long periods of time, where they would have much rather engaged in some kinds of physical activities.

Teachers have to learn how to use technology to teach their students via the internet.

And, more importantly, have to find creative ways to engage with students and prevent

their attention from flagging.

Three major factors seem to affect a student’s ability to learn.

Mental Health

A number of students are dealing anxiety, depressive moods and frustration due to factors dealing with family finances, illness (Covid-19) and increased exposure to unfavorable home environments.

The need for school counselors and mental health professionals is even more dire in today’s scenario.

Teachers have the responsibility and unique ability to help students in their classrooms:

• Talk about emotions during class so as to open up the discussion.
• Use emotion wheels or other such tools to connect with your class at the beginning or end of a session. This will encourage students to talk and allow you to feel more connected with your students.

Motivation

Many students today are not fully engaged in the day’s lessons; they play games or surf the net on the pretext of attending classes. Submitting homework assignments seems to be difficult for many students.

An article on the website reliefteaching.com explains the following ways to help motivate those students who are having the most difficulty:

Explain: Go into details about what is expected and how the student would benefit from doing a task.

Reward: Use appreciation, praise during and after class hours to connect with the student so that they know they have been noticed.

Care: Try to personalize your interaction with students you teach, students respond to genuine care.

Involve and participate: Have a greater number of discussions and help your students find ownership in the topics being taught.

Teach inductively: Allow students to arrive at conclusions instead of giving it to them. This increasing the interest in the topic and motivation to keep learning.

Social Interaction

Social interaction in online schooling as two components, the interaction with the teacher as well as interaction with peers.

Interaction with teachers helps to decrease stress, increase student participation and engagement as well as help students succeed in tasks assigned to them.

Teachers are also facilitators in peer interactions between students. In class participation and group cohesiveness can be facilitated using the following techniques:

• Group projects
• Collaborative note taking
• Sharing of home routines and time management

Be proactive in approaching challenges that arise. This is a time of great change and learning and teachers are truly in the forefront of shaping the lives of the students in their online classrooms.

Looking at the positive side of things, educators can turn this crisis into an opportunity to upgrade their skills and add newer methods to their teaching practices.