Notes from the Bunker of a 21st Century Luddite

MRS SMITH

I am 100% sure that many students found the abrupt switch from face-to-face learning to sitting in front of a screen for all their education, an enormous challenge. Some clearly found it impossible to upload assignments for example, or to click on ‘like’ when asked. I get it, I really do! But just imagine how it felt for your grandma. Because unless you have a technowhizz for a grandma, she may only have had two apps on her phone – a pedometer to count her steps and the Marks and Spencers’ app so she could buy her new nighties online, without having to look for her debit card every time (and she couldn’t read the number anyway without her reading glasses). Now - imagine Grandma has been a teacher for over 30 years. She teaches in the same classroom every lesson. On her desk, she has a special tray with everything she needs in it. It has taken her a few years but she knows how to use the remote to switch on the projector (albeit she calls it a ‘presser’), and on a good day

can play a video with sound coming out of the loud speaker. When she is feeling adventurous (which is not often) she may even try a Kahoot. And now she is stuck at home with something called Teams, and a whole load of teaching materials that were designed over many years for students to complete in the classroom, that allow them to interact with her and each other, ask questions, discuss answers, with big and little whiteboards for when the words run out and the diagrams have to begin. So my initial response was very much like a student when they are presented with something that they do not want to do, and that is hard for them (i.e. I sulked and made excuses). Then I asked my mates (they are good mates, my colleagues) and they kept explaining things many times in very patient voices, never tutting or sighing or rolling their eyes when I asked yet again, ‘Which button?’ I think I have finally got there. I was truly gobsmacked (northern expression - look it up) when some student feedback claimed I had provided ‘excellent online lessons’ and that I made the ‘the transitioning to online learning smooth and stress free’. Thanks whoever you were, I owe you at least a Freddo Frog when we get back to school. So how would I sum up my performance as an online teacher? I think I would say I have been a ‘disappointment’ and I would get a sad face emoji on my personal whiteboard. But I have (re) learnt something, and that is that sometimes we must do things that we didn’t choose, and that we are really not very good at. And even if we work as hard as we can at them, the best we can aspire to is average. So -probablythe only person who is proud of me as a ‘remote’ teacher is me. But I do now have 74 apps on my phone and what’s more I even know what they’re for (well most of them anyway!).