Turn this Crisis into opportunity

As the world is facing an unusual situation, I am always ready for the change because I believe change is permanent. In this pandemic, I am more focusing on Skills rather on the curriculum. Because I would like to see my students well prepared to tackle real-world problems like this. So, I am trying to develop future-ready skills like critical and analytical thinking, problem-solving and collaborative efforts to use of ICT in a meaningful way. This is not a situation where we should go for traditional teaching. So, I decided to go for problem-based learning to engage our learners even sitting at home. Fortunately, I have been using QR Coded Textbooks since 2014. So the first thing that I did was, I had designed some activities appropriate for my students. I uploaded all these activities on One Drive and made a collection on Wakelet. A sample set of activities is here- https://wke.lt/w/s/Y6mqgi . And then embedded a link of it in a QR Code. 

So now, students are scanning a QR Coded and going through the activity. But before that, I had an online meeting with parents to guide them on how to go through this situation and what we are doing to make sure students are learning by doing. As our country is completely lockdown, everyone is sitting at home. I asked my students to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on our lifestyle. As all family members are sitting at home, so are we consuming a larger amount of water & electricity nowadays? How about the temperature and pollution, is it increasing or decreasing? So, I designed the observation note and sent to my students through QR Codes.

Sample of water consumption sheet 

 My students are using mobile apps like FlipGrid to record their responses. They use Excel to record data and analyze. They are using Paint 3D to showcase their learning in a creative way. Sharing an example-

Using Paint 3D in a creative way 

Using Excel to analyze data 

I am having a group meeting with them every weekend and I help them to analyze the data. Students are now finding relations between temperature increase and use of electricity.

I will be running this activity till April end and then I will publish what they have learned and expected solutions to the problem.

I have gone through many distance learning platforms but considering the situation in my school and social status, I have been continuously developing my own platform that enables my students to learn in their way. Because their language of communication is different than mine. So, I design every activity that will make them comfortable to express.

This is how my students are learning at home

Once they have accessed digital content, then I evaluate their learning using the online test. And based on their performance, I upload newer content to make sure it will help them to learn in a better way. 

My strategy:

1  Focus on activities that will engage kids and will develop future-ready skills

2  Continuous Feedback and mentoring Parents using TEAMS

3   Inspire kids to be creative and show what they are learning.

4  Building healthy relations with Parents-Students-Teachers

What I am missing?

·       Physical or face to face interaction

·       Happiness in the classroom

·       And mostly our lunch that we had together every day

We used to share our tiffin. Missing a lot.

What we will achieve after this pandemic:

·       Students will be more creative to find solutions to real-world problems

·       This will promote collaboration among all the stakeholders

·       Our classrooms will be more innovative and creative in recent future

Helping other schools to resume teaching

AS I had already set up a science lab at my home, now I opened it for all students in the world. Now, every day I am doing Skype sessions with students from other countries. Since February, 68 classrooms from USA, England, India, Vietnam, Poland and Finland benefitting 1000+ students to find the science behind the things.  

My efforts to empower teachers in my community

1.     In collaboration with Pekka Ouli from Finland, we had a meeting of educators to discuss education in this pandemic. (60 Participants )

2.     From 4^th April, I have been hosting a series of webinars with Top 50 Global Teachers and listen to their experiences in the classrooms. This webinar is getting an overwhelming response from teachers. So, join us every Saturday at 8 PM on IST.

Tips:

v Focus on activities that will develop future-ready skills

v Focus on Skills rather than curriculum

v Inspire them to be more creative to showcase learning

v Nature is the best resource to learn nowadays. Think and plan your activities in such a way to learn from nature

v Use qualitative evaluation tools like rating scale, anecdotal record and checklist rather than traditional quantitative evaluation tools.