Social isolation and being locked down for a long period of time will greatly impact everyone's wellbeing and mental health. This is particularly very true for our students who have been spending their time substantially at schools and tuition centres with friends and teachers. Being used to be in the company of others, a sudden lockdown will leave them with a sense of loss or may lead to severe depression. Therefore, it is important for us as teachers to reach out to our students at times like this and keep them busy.
From my social media account, I noticed that many teachers in Malaysia are attempting online educational tools and apps such as google classroom to get connected to their students and keep them engaged with teaching and learning activities. Hats off to these teachers who have maintained a balance working from home and keeping their students' high in spirit.
Just like those teachers, I have also developed some ideas and worked with my students since the CMO was announced. It was a blessing that I had already set up telegram groups with all the four classes that I am teaching at the beginning of the year, to give them instructions and tasks whenever I am not at school. So this set - up came in handy at times like this.
At first, I wanted to use google classroom as a platform to assign tasks for them. However, I noticed that too many teachers are using that as a platform to keep 'in touch' with their students. Therefore, I decided to do something else.
Scrapbook Project
The first task that I gave them was a scrapbook project which I adapted from the Fullblast textbook (page 131). Students are required to complete a scrapbook on one of the seven wonders of the world in about 10 pages. I asked them to use the materials that they have at home. They are to share their scrapbooks with friends once they are back to school after the CMO. I gave them a few datelines for this project. 1 day to plan, 2 days to design the cover, and another two days to write their introductions. The rest of the days I gave them a few other tasks that will eventually lead to the completion of the scrapbook. All instructions have been given via telegram apps. Take note that many of my students do not have smartphones, so I asked them to use their parents' phones to communicate with me, so basically, parents know what their kids are doing. The following are some of the cover pages that the students have submitted to me through the telegram app.
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| Cover Pages of Students' Scrapbook Project |
Lessons Via Youtube Videos
Besides project work, I have also created (and in the midst of creating) a few task-based lessons for my students on Youtube and shared the links with my students. The lessons are mostly writing lessons or ideas for creative writing. Along with the video, I have also created task sheets to aid learning. The task sheets are saved in google drive and the links are posted together with the videos. Students may print out the task sheets or copy the instructions from the task sheets into their exercise books to complete the tasks assigned to them. This way, students are free to watch the videos whenever they are free at home.
Some other tasks that they are to do while/after watching the videos are :
1. like the videos.
2. State a lesson learnt from the story/ write three/five new things learnt from the videos at the
comment section.
comment section.
That is all from me for now, I hope what works well for me will work for you too.
Will share more videos soon!
Till then, stay healthy and stay safe.
Will share more videos soon!
Till then, stay healthy and stay safe.
