In recent months, Torres, a Brazilian primary school teacher, is trying to adapt to the major challenge she has been onboarding: distance education.
After the school closed, she constantly adjusted her teaching methods to make the 24 children in the class more efficient.” Dealing with children who are just entering school especially need to build trust and keep in touch with the parents of students and ask them to pay more attention.
In virtual classrooms, maintaining discipline and improving students’ concentration is particularly critical, Torres said.
Fernandez, a physics teacher from Recife, needs to prepare four forms of teaching for students: pre-recorded videos, live broadcasts, question sheets and podcasts with slides.” The 50-minute livestream takes two or three hours to prepare, and the 10-minute podcast requires at least one hour to prepare.
In order to master these techniques as soon as possible, I often watch video courses from my peers and learn from them.” Fernandez said.
A recent survey by the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil shows that about 90% of Brazilian educators have insufficient experience in teaching remotely.
The technical challenges and higher teaching requirements caused by distance education have multiplied the workload of teachers, and 82% of teachers need to extend their working hours to adapt to the new teaching model.
In some areas where the Internet is not yet popular, teachers take various methods to help every child not fall behind. Every Monday, Pernambuco teacher Giovino takes a printed material and rides his bicycle door-to-door to 19 students.” As long as the children can keep learning, it is worth paying as much.
Giovino said. Mylo, the parent of the student, noticed that since the teacher came to distribute teaching materials in person every week, the children have become more enthusiastic and more focused in learning.
During the epidemic prevention and control period, although it is impossible to teach in the classroom, the hard work and dedication of teachers have not been interrupted.
Recently, 10 Brazilian civil society organizations invited parents, students and people from all walks of life to pay tribute to teachers through videos, photos or text on social media, and put the label of “applause for teachers” when posting posts. This activity received a positive response, and more and more people recorded videos to express their gratitude to the teacher.
“The affirmations of students and parents really warm us and inspire the constant momentum to move forward,” Fernandez said.
