Dawn of a New Normal

in Schools
 STORIES OF HOW TEACHERS
RE- SKILLED THEMSELVES DURING LOCK DOWN
Visakha Vimala Vidyalayam, Ukunagaram

The corona pandemic has

wreaked havoc on the world directly and indirectly affecting millions of
people, especially students who lost their valuable academic curriculum and
sports that are part of education have lost the creative skills associated with
fellow students enjoying school affiliation. Following the directives of the
Central and State Governments, in collaboration from the Steel Plant, VVV-Ukkunagram
has taken up this compassionate challenge in an effort to provide some relief
to student through a process called E-Learning, online teaching.
The main challenge we faced in this process, especially as our school students are lower
middle class and BPL families, made it difficult for them to access the smart phone and internet. To
overcome this challenge they were divided into HI-TECH, LOW-TECH, NO-TECH. and High Tech was taught
the lessons through Zoom Classes, Whatsapp videos and Virtual Reality. Low Tech Students were
contacted over voice call and encouraged to watch television (Door Darshan) tutorials and supervised by
giving them home work project work. For Non-Tech Students, we tried to tackle the challenges by
contacting them by voice call resolving doubts about the subject and encouraging them to visit friends
close to them who are having net access.
Through the online Yoga, on line Fitness Training, online Dance, online Drawing classes and project
works to alleviate the mental stress caused by loneliness in children, Corona faced challenges with a
positive outlook as a new opportunity to nurture creativity in them. Similarly, Independence Day and
Teachers Day celebrations have been created through digital media to interact with the students.
 A BRIEF REPORT ON THE COVID-19
PANDEMIC SITUATION
D.A.V. CENTENARY PUBLIC SCHOOL, UKKUNAGARAM.

Covid-19 really disturbed the total Academic structure of the school. In spite of this serious
situation our school has set some goals and all teachers are striving hard to reach the goals and
to keep up the reputation of our institution.
1. TEACHERS ORIENTATION/TRAINING PROGRMMES: Almost all the teachers & Principal of
our institution participated in the Training programmes conducted by CBSE through online in
different subjects like (1) CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT (2) LIFE SKILLS (3) 21ST CENTURY SKILLS (4)
VIRTUAL TEACHING-PROBLEMS ANDMEASURES (5) CAREER GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
(6) EARLY CHILD EDUCATION.
DAVCAE TRAINING PROGRAMME: DAV Centre for Academic Excellence has conducted different
Training programme to teachers. Our Zone & Telangana zone jointly conducted 3 days virtual
training programme to all the teachers in their concerned subjects – MATHEMATICS FOR
SECONDARY LEVEL, MIDDLE LEVEL & PRIMARY LEVEL ( 2) PHYSICAL SCIENCE FOR SECONDARY
LEVEL AND MIDDLE LEVEL (3) SOCIAL SCIENCE FOR SECONDARY, MIDDLE AND PRIMARY LEVEL
and also on (1) EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING (2)EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (3) VALUE EDUCATION&
ETHICS(4) INCLUSIVE EDUCATION.
Almost 48 teachers participated in the programmes on all days.
SCHOOL PROGRAMMES:
a)Celebrated Independence Day on 15th August. Students participated in the
programme virtually in speech, compeering etc.
b) Teachers Day: Observed Teachers Day in our school and almost all the teachers participated in
the programme. Students participated virtually and presented shlokas and other speeches.
c) Competitions: Our students participated in the competition conducted by THE HINDU in which
2 students won 1st and 2nd position in Poster Design contest and 2 students won 1st and 3rd
prize and 2 students bagged consolation prizes in Elocution competition.
Our school has been awarded as PLATINUM school by M/s. Pedelite for highest number of
participation in Poster and colouring and painting competition and also for
highest number of winners.
TEACHING AND DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES: Covid-19 did not stop teaching at all. We had prepared a
schedule and as per schedule teachers used to take classes online. Our teachers gave
worksheets, Assignments, Projects, classroom discussions etc. Some worksheets were corrected
through Whatsapp and google apps. Students also completed their Home works and projects
during holidays. The notes will be corrected after school re-opening.
 AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN
JDAV HIGH SCHOOL, MADHARAM

Teachers re-skilled themselves with new methods of teachings online and

motivating students. Teachers not only created videos but also for the first of its kind
in our school used Augmented technology to engage the students in online teaching
classes.
 COVID-19 CHALLENGES FACED BY TEACHERS
- Smt. Sridevi Vasantharao,
Teacher in Social Science.
Delhi Public School, Sector-8, Ukkunagaram

With the present COVID-19 Pandemic situation, a lot of Teachers are facing a very unique challenge. The way
ahead was uncertain, new and the challenge demanded that we, the teachers go through digital transformation
overnight more forcefully.
As a Teacher in Social Science, I was not an exception to the same. I felt that I need to equip myself with
constructive, conventional resources as children’s learning was at stake.
The challenges in front of me were as below:
✓ To plan for teaching without any resources like maps, TLM etc / at times with limited resources.
✓ To suppress my inhibitions, I had to open my house for public viewing while teaching and creating videos (off-line
teaching).
✓ To make children engaged in learning, thinking, and creative process.
✓ To remain undeterred by the situations which are prevailing outside.
✓ To engross children in constructive learning and motivate them to develop potential skills.
✓ To balance personal, family and professional life/s.
It would be better to mention that we, teacher fraternity as a whole risen successfully challenging the situation,
grooming ourselves, thinking positively and enhancing teaching learning process.
✓ Creating TLM with the infrastructure available on hand.
✓ Forgone our privacy for the sake of keeping up the phase of teaching learning process.
✓ Engaged motivated young minds to rise above the pandemic situation and utilize the time an resources available
to better themselves.
My personal achievement as a Social Science Teacher,
✓ Enhanced my technical skills.
✓ Continue to foster children to achieve potential sustainable skills by conducting debates, assemblies, observing
important days virtually to mention some anti-junk food day, environment day, paying tributes to great legendaries
like Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam, Mother Teresa.
✓ As a good story teller, I narrated great heroic deeds of kings, gurus, freedom fighters to engage young minds to
appreciate the glorious history of India.
✓ Along with love and warmth, I could share knowledge.
1. Independence Day Teaser link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvLxBS_ttRk
2. Class-IV off-line video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_uN3ptuPKA
And many more……….
I sincerely thank my respected Principal sir and my family members for their support extended.
 The Challenge of Educating in the Times of Covid-19:
From the Teacher’s Perspective.
VISAKHA VIMALA VIDYALAYAM
BC Road, Pedagantyada

The worldwide spread of corona virus left no field unaffected and so is the
education field. It forced educational institutions across India to suspend physical
classrooms and switch over to online classes. While we, faculty are grappling with the
transition, faced lot of
challenges but dealt them successfully.

Improvise, Adapt, And Overcome.

With orders of nationwide, followed by state wide, lockdowns being imposed, we had to
tackle the distress of the then board exam aspirants, and their parents.

The first challenge was to ensure that our students remained calm under pressure. We
dealt with this issue by digitalizing the pre-existing classrooms into group chats on the
social network, WhatsApp, where our students would regularly receive updates
regarding their exams and revision of their syllabus as part of their exam preparation.

The second challenge is students need high speed internet and computers/smartphones
to attend these online classes which is hardly affordable for middle class parents. Most
of the students have only one smart phone which is usually with their father who will be
at work all day long. So, it is not possible for the students to attend online classes at a
stipulated time. We encouraged our students to watch pre-recorded classes through
WhatsApp or YouTube. We have recorded our classes and uploaded in YouTube by
creating our own YouTube channel. For this we need to play the role of not only teacher
but also cameraman, sound engineer, video editor and what not….as our lessons will now
go across the globe. Our performance is subjected to scrutiny by students and
academicians worldwide. So, we need to adapt the global standards which is real
challenge. Each positive comment that on our channel boosted our morale while each
suggestion for improvement aroused our motivation to excel in our endeavors.

The third challenge we faced while teaching online is unlike classroom teaching where
on the spot interaction between student and teacher is possible, we need to address the
unexpressed doubts of students and provide necessary clarifications. This again is a big
challenge as we must put ourselves in their shoes.

The fourth problem is confronted with, as maths and sciences teachers are facing
difficulty in providing illustrations and experimentations. To keep the attention of the
students interesting is again a big challenge. To keep up the challenge we planned our
performance and presentation must be inexplicably alluring. We all know that a multi-
sensory approach stimulates learning but in online teaching other than eyes and ears
nothing can be involved. For example, we cannot make our students to experience the
pungent smell of ammonia gas.
Additionally, our students had a direct platform to interact with their respective
teachers to clarify their doubts and queries without hesitation. This assured our
aspirants that they had the resources they required to be prepared.
These groups were closely monitored by the teachers as well as the principal.
After it had been declared that the boards were cancelled, the challenges were to make
sure that the next outgoing batch was not deprived of their most important year of
schooling. To tackle this, all teaching departments at our esteemed institution made
sure they gave their best efforts. Our staff got very intuitive and inventory with their
approach to making educational videos of their concerned department, to virtually
stimulate the classroom experience.
The department of Social Studies, employed measures to keep our students motivated
and interested, we first acknowledged the change that had occurred to the average
school year and explained to them how the school would function under these trying
circumstances.
We then proceeded to use the imagery and key terminology of their prescribed textbooks
to stimulate a sense of familiarity and understanding.
Each teacher brought out their art of creativity by employing innovative techniques to
keep our students inspired. Our department used maps to visually interpret the latitudes
and longitudes in India, the science department used their home gardens to interpret the
phenomenon of photosynthesis, so on and so forth. To follow up with their learning,
students would be assigned homework that would be signed by their parents and checked
by their teachers on a daily basis.
In an attempt to unanimously reach the students of the state board, the government of
Andhra Pradesh had begun live classes broadcasted on national television via the DD
Sapthagiri channel.
Students immediately received official intimation from the school. They were also given
instructions on how to go about with these broadcasted classes.
When the timetables/schedules were released, they were immediately forwarded to the
students so they could take any necessary steps to prepare.
We would also supervise their viewing by watching the broadcasts ourselves and
following up if they had any doubts or queries in addition to assigned and checking
homework regularly.
A few of our students who do not have had the chance to watch the live broadcast would
later watch the class via the links we shared to YouTube live streams/videos. This would
also prove beneficial for those that wanted to re-watch any videos to revise what they
had learnt.
As for those children with no access to smart phones or social media, we have been monitoring
them via direct phone calls. That includes updating them as well as following up with their
homework and answering their doubts and queries.
Any challenge can be overcome with will power and determination and we have worked together as
a team to deal with this situation to the best of our abilities. This success is credited to the
motivation of our respected Principal ma’am in collaboration with the combined efforts of our
departments.

Finally, we can’t even provide an encouraging pat on the back of our students. To solve
this, we had to call the students on phone individually at least twice a week and encourage them
personally.

“Aano Bhadra krtavoyantuVishwatah”

-Rigveda

The above statement from Rigveda states let noble thoughts come to us from all directions. We also
encouraged our students to watch Door darshan and other YouTube channels as a supplement.
Despite all the efforts, we believe “Sometimes we win...Sometimes we learn”.
We hope this situation will soon come to an end and we can reach out for the benefit of our beloved
students.