Teaching is about togetherness

 

Who did you teach? “My mom is learning Mandarin with me.” said the sixth-grader. Big smile. I looked at him and I saw the joy in his eyes. “My dad and my sister were so good…I taught them some expressions I’ve learned.” said a third-grader.  More hands raised on the screen.  Waving at me. I saw the excitement on their faces.

This is a summer camp that created for distance learning at an innovative school. Children’s age range in this camp is from kindergarten to middle school. They have no previous Chinese language background. They came in with uncertainty and curiosity.

Uncertainty because of the pandemic. No physical class. Live camp classes have been meeting online.

Curiosity because Mandarin is new to them. A few told me, “I’ve heard it is hard.” “It is complicated I heard.”

A few weeks have gone by.

Here are some of the frequent words they’ve shared.

 

• Fun!

• Exciting!

• Interesting!

• I can use English sounds to pronounce Chinese words.

• I love this camp.

• Can you teach me how to say “train” in Mandarin?

• I want to say “I miss my friends.” in Mandarin.

• Starbucks. I want to go to Starbucks for my favorite drinks. How do you say that in Mandarin?

• I got it. It’s simple actually.

 

What else?

What else have these students shared with me on the screen? Here are some of their non-verbal expressions. Also, emoji interpretation of their state of mind.

• Thumbs-ups emoji

• Clapping emoji

• Smiling

• Taking notes without being asked

• Dancing while sitting in front of the screen

• Showing Two thumbs-ups for their classmates

• Raised arms waving

• Nodding head

• Eagerly raising hands to participate in activities

 

Teaching is about togetherness

Teaching is about connection.

Connection with the children whom you work with.

Distance learning for the past several months has been a journey of building bridges from where you are to where your students are.

This building process is beyond the apps, the platforms, the shared documents… This is true. All the tools like apps and platforms are not you. They will never be like you. AI-powered learning tools are your assistants. Use them to coordinate and enhance your teaching.

Who’s the leader in the virtual learning environment? You.

The teacher who can connect learning with students in the virtual learning environment.

You can reach the students when you can connect with them.

You will need to build a sense of togetherness with your students first in order to convey and deliver effectively what you are about to teach.

Always.

 

 

The 8 Do’s of Raising Bilingual Kids

Image by Canva

Teaching is about togetherness