The Virtual Leap

Circa early 2020. Rainforest skit was ready. Songs were set to tune. Props were ready and so were our children to act their script to a T. Dry runs were on. And then things went dry, literally. The pandemic hit!  We cancelled our summer programme, advanced summer holidays and very optimistically announced that we will open the school end-May 2020.  And resume business as usual. 

Technically, we kept our word. We started Leap Years #school@home in May 2020.  The primary objective of the online session was to open up a tiny window to socialise for all of us, by then battered by multiple lockdowns. 

I was aware of the challenges involved in going online. Personally, for someone who was averse to screens of all kinds, to start online meant a fundamental change to the core belief system 😊  

Besides, Leap Years prides itself on its mostly-middle-aged-tech-challenged teachers. Learning the tricks of survival in the virtual classroom wasn’t easy. But what’s a software to conquer? Keypads and a few apps aren’t strong enough to deter us.

The first goal we set was to get our children used to wearing masks and using hand sanitizers. Social stories were written and uploaded to a google drive along with many many worksheets for visual perception, literacy and numeracy skills, brain gym, fine motor, gross motor et al. 

We met on zoom three times a week, twice a day: at 11 am and 4 pm to accommodate WFH parents. Academic learning wasn’t the priority. So zooms were mainly circle time that we so enjoyed at school. Attendance, calendar, some interesting bits of news, songs and disperse. Breakout rooms made an entry even as lockdowns were beginning to partially open up.

When couriers started plying, I got busy making learning materials, laminated them so they can be sanitised and used repeatedly and shipped them to children. The kits typically have what’s easily available around home: Number cards accompanied with rajma as counters, pebbles for fine motor, a needle, thread and cloth etc. And a few instructional videos on how to use them.

We haven’t looked back since. By July, we were well on our way with #Leapyearsonline: circle time followed by ppt lessons on social skills, geography and EVS thrown in for good measure. Breakout rooms were a breeze and a blessing. 

Now, we have one-on-one sessions before our regular circle time. Multiple kits have reached children, some of whom have moved to their native in Kerala and Andhra. And we are prepping for Open Basic Education exams; participated in Kalaangana 2020 in full force and won a few!

Of course, we are yearning to get back to our space. Fight a little, hug a little and learn a lot. Can’t wait! 

-Written By: Shashi Rao

The Online world for Special educators

 Hello! am I audible! has been a part and parcel statement of my every online session...Ha ha!

As I look back it has been an amazing year. I remember those cliché statements when someone used to share that they were just thrown into the water and had to learn to swim. Well, for me this metaphor was almost real. It was a complete 100% digital dive. New apps took centre stage. Zoom, meet, team were more a fashion to take on immediately with pride.

As I started my online sessions, I realised my students were never alone they had the golden presence of their parents. Honestly my PPTs and teaching material were getting stylised not only to keep the learning interest of my students, I was pushing my creative bar to equally engage the interest of the shadowing parents too. I realised I was mastering the art of making PPTs, and thanks to youtube and google. The TLMs were getting more interesting and engaging for my students.

Webinars and online training were just abuzz. I also got opportunity to conduct couple of online training, I suddenly became accustomed to insta and fb live. These were just so alien a few months ago to me.

TV news was constantly blaring of the increasing Covid numbers, covid deaths, pandemic scare etc etc – but it all had to be taken in a stride.

My son being a frontline worker, he was posted to care for the covid patients, those were some
emotional moments of fear as a mother for me. But I did talk to myself and looked at it as a wonderful
opportunity for my son to serve the sick and the nation in a time of extreme need. Seeing him work
tirelessly, I knew I had also to be equally giving. Well, that was the time when I got to connect with a pool of special educators and I made few learning materials for children in remote areas who had no access to digital classes. Burning the night lamp and staying up at night to produce something meaningful was simply amazing. I got to know new friends from SERPA through this.

Work from home culture helped me find time to untap few of my dormant hobbies. My soap crafting took a new shape I started enjoying soap-making, and it is so therapeutic for me.Now as we move to hybrid work culture of balancing online and offline classes. This has made me realise that everything is transient and we have to be ever evolving and we cannot resist the change. Rather be the flow to make the learning and teaching to be more engaging. A win-win situation for the student and the special educator.

This Covid era has brought parents and special educators very close. As how much we respect parents, they too have realised what it takes to teach a child with special need. Covid has brought about a lot of transparency in the program, and that is something here to stay. So, let us continue to be more transparent and ever evolving in this journey special education. I close here with my respect and good wishes to all my fellow special educators and rehabilitation professionals.

Written By: 

SUMAIYA NAAZ

sumaiya.naaz@gmail.com

Juggle ? Come on, just huggle !

Reflecting back on where I was in my journey as an Educator when the pandemic broke and the normalcy was interrupted, I was eagerly looking forward to achieving a concise certification for my long association with children and their learning differences through a yearlong PG programme on Learning disability in Bengaluru.

The initial confusion had not only left the institute mute and also the uncertainty prevailed around the households, families alike.

On the brighter side, the ‘Me time’ and ‘family time’ that seeped through was a big welcome for our family as we were settling into everything new from our recent relocation from another country.

The little extra time to lull on the bed every morning, as there was no morning rush into school buses/carpools, was so delightful.  We could help ourselves, mostly our minds for a focused daytime work routine. Each person working under one roof independently, maintaining space and sanity was a very big achievement. Adapting to the new norm, totally depending on technology for everything around- Shopping, Work meetings, learning sessions were all fun and challenging enough to keep one motivated through the day.

On the flipside of this situation was missing the connect with the children- the main aspect of Teaching/learning. My worktime slowly made me realise how some online lessons, meetings I was attending got boring and meaningless. Although I pushed myself into accepting the new norm, bringing balance into my working style as an Educator stood very crucial to me.

That is when my new role as a ‘Kannada Teacher’ popped up!

Thanks to our living community, all safe and secluded from corona city vibes. The neighbourhood children’s need to learn the fundamentals of local language, connected me streaming back to the joy of ‘giving and taking’ of teaching.

Soon the Educator in me was found enjoying working part time with children on Language- Sounds, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension and so forth.

Isn’t that what ‘Education’ is all about? Learning along the journey, embracing the change happily and willingly.

Written By:

Lakshmi Prasad