Forest my neighbour

Teacher of geography, civic knowledge, technology, and nature. 16 years of experience in the profession. Works in a small rural school (100 pupils).

Working during the pandemic was a nightmare for me on the one hand, but on the other hand I found a lot of benefits for myself and my family (at least in the beginning). The school where I teach is 7 km from my home. The remote lessons allowed me to eliminate the morning rush and I could sleep longer because I didn’t have to commute to school.

However, the work itself took me longer than before the pandemic. Especially getting ready for classes. This was further complicated by the fact that I teach several different subjects. Each required different preparation. Nature was the most difficult, because how could I, for example, carry out experiments and observations with the pupils? I had to encourage the pupils to work more on their own. There also had to be more cooperation with the parents, because they had to control the tasks the children did.

Not all the children had a computer at home and couldn’t participate in the online activities. So I had to assign homework on the Librus platform and the pupils only sent it back in the evening. So work took up my whole day and I found it difficult to separate my private and professional life. I also wanted to help my students cope with this difficult situation, to give them psychological comfort when they couldn’t attend lessons for technical reasons. I didn’t want to burden the parents too much, but on the other hand I had to implement the core curriculum.

I live close to a forest, so I spent every free hour walking, tending my garden and chatting with friends. My lessons didn’t last 45 seconds, I introduced the principle of learning by doing to the pupils.

It was important that I had the comfort of having my own computer and room, so no one interfered with my work. However, I much prefer to teach in person. That’s why I enjoyed it at first, but then the work and the lack of face-to-face contact with my pupils really bothered me. I was also worried about my dysfunctional pupils. The children also started to get fed up with this kind of learning and didn’t connect during the online lessons.

I gained new IT competences through my online work and learned a lot from my students. But they also had the satisfaction of being smarter than the teachers. However, contact with another human being is the most important thing, emotions are read differently. Behind the screen, children could hide and cheat.

“Do not be afraid” J.P.II

Date: 30.09.2023
Organisation: Szkoła POdstawowa w Poskwitowie