The Joy of Substituting
The Joy of Substituting
Sining M. Kotah, Ph.D., LPT | Published September 2020
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2020-2021 is destined to be an unusual school year!
Ever since COVID-19 caught the whole world off guard, everything had been rotating in the realm of the unknown. The new school year started amidst the pandemic that seemed to linger forever. People, who had a vague idea on what online education was, gradually got to adapt to the new mode of learning. Classes appeared to have gotten into their stride after the first week. Inquiries on my phone reduced considerably, and it looked like everybody had adjusted to the flow of the new school year.
Just when everything seemed to be gearing towards its right track, the pilot classes were suddenly left with no teacher. School year had already begun, and all posts had been filled up. Where in the world could we possibly find a substitute in such a short notice?
At this juncture, I witnessed the selfless dedication of a true PCCian!
Upon knowing the situation confronting the school, Mr. Guo Chunfeng, the teacher of Pilot A, readily agreed to adopt both Pilot D and Pilot E. To support him in carrying out the mission of molding the young minds, Ms. Zeng Ying, the Chinese Supervisor, and I decided to lend him a hand in his additional teaching assignments.
And thus, I found myself returning to the frontline of the pilot classes……
To make the most out of this substitution stint, I went through the whole lesson from cover to cover for several rounds despite of the fact that I was quite familiar with the tragedy of the protagonist. I went to the net to search for more materials, and was able to find an infinite pool of resources. I clicked on the links one after the other just to make sure that I wouldn’t miss out on any pertinent idea. I browsed through the online remarks from the different sources and downloaded some videos too.
To make the most out of this substitution stint, I asked Mr. Jacky Chan, the IT head, to assist me as I crammed through the training sessions of online technology. Google Classroom never rang a bell for me, and yet had become a household name that would keep my teaching skills afloat. I knew I attended the training sessions conducted for our teachers diligently, but when left on my own, I seemed to be at a loss. To synchronize Google Classroom and VooV conference was a herculean task. A few days before I got to face the two pilot classes, I had some rounds of dry run with my colleagues, and was glad that everything went on smoothly.
A week of substitution made me realize that: the greatest challenge of online teaching was not so much on how to present the topics using fancy technology and highfalutin concepts; but instead, it was how to make the students on the other end of the connection acquire the learning contents effectively. There was an intangible space stretched between the teacher and the students, and learning had to be virtually and efficiently transferred through all kinds of modern technology a human mind could think of. Conducting classes using two platforms simultaneously was highly dependent on the reliability of the connection. When internet failed, everything would be in vain, no matter how well-prepared the sessions were. This sense of helplessness was truly daunting, especially to seasoned teachers.
On the third day of my substitution, I thought I had everything within my grasp, until April’s fool found its way in September. Just when I was in the middle of the discussion with my students, I got lost… in connection. For some minutes, I was a cat on hot bricks that I clicked on all the internet icons I could see on my laptop. When finally I was able to get back, the video I purposely picked from the net could not be played properly on Google Classroom. It had either no sound or no picture. Suddenly, I was completely defeated……
I guess I must have looked embarrased then. All throughout my professional life, I have never gone into any teaching session without a hundred percent confidence. But on that third day, even if I had all the cards up my sleeves, I looked pretty much like a novice in classroom routines.
When I was able to fix the sound and the picture on my device, there was not much time left in the session. I could only play the video in haste and promise the class that I would upload it to the classwork, for them to be able to watch it again.
With this unexpected happening, I was all the more careful in my succeeding sessions. I followed every step of instructions given me, and would not dare to deviate from any of these. On my last day, I was able to play the concluding video without interruption. Students from both Google Classroom and VooV conference were able to see and hear clearly. Success! I was simply ecstatic. This feeling of victory was so pleasantly sweet.
I walked out from my office and met a colleague. She said I looked happy. Well, I wasn’t just happy, I was actually on cloud nine, for I was able to conquer the unknown!
Such is the joy of substituting. Now tell me, isn’t it worth all the hassles?
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