Reflections from my ERT Journey

Reflections from my ERT Journey

Adrianne Verla Uchida

Nihon University

The move to emergency remote teaching (ERT) in and of itself was not that difficult or stressful for me. My journey as a teacher involved online learning platforms when I was earning my master’s degree and since that time, I had felt it important to integrate technology for my students to use into my teaching. However, I was not familiar with everything. Zoom and Flipgrid were just two of the new forms of technology I quickly decided to use in my classes for the first time. My university granted us the autonomy to decide how we were going to conduct our classes but as with most other universities the decision was made quickly and at the last minute. Additionally, there was no English support offered for the foreign language teachers. A colleague and I decided to fill that gap by creating various tutorial videos, gathering and sharing various resources, holding Zoom sessions, and creating a Google classroom for the teachers. The move to ERT was easy for me but everything after the initial implementation of it was not. I experienced various minor struggles relating to materials design and assessment, but the real challenge was time. Despite the struggles, this experience has helped me grow as a teacher and colleague, and challenged me to develop my skill set in positive ways. I hope that by reflecting on my journey into ERT, I can encourage others to try new things and reach out to help support their colleagues during these difficult times.