On July 15th I had my first hour of teaching in my practicum. It was definitely a unique teaching experience. I had an idea of how it would feel instructing my first full lesson online, but I was wrong.
My current experience working through an online platform has been as a student. The first time I used Big Blue Button it was during my last course in my Bachelor of Education. In this experience, I had been with my professors and teachers for two years so it didn’t feel like a large change. I already understood how people communicated as we already had an online community established through working together on various assignments. When I started the TESLprogram it felt different to be in an online space with people I hadn’t met before. Swiftly, I made connections with my peers through all the group work and the intimate setting of the study rooms. I now feel completely comfortable with my TESL peers and feel we have strong relationships from this shared experience. Thus giving a presentation feels completely different and natural in this space now. When I say something to my peers I have a trust that they will respond.
Trust was the feeling I was missing in the first lesson. I didn’t have confidence that my students knew what I was asking. I couldn’t trust my natural instinct fully because I wasn’t receiving the normal cues I would have in a physical classroom. I couldn’t use students’ faces and I had to be patient to see if they would start a task, instead of viewing them starting by picking up a pen in the way I would in a traditional space. This way of teaching feels different, but I feel really lucky to have this opportunity to expand my practice in this way.
Going forward, I will be looking for ways to make myself feel more connected with these students. I think this is really important going forward that I find my trust in the students.