Teaching children with various disabilities in one classroom is hard enough, but teaching students with multiple disabilities during a pandemic and virtually online is extremely hard! This pandemic has hit the world hard by allowing us to see what truly matters in the world of education. Some parents are more aware of their child’s academic ability than ever, and digital technology such as ZOOM, Microsoft Teams, and Google Classroom are on the rise when teaching children from home, and how the world of teaching online learning is the future of education.
Overall, I have learned a lot about myself and more about the world of education itself. So I listed below five things that I have learned about the world of education while teaching through a pandemic as a Special Education Teacher
You can’t reach everyone
At the the beginning of the pandemic when schools closed down in March it was a rat race to reach every student that was on our roster. It was like finding a needle in a high stack! some students had moved due to their parent’s jobs being furloughed or hours cut, and others parents simply didn’t have the devices or internet access to keep up with their child’s studies assigned by the teacher. I learned that schools-rush-to-get-students-internet-access-during-coronavirus-pandemic.
Children with disabilities left behind
I would say out of all of the children in the public school system the ones that suffered the most were students with disabilities. During my time teaching online from March to May I realized that a lot of my students started to disappear from my virtual classroom meetings due to parents struggling trying to keep their jobs and other responsibilities at bay. Most of my students thrived in online learning while others weren’t able to retain information as much as they used to inside my classroom. Therefore, I had to learn how to teach my students how to retain the correct information being taught instead of teaching new content for the remainder of the school year.
Teaching online is more work
I used to teach online English as a side job during school and over the summer to earn an extra income and never really knew how much work went into it until after I had done it for an entire year. Teaching online rather than teaching in person is more work than teaching in an actual classroom. During the school closures, we had to call parents daily and have students log into their computers only to be re-taught the same concepts that they learned the entire school year. There was always something new to learn in the world of technology, and an email from the district department about what strategies, software, and policies we could use or follow. Overall, I’ve learned that I would rather be in an actual classroom to be near my students than teach through a computer screen for hours straight.
Technology is the future
As we become more advanced in the world today we realized during this pandemic that technology is taking over the business industry in all aspects. More businesses are operating online and teaching online has become the new norm in most schools in countries around the world. I learned that technology can help out with a lot of things inside your classroom, but at the end of the day having a teacher in person making those connections with their students is what’s important and makes a long-lasting impact on the child, especially for children with disabilities.
Homeschooling isn’t that bad after all
As schools were closing down in most states parents took it upon themselves to switch their child from public school to homeschooling model to continue their student’s learning. I believe that homeschooling is a great way for students to learn in the comfort of their own homes and not be judged by their peers or teachers who don’t have their best interests. Homeschooling is a great option for children with disabilities who have a hard time staying focused in class and need shorter assignments and breaks in between when learning a new concept. Overall, I learned that homeschooling may become more popular than ever for parents of children with disabilities.
