#CdnELTchat Summary for January 26, 2021
By Bonnie Nicholas
Whether we were ready or not, since last spring COVID-19 has forced almost all of us to become online teachers. For many of us working in ELT, the move to online teaching was a giant leap out of our comfort zone. As the pandemic enters its second year and mostly-online teaching and learning continues, we have an opportunity to think critically about our practices and to reflect on what we should maybe leave behind. This was the theme for the January 26 #CdnELTchat; the follow-up chat is on what we should keep going forward.
These are the questions that guided our discussion:
- The pandemic has been called “the great pause”. As we pause many of our habitual activities what have you learned? What don’t you need as much as you perhaps once thought you did?
- With many of us working from home, we may have abandoned our work spaces. What have you perhaps left at your workplace that you now realize you don’t need to be an effective teacher?
- Are there any teaching practices that you have left behind? Were you surprised that these practices weren’t as effective as you thought and that you really didn’t need them?
- Are there things that you would like to leave behind but can’t because of program or funding requirements? How can you reconcile this?
- Are there attitudes towards learning that you will leave behind after the pandemic ends and we return to a new normal (whatever that looks like)?
You can read the collected tweets from this chat on Wakelet or by searching Twitter using the hashtag #CdnELTchat. Here’s a list of suggestions that were offered during the chat for what we can think about leaving behind when the pandemic is over:
- the need to control everything
- all the paper we thought we needed – and all the photocopying!
- working so many long hours
- a physical classroom / a physical workplace
- rushing to “finish” a course or “cover” the curriculum at the cost of learning
- the worry that we are not teaching students enough tech skills for workplace success
- Sunday 11:59 deadlines
- widespread proctoring and the belief that students must be trying to cheat
- forcing students to have cameras on
- teaching without sensitivity or compassion for students’ lived experiences
Do you agree or disagree with this list? What would you add or take away? What is something you know you should leave behind but find difficult to let go? What habits do you need to change?
Our hope is that connecting through a social medium like Twitter will lead to more reflective practice for all of us. We invite anyone to continue the conversation asynchronously by using the hashtag #CdnELTchat. We hold chats on a wide range of topics every couple of weeks, usually on Tuesday evenings. We’re always looking for people interested in sharing their passion for a particular topic in #ELT by co-moderating a chat or by joining the team. Reach out to Jennifer Chow (@jennifermchow), Augusta Avram (@ELTaugusta), Svetlana Lupasco (@StanzaSL), or Bonnie Nicholas (@bonniejnicholas).