Remote learning: voices from Buddhi school
This is a guest blog post by the team at Buddhi school, recounting their experiences over the last few months as they made the shift from physical school to remote learning, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They used a blend of ‘home packs’ of material for young children along with virtual engagement sessions in an age-appropriate manner, to keep the learning process alive.
School is primarily a community — it is about social and emotional connections that keep a child engaged and underpin the cognitive process of learning new skills and concepts. The teachers at Buddhi have kept that aspect in mind, even in these times of social distancing and remote learning.
Prathima Rao, Learning and Academic Head
Early in March, when the first signs of the pandemic started to show, Bengaluru was one of the first cities in India to shut down its schools. At Buddhi, the teachers continued to come into school to finalize assessments and consolidate student portfolios ahead of the summer break. The high school students were half-way through their final practice exams as part of their prep for the Board exams scheduled in May.
With the closing of schools, our teachers seamlessly changed the exam venue to students’ homes and the exams were completed remotely. Since our high school program had an online module for the last 18 months, the transition was smooth. Our Junior school teachers used these “child free” days to complete their learning stories and update our student e-portfolios in preparation for parent interactions scheduled in March.
Fast forward to April — summer vacation and lockdown forced everyone to stay home, but everyone at Buddhi continued to work as we were able to foresee the need to be ready to offer remote learning for our students after the summer vacation. Junior School teachers decided to start off with parent interactions via phone. What emerged was that our young Buddhians were coping extremely well during the lockdown — helping their parents with not just household chores, but sharing what they learned at school. Finally, a practical application of the applied learning in our Primary Classrooms where students are constantly challenged to problem-solve! Of course, the children were missing their friends and teachers and were looking forward to getting back to “school”.
Meanwhile, we were in touch with our educational partners in New Zealand where schools had re-opened for remote learning and we were able to start planning for the same at Buddhi using some of their models. To begin with, our teachers created “home learning packs” with a focus on creative and applied learning and entertainment. Our high school teachers were busy all through the summer working on collating assessments to create “derived grades” as the board exams had been cancelled due to COVID 19.
Our planning for “Remote Learning” kicked off with several “Zoom” meetings to decide on the best platforms and models for different learning groups at Buddhi. We discussed the models used by schools in New Zealand and how to adapt them to suit our students’ needs.
Right from the start, we were very sure that “independent online learning” was not a viable option for our young learners under the age of 12 as they would need to be supervised by an adult. For young children, school is essentially a social environment where they play and learn alongside their friends. So, keeping this in mind, our home learning packs were designed to involve parents and other siblings as well as allowing for sharing with their friends and teachers during their social interactive sessions.
With our senior school, we have gone with the “Google Classroom” platform which has been successfully trialed in high schools in NZ and our teachers and students were already familiar with. Our teachers spent a couple of weeks getting familiar with this new format of teaching and learning and it has been a continuous learning process with, very often, students leading the way. After all, when it comes to technology, our teenagers are way ahead of adults who are “digital immigrants”.
Rathna — High School English Teacher
No phones … inside school hours!
ended up as… GOOGLE School inside the phone!
My personal experience with online learning began with the phone, with its ups and downs, coping with basics like internet connectivity and then switching over to the smartphone, which is equally a struggle … smartphones being smarter than an old-timer like me!! The notoriously undependable power supply, too, had a hand in stressing me out, bringing my spirits to rock bottom, with fatigue taking over at the end of it.
Despite the advances in technology, one deterrent is students saying … ‘Ma’am you are not audible’. The technical glitches are depressing. Then, avoiding the background sound of a pressure cooker going off, a mixer being run by another member in the family and making sure the light falls on your face are challenges too.
At Buddhi, we teachers have no worry of having to stay up late to mark assignments, or during classes worry if the students are paying attention or not. This is a BIG blessing, which makes it a pleasure to facilitate remote learning.
As the vocation calls for, it is the anxiety and guilt that students are losing out on precious time that keeps us going. And of course, the belief that all the troubles is worth it and the struggle to keep one’s head above water is not really a big deal after all.
Now into a new week of online learning, it is much more in place, having ironed out most of the kinks in this process. It is a learning experience for all.
Sushma, Primary & Middle years Art & Personal Effectiveness Learning teacher
Is it the new normal? “The best teachers have always personalized,” says Elisa Villanueva-Beard, CEO of Teach For America. Now with virtual learning, “we have an opportunity to recognize this asset and put it to use in a way that’s data-driven.”
I have been looking forward to seeing the children all summer. Usually like the children, we too, look forward to a summer break, but 2020 summer wasn’t like any other. All locked up away in our respective homes, the only faces you see around are folks at home.
We knew that this pandemic isn’t going to end soon and like all schools we too were looking at various options to stay connected with our students. We as teachers were relatively new to this concept of online teaching and interaction. A little nervous about how things would pan out but at the same time an opportunity to learn new ways of reaching out.
I am so glad that because of remote learning, I am getting to chat and have a hearty conversation with my students, getting to know them more on a personal level.
The sunbirds were thrilled to show me what they had done during the lockdown and enjoyed having a conversation with each other and told me that the moment they return to school they want to run around and meet their friends; while the kingfishers were eager to share what they had been doing — some exercising, two of them had been taking French and German classes and most of them seemed to have been baking. One of them even said that she would like to stay in school so that even if there is another lockdown she would be stuck with all her friends in school!
Amongst the swallows the girls had art that they enjoyed showing me and a few things that they had learnt and the boys were having secret conversations amongst themselves through private chats, a typical class. I was even tutored by one of my students as to how to change the background to a virtual one.
Rupa, Primary years (7 to 11) class teacher
Remote learning is a new experience for both educators and students. It has become the new normal in the field of education in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. After having phases of nervousness and anxiety about how to go about remote teaching to children with whom I have always been interacting face to face in a school set up, I geared myself up to face and experience a new challenge. Prior to the actual teaching, we had regular staff meetings on Zoom, which helped me to overcome the anxiety.
Buddhi formally reopened after vacations on Wednesday, 27th May 2020. I guess, along with teachers, the children were also excited, as parents started sharing pictures of their children sitting in front of the laptop from 7 o’clock onwards. Some of them even wore their uniform, just to feel connected with the school, their friends and teachers. The classes were scheduled to begin from 9 o’ clock, but I got ready early and sat in front of the laptop to welcome and admit the participants waiting in the waiting room..:-)..some new vocabulary we learnt, thanks to online teaching!!!
The moment we connected on screen, all anxiety and apprehensiveness was gone and I felt that I was in the same environment with them. Of course, the juniors did some bit of shopping problems and discussed ways of making a volcano!! Adding a personal touch, the children showed their toys, their dads’ achievements, their masks and shared what they have been doing in this lockdown period. Children show the way!!
Teaching remotely is a steep learning curve. Now, in the second week, I am becoming more confident and planning my home and work schedules ahead. Being in constant touch with colleagues helps a lot and we have been providing support and help to each other.
Thilaka, Early Learning Years (5 to 7) class teacher
First online interaction for Robins (03–06–2020)
This seems like the time that children were waiting for! After being locked down for nearly 3 months, the excitement and zest in children reemerged when they got an opportunity to meet their friends on screen. It’s not that bad to interact online when you have no other option left.
To bring the session alive, we started with our backward counting game as a warm up. The children were in high spirits though a few of them had forgotten the warm-up drill.
‘AD’ made his origami frog jump on us to thrill us all. ‘AN’ was ready with her beautiful leaf painting to show her friends. ‘S’ explained about her butterfly experiment that was in the cocoon stage as she was fed breakfast. ‘J’ ’was excited to show the mechanic-set he’s been working on. ‘V’ is always busy gardening. He has a lot to do in gardening when he gets back to school.
‘M’ wakes up at 6am everyday and has nothing to do. She is in her own imaginary world expressed on a paper. ‘R’ cooks for her toys every day and prepares her own cheese sandwich and orange juice for breakfast. She has her own song to sing while cooking and she has sowed tomato seeds in her balcony that have sprouted. ‘AH’ seems to miss building legos at school. Our new friends, ‘M’ and ‘N’ were thrilled to be part of our interaction. ‘M’ introduced herself and ’N’ was excited to show her toys and promised that she would teach us how to build a castle/bungalow with the legos.
Finally, we realised technology’s role in bringing us together. A big thanks to the parents who made this happen and will help in continuing this.
S. Jyothsna, Middle school student
So as we all are dreadfully trapped inside our houses for the decrease and breaking up of the spread of the Novel Coronavirus, there have been quite a few assuming and unassuming ways of carrying on our daily duties. But the most striking, I shall say from my point of view, is remote learning or taking up online classes.
Remote learning or online classes are beginning to become very popular ever since the quarantine or lockdown started and sure enough, I too started online classes. It was quite a joy to see familiar faces again and faintly missing the old routine of lounging around doing nothing and everything. Although the flexibility offered by my school did seem quite generous, it took me a while to get used to it. I never tried to think of online things that I thought to be, only specifically in entertainment or solely my entertainment. Even though my father had started working from home immediately, I knew, I too would have to do the same, to learn from home.
Yet it still took me a surprise! But maybe that was a result of my thinking that there could be no means to transfer physical or face to face learning into technology. Which seemed quite bizarre of a thing to say when I am a child of a New Age in Civilization. Anyways, when I heard of google classroom I thought, of course, Google has something to do with or benefit from the lockdown. As heard from others that they were doing their schooling materials on Zoom it was good to be a little different than others even though we were almost the same. I did not think that getting back on the school routine of waking early or being well dressed for 4 or more hours was going to be easy since I was already accustomed to the quarantine routine of mine. In spite of the fact that I knew I was going to do that at some point, I still was very weirdly surprised. I also had to make up my mind on getting things done since I was quite overwhelmed with the amount of homework given to us, despite the fact that it would’ve been the same if I was at school.
While I was at ease and settled I noticed that some of my classmates were not, well at least some of them were not. We are very different, a diverse bunch to say the least, as one was off to a very divergent routine than staying at home and instead going off to play sports, while the other had connectivity issues at the beginning of classes, not to say that I don’t sometimes. And the other one is super professional! So it made me realize that having different types of atmospheres at different classes was a good idea because the pupils were comfortable. And having a sibling by my side who did the same but just a little slower was helpful and a little annoying at times.
In conclusion, I’d like to say not all of us prefer remote learning or online classes or homeschooling or whatever you want to call it. I certainly would be one of those in favour of going to school and studying.
Ishita Naren, Middle school student
This absolutely horrendous pandemic has us all stuck inside with nothing to do. It benefits some people, while it’s detrimental to others. But, life cannot stop because of this. It has to run. We just need to find ways to help it do so. A lot of companies have already started asking employees to get back to work, some companies prefer to keep their employees at home. School has started too, and it’s very different.
We have been introduced to a lot of new topics with online classes. Some of the classes are conducted exactly how they were before. But some are just very different. Some teachers use a piece of paper to show us what we need to do. Some use jamboards as the whiteboard, some have pre-made word documents to show us. I would not like to call these classes ‘remote’ since these classes are just as long as the normal classes we would have in school.
One of the advantages of these classes is that you have your home comfort to work in. But, this can also be a disadvantage. When you are sitting in your bedroom, or in any bedroom for that matter, you tend to look at the bed. When you look at the bed, your mind associates it with sleep, and hence, you start feeling sleepy.
The second advantage, is that after school you don’t have to travel all the way back home and for relaxation, because you’re already in your home! So you can just jump on your bed, and take a short nap, or relax whatever way you do!
One of the disadvantages is that the learning experience just isn’t the same. Some teachers tend to get irritated when you don’t understand the concept, and they crack from the pressure they receive from home and from students. The connection can be a huge problem too! If the teacher is dictating notes, and suddenly your connection goes bad, and you have to leave the meeting, how are you supposed to know what you missed? That’s why I say, thank heavens for friends!
All in all, these classes are good, but have their own disadvantages which sometimes cannot be avoided. But, they are still educational and we are learning. And though some people do not like it, at least it’s better than nothing.
Kanchan Harish, High school student
In the recent light of the 2020 COVID-19 nightmare, most schools have switched to a remote learning format. Many parents and students think it’s an amazing idea while others are completely against it.
I think it’s a great idea, because it helps students keep up with what we’ve been missing without school, it also gives us something to do in an extremely boring time.
But on the other hand, I can also think of a few reasons this isn’t the best idea. It gets really hard to commit to something and focus on it in a home environment, there are distractions everywhere! It’s really hard to find a good balance between school and other stuff, because you are doing your schoolwork and homework in the same place, in a room with your laptop, they both lump together to make it feel like you’ve just been sitting there forever! This can get really tiring and eventually you lose all of your motivation.
I think this learning system is necessary, but I don’t think it works well for everyone, some may really benefit from this approach, while some of us can find it very hard to keep up with. I think a physical whiteboard, papers, and social interactions with our peers are the best system for me, it keeps me focused and keeps the productivity strong. It gives me a break from my sports and home, it keeps things interesting. I get why people prefer online school, I do understand that it is necessary, but I don’t think it works for me.
Varsha Bandiwad, Parent
We really appreciate the patience shown by all teachers and the adaptive learning program :) Kudos to your commitment and determination.
This has also given us an opportunity to understand what ‘E’ does on a daily basis. We love the way the learning program has been designed!! I would have loved to study this way :-) :-)
Manisha and Ajay, Parents
Dear Teachers,
We highly appreciate all the effort you’re taking in making our child’s learning experience as good as can get. Our warm wishes and regards to you and your families. Stay safe.
Prathima Rao, Co-founder
One month down the line, we are constantly changing, adapting our programme based on student, parent and teacher feedback. While the little ones are excitedly looking forward to new packs, the parents are finding it hard to keep up with the exuberant energy of their children😊 Teachers were also beginning to show signs of stress trying to keep up with the overflowing inboxes and so we decided to give everyone a break from “school work” and allow for some R&R. Our Principal Raji, rightly pointed out to the teachers that what they covered in a month usually lasted a whole term when we are onsite.
So, going forward we have decided to slow it down- especially since we really don’t know how long before we can go back to school. Remote learning is the new normal and to make it sustainable, we have to adapt and that is something Team Buddhi is very good at😊
Our senior school programme did not really change much in terms of the format of learning except that instead of face-face interactions, they now interact online. After a very enthusiastic start, our teenagers have been showing some signs of stress particularly in core learning areas. Our teachers were quick to pick up on this and have been having 1x1 chats where it has emerged that it’s the social isolation that is bothering them — particularly the girls and they are struggling to stay focused in their online sessions.
This is not unexpected, because “online learning” is more suited for tertiary learning where the students have freedom to manage their social environment alongside their learning. For school students, school is their main social environment and if they can’t have access to friends, learning becomes stressful. We believe that if the control for learning is in the hands of students they will own it and so right now we are having conversations with them to come up with strategies that will work for both the students and teachers. Since our motto is “one size doesn’t fit all” we are confident that we will have an individual plan to suit every student’s needs and learning style.
To read about a day at Buddhi school in pre-COVID times see this post “Learning without boundaries: Buddhi school”
Photo credit: Team Buddhi
