Tsunami, 3. The Old-Fashioned Way is Best.

Yesterday was my second day with video classes. There was no comparison between Monday and Tuesday. Monday was tranquil; yesterday was chaos. Add to that a blackout, and online learning is still a thing of the future in small towns and villages.

It started out fine, with just one student. The second hour was one of the most challenging ones, however. The howling winds and strong rain caused a blackout that affected me and three others. Only one was spared. So, my phone switched to the phone data from the wifi, and things slowed down a lot. I didn't even have a 4G connection; my phone said H+. I had had my Whatsapp open on the computer, as well, so I could look at pictures the students had sent me of exercises they had to do. Now, I couldn't answer questions or explain how to get the answers. 

The lights came back on after about ten minutes. I restarted the computer, but the wifi signal was red, and I didn't have an internet connection on the computer. It seemed that the blackout had also affected the mobile phone tower from which the signal came. Close to the end of the class, the signal turned green, and I had a slow connection start up. It wouldn't turn blue, and good, until late in the evening.

The next hour was not quite as chaotic, except that I couldn't see what my students were writing unless they turned their phones around and showed me through their camera. They were younger, and didn't know how to take and send pictures through the app while keeping open a video call. I did what I could with them, with the added problem that one of them either had a bad connection, or the camera on the phone was very cheap, so I couldn't see things very well through her video. 

The last hour, one couldn't attend, and another went AWOL, despite her mother telling me to double down on her with extra tasks. So, I had two older girls with more computer and internet savvy than me. One of them sent me a pdf by email to correct, which I painstakingly did after the class was over, and resent it back.  

Online teaching is a struggle for me, even more so with the added worry of finishing my data on the phone and the wifi. There isn't the ease of taking a book, propping it on the table and asking two kids to copy and do the same exercise. Nor is there the ease of taking chalk and writing on the blackboard to explain the relationship between words. Not even of taking a piece of paper and writing out sentences to translate. It all has to pass through the computer. I'm sure it's easy for those who practically live online, but not for me.

Another added problem is that I am sitting in the same chair all afternoon. With kids in the study, I sit for some hours, stand for others, and if needed, go into the kitchen for a moment. Not with the phone in front of me. Let's see what today brings. Hopefully, after Carnival break things will be better, and we can get together, again. Hopefully.

Life continues. Offline.