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A teacher is almost like a parent for any child. They are part of their microsystem, which help them to nurture in every way, especially for the young kids. But because of the pandemic, it has been a year; they are just glued with a screen for online classes to now for summer activities. This hampers their social-emotional development with their peers and teachers. Now summer vacations are on, and kids have started to participate in Art & Craft, Painting, Drawing to Robotics classes, which is again online. This stressful situation blocks our positive energy, and we feel drained, which doesn’t allow us to be happy. When you are worried about the changes in anything, it turns into stress. Here are some experiences which teachers shared with me.
We all have the same situation but, as we all are biologically and socially different, every individual is taking everything differently. While listening to a teacher I was empathizing with her, when she was sharing her experience for online classes “the teacher said that this was the first time in my eight-year teaching career that I did not meet the children for my entire session. It makes me downhearted. She said that every year when children come to the new class, we have the excitement of getting to know every child, their nature, hobbies, social skills, creativity, strength etc. I always wait for that introductory session with my kids. Then gradually we work on the weaknesses of each child individually, which give us satisfaction as a teacher, but with online classes, it’s hard to know them. Apart from this, there are many problems which make me feel bad and stressed. Then for that, I do Yoga which helps me to calm down. ”
A Government school shared the reality of online classes “Children don’t focus on study and participate rarely as compared to class strength because in our government schools attendance is not compulsory. Sometimes they just tease teachers and waste the time of the whole class and such online study class result in zero outcomes. One of the major reason for less strength is that most of the students are from a poor family and they can't afford smartphones or laptops. She said, “ I try to provide offline notes by visiting their houses to prevent them from the shortcomings of not having smartphones so that they can also perform well in their studies. This makes me stressed, I do prayanam regularly as it is very effective in reducing stress and meditation makes our brain healthy and focused”. She added that talk to yourself regularly as you are the one who can reduce your stress and it makes you a creative thinker.
Where some other teachers are facing some different challenges, “ I am seriously telling you, Maya, “Am I audible (in the context of online classes), this line completely makes me insane?. After all the uncertainty in life because of the pandemic, there are some reasons which make you mad so often. When you start taking classes occasionally there are technical glitches, Network issues, phone battery and so forth. And because you are at home, there must be some distraction too on the family side which hampers my teaching momentum from time to time, and what else can be big stress that I am fond of music, so I try to engage myself with some songs, that works for me as a stress buster”
A Business management teacher from Prometheus School, Prachi Vishnoi, said that she has adapted to the new teaching environment and she added “Frankly speaking, when we're new to this situation of online classes, it was a real stressor....but as now it is more than one year into online teaching. I think stress levels have gone down. Thanks to Microsoft for making online teaching enjoyable for both teacher and the student. No perfect solution to cope with the stress. For me when I feel stressed out playing with my daughter, or watching movies or cleaning the house works out best for me.”
But here is just one important fact is that we have to adapt to this environment whether we all like it or not, Stress is the feeling of emotional and physical tension which arises from any event, and when you are not being able to cope with mental and emotional pressure, it gets worsened. Finding a potential source of internal energy independently helps to overcome stress.