On the first week of my Educational Psychology class, we discuss about characteristics of expert teachers. One of the characteristics is knowledge of learners. Having a chance of face to face class/interaction for 5-6 weeks with the students, I admit that I don’t have enough time to get to know them well.
During MCO, we are left with no choice than non-face to face interaction. It is not easy with a large class that I have. Yup. 60 students per class and I have two classes for this course. All together, I have 120 students. Even though I drop a message to say Hi almost everyday, but I notice that not all students would reply my message.
It is already Week 13. Yay!!!! So, it is quite understandable that some students have started to panic and it is normal for some of them to ask questions about the assignments (with deadlines around the corner. To be exact, Week 14). I have extended the deadlines to 30 May 2020 because the final exam period will start from 31 May 2020.
Even though I did a survey before we resumed our class in early April, some students did not inform me that they have such problems such as not having a laptop. But since there are few others who have informed me about their predicament, I just make generalisation that there might be some others who have the same problems but choose to keep silent.
But, I am quite persistent in “bugging” them to let me know if they have any problem. Bugging here does not mean that I am stalking them rather I want to know how they are coping with the challenges that they have to face at home especially the technical stuff like internet connection, laptop and such.
Do I care about my students learning? Well, on one part, I don’t care that much. But, actions speak louder than words, right? 