How Socially Distant Teaching Worked (or didn't work) for me

Hey, I'm finally back! 

   So ... I haven't actually posted about how my teaching has been going, with COVID-19 and social distancing and all. Life has been too busy to worry about a trivial thing like blogging.

   Yes, I did say busy. Because when you live on five acres with two parents, three to four siblings (depending on who's home), two cats, and a hyperactive dog ... the idea of being quarantined doesn't look that bad! Taking an exam over Zoom (which was NOT fun and games), planting the garden, other miscellaneous yardwork, cleaning, and other need-to-do tasks have been more than enough to keep me busy.

   But today it's raining. So, lucky for you, I can't go work outside! 

   Now I'm rambling. 

   When COVID-19 hit Canada in mid-March, my first response was to continue lessons as normal. Quickly that became apparent that it wasn't going to be possible to do so. There was just one problem: I had never before Skyped, FaceTimed, or used Google video chats. In today's day, that seems hard to believe that a young person like me wasn't familiar with at least one of these platforms! But I'm just not a techie person. So I sent an e-mail to one of my closest friends. I knew she would be willing to Skype with me and help me learn how to use it. A few e-mails and text messages later, we were successfully having a video chat on Skype. I quickly realized using it wasn't going to be as hard as I had thought. 

   So, unlike most teachers, I am using Skype instead of Zoom. Why? Because I learned how to use Skype first. Plus, it's free. 

   After my first day of teaching online, I wrote this to my fellow PMTA colleagues: 

   Yesterday I did [a third of the week's lessons] through Skype. When Dad asked me at the end of the day how it went, I shrugged and said, "I survived.".... There is always a way.

   By the end of the week, I wasn't feeling that optimistic. 

   By the end of the school year, I really wasn't feeling that optimistic. 

   Teaching online is a whole different experience than in-person. You can't adjust your student's hand position by gently moving their hands. Sometimes you can't even see their hands. You can't use balls, beads, or masking tape on the floor to reinforce what you're trying to tell them. You can't spontaneously whip out "just the game they need" (although you can still play games with a little preplanning). And all those factors make getting your point across just plain hard.

   But that's the life of the self-employed. You never know what's coming around the corner. All you can do is pray, take negative feelings and turn them into constructive criticism of yourself, and try things differently if they're not working. 

   Instead of sulking (well, OK, maybe I did do just a little bit of that😏), I chose to ask myself at the end of the school year: "What could I have done better?" Here's a few:

• Get more tech-savvy. Come up with a different set-up that will allow my students to see either my face or my hands, depending on what they really need to see. 
• Come up with games that will specifically work on communicating with them (something like the online piano teacher's version of Simon Says!). 
• Use humour when things are technically challenging. 
• Make sure I have copies of all their music. 

   I'm really, really hoping that when fall comes, we can return to in-person lessons. But if we can't, I will be ready. I'll be ready to make lessons better. To make lessons, whether they be in-person or over the Internet, fun not stressful. To show my students how enjoyable music is. And to prepare them to share that joy with others. 

   

   And hey, who knows? Once fall comes, I may even start offering online lessons to those who don't live close by. 🎶