The document summarizes the observations and reflections of an educator who taught 10 online classes over a period of time. Some key points: - It was challenging to teach online classes for the first time and summarize chapters rather than explain line-by-line. - Confidence and comfort level increased with experience, but effectiveness is hard to gauge without physical presence. - Network issues sometimes disrupted classes and student participation varied. - Teaching poems/songs online requires going beyond summaries to help students understand deeper meanings. - Reading abilities of some students were poor, making content difficult to understand. - Overall it was a learning experience and confidence in online teaching abilities grew over time.

1. Topic: Observationand Reflectionof Online Classes
Submitted By: Anoop Abraham
Submitted To: Mr. Jijan E.K. (Asst. Prof.)
SubmissionDate:28th
November2020
RegisterNo.: 16519303004

2. Day 1
Today I taught the first chapter of class 8th
i.e, ‘The Mysterious
Picture’. As it was my first class taken through online mode, I
was bit nervous initially and add to that I was instructed to not
to take class in a traditional way i.e, line by line explanation of
the chapter was not expected, instead I had to give the
summarized explanation of the chapter along with a small
discussion on question and answers and some grammar portion
given in the text which made the task a bit difficult because it
is an online class and the students were also experiencing the
same for the first time (as told by school authorities). Moreover
I believe students does not knew each other and the subject
teacher also didn’t knew children as it was a fresh admission
batch, hence it was little awkward to get into rhthym right
away, but slowly I started the class by making students feel
comfortable. It was a strange feeling that I had to teach some
15-16 students without even knowing their names, but as
students watch the class through KITE-VICTERS they had the
basic idea about the chapter and its characters. While teaching
I felt that I was getting into unnecessary details which was not
needed, but later I realized it and made things quick so as to
cover the topic in the given time. The students listened and
responded to me properly except a minor lag here and there. I
completed the class in the given time and was successful in
covering the topics which I prepared. I believe I can take more
effective online classes in near future as I gain experience in
the same.

3. Day 2
Today I taught the second chapter from the first unit ‘The boy
who drew cats’ it was somewhat based on the same theme as
the first chapter i.e, painting, art, artist etc. I showed some
world famous painting at the beginning of the class to get into
the rhythm and as part of the link talk. Today I felt way more
confident than yesterday because the initial hesitation of online
class was gone and I felt much more comfortable, confident and
in control of the situation, rather today I enjoyed teaching. The
only issue which I faced today was from the student’s side, as
some were not switching off their mikes and because of that
there was unnecessary disturbance and noise in the class. I was
able to complete the class within the given time and there was
no problems as such. Students were cooperative and gave
appropriate responses when asked. I also used mother tongue
in between so as to create a connect with the students. Later on
my colleague concluded the class by giving follow up activity
of diary writing which she explained in a simple and lucid
manner. Before ending the class I also asked students for their
opinion about the class and they responded ‘affirmatively’.

4. Day 3
Today I taught third chapter of the first unit ‘Taj Mahal’.
Actually it is a few lines taken from the poem ‘Shah Jahan’
written by Rabindranath Tagore. I started the class by showing
a picture of Taj Mahal to students and pictures of other
monuments from seven wonders of the world. In between I
asked showing a tower (Leaning Tower of Pisa) what was it?,
some students replied quickly that it was Qutub Minar. I was
impressed by their confidence and innocence, they were not
sure of the answer yet they replied but at the same time if they
were adults they would not have replied. I wonder what
happens over the years that a child loses his/her innocence and
confidence. I just read the poem quickly once and moved on
with it’s summary. Since it was a poem and summarizing it
straight away and that too with nobody physically present
before me gave me a awkward feel. I was not sure that whether
student understood what I explained to them, although they
were responding to me properly but still I was not satisfied.
Thus it is one of the major drawback of online teaching, one
cannot know the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of his/her
teaching. But still I managed to confidently continue the class,
later on I discussed the question and answers with students to
which they responded properly. I concluded the class with an
activity explaining the temporary and permanent things in life
after which my colleague took over the class.

5. Day 4
Today I taught the fourth chapter from the first unit ‘We’re the
World’. The chapter actually was a few lyrics written by
Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie from their famous physical
single with a view to help the famine affected people of Africa.
It is a song about the unity of mankind and it gives a message
of love and care towards each other. I started the class by
showing the album cover to the students and describing about
the lyricists. I told students that the song has very simple lyrics
and they will easily understand it. I quickly glanced through the
lyrics explaining those lines to students. Today I felt more
confident and comfortable than yesterday probably because the
theme of the chapter was a more common one. I also gave some
facts and figures about the song, which generated interest in the
students. I also used mother tongue in between the class to
explain difficult words and their usages. But in between I
felt some lag because I was not able to get the appropriate word
in the mother tongue to explain some words yet somehow I
managed the situation. The only thing I was concerned was that
the effectiveness of the class which no one can predict because
students are not physically present before the teacher and it is
one of biggest limitations of online teaching, because I feel
while teaching poem or songs mere summarizing will not be
enough, one has to go deeper because poems and song have
much more than their literal meaning. The students responded
appropriately and I believe the overall experience was good.

6. Day 5
Today I taught the first chapter from second unit ‘ A
Shipwrecked Sailor’ written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The
chapter was a real life account of its central character i.e, Luis
Alejandro Valesco who was lost in sea and survived for ten
days without food and water. I started the class by explaining
about the author and his major works and achievements. Later
on I showed the picture of Titanic before it was wrecked and
after the same as link talk to the students, I also explained the
meaning of ship wreck which, I believe helped students to
relate to the chapter. I later on explained the summary of the
chapter. The problem with summarizing the chapter was that
you can’t explain things in detail relating to the chapter which
could have helped students to gain a better understanding of the
chapter, moreover I personally was not satisfied with the way I
had to take the class i.e, by summarizing quickly without going
into detail. But I have to follow the instructions given by the
authorities. Yet I managed to explain the complete story of
which only a small portion was covered in the actual chapter.
Having taken four class earlier I carried on the class with the
help of confidence gained in previous classes. I discussed the
question answers and got proper responses from the students. I
finished the class within time and overall it was a good
experience.

7. Day 6
Today I taught the first chapter from the first unit of the ninth
class ‘The Race’ written by Nisha Punjabi it was somewhat
based on the theme of athletics and sports I showed some world
famous athletes at the beginning of the class to get into the
rhythm and as part of the link talk. Today I felt way more
confident than yesterday because the initial hesitation of online
class was gone and I felt much more comfortable, confident and
in control of the situation, rather today I enjoyed teaching. The
only issue which I faced today was from the student’s side, as
some were not switching off their mikes and because of that
there was unnecessary disturbance and noise in the class. I was
also having network issue and students were not able to hear
me often. But somehow I was able to complete the class within
the given time. Students were cooperative and gave appropriate
responses when asked. I also used mother tongue in between so
as to create a connect with the students. Later on I concluded
the class by giving follow up activity of diary writing which
was explained in a simple and lucid manner. Before ending the
class I also asked students for their opinion about the class and
they responded ‘positively’.

8. Day 7
I began the class by asking few questions based on the last class
as it was the continuation part of the last class i.e, ‘The Race’
and students responded appropriately to the questions asked.
Later in the class there was disturbance and some lag was
experienced because of network issue, students were not able
to hear my voice for sometime, I even doubted that they were
complaining deliberately! To create disturbance in the class,
but later on situation changed. I read the text with proper stress
and pronunciation and explained it in a simple manner, later on
I explained difficult words identified in the text and also
explained word meanings asked by students. It was good to see
children asking doubts frankly. I easily handled all their doubts.
Further some question and answers were discussed on the basis
of text. Today I was more confident and comfortable than
yesterday as it was a new class which I was teaching and the
students were not familiar to me. Throughout the class it was
good to see the participation of students and it was a good sign
that class was engaging. I concluded the class by explaining
about diary writing, overall it was a enriching experience.

9. Day 8
Today I taught the second chapter of the first unit i.e, ‘Learning
the Game’ by Sachin Tendulkar. Actually the lesson was a part
of Sachin’s autobiography so before beginning the chapter I
started talking about sports and also asked students about their
favourite sportspersons and students replied accordingly. As
chapter was related to sports it naturally generated interest in
students and they were responding to various aspects related to
Sachin. Later on I read the text and explained the same. Further
I encouraged the students to read the text and I explained what
was read. But one thing I noticed while some of them were
reading was that some students were struggling to read, they
can hardly identify words and it was hard to believe that they
were studying in ninth grade, because reading and writing are
the basic skills that is expected of a student at this level, hence
it was pathetic to see such condition. I used mother tongue
judiciously and it was easy for students to understand the
content. Because of the excess time taken by the students while
reading, the class went on for more than 30 minutes due to
which I got less time for other activities and had to rush to wind
up the class, which I think could have been avoided. The only
thing I didn’t liked in the class was that students were hesitating
to read the text which caused unnecessary delay. But I was
confident and calm to control the class. Overall it was a
learning experience for me.

10. Day 9
Today I taught the continuation of the second chapter of the
first unit i.e, ‘Learning the Game’ by Sachin Tendulkar. I
welcomed the students to the class and enquired about the
assignment of the last class, some students gave the assignment
in the chat box itself. It was good to see that students were doing
the work given by me. As yesterday there was a lag in the class
due to delay in reading by students hence I decided to read the
content by myself, which saved a lot of time and there was no
unnecessary lag, that’s why I finished the class within the given
time and I felt much more comfortable and confident than
yesterday. But once I finished the content reading I invited
students to read the summary of the chapter. Here I noticed one
more flaw in their reading technique, i.e, some students were
reading the text as if there were no comma or full stop in the
text and it sounded very weird and strange. Later I discussed
question and answers with students to which they responded
appropriately. I also explained meaning of difficult words and
their usage. I used mother tongue judiciously and it was easy
for students to understand the content. Thus concluding the
class, overall it was a good experience.

11. Day 10
Today as it was the last online class which I had to take so I
was in a relaxed mood as I was familiar with the students and
the other settings and was also much confident than when I
began the class. I started the class by talking about the unit
which was based on sports and this chapter ‘Bang The Drum’
was based on olympics games. I talked about Olympics games
and the atheletes who participate in them and also the theme
songs which is released ahead of major sporting events. One
such song is waka waka which was released in 2010 ahead of
FIFA football world cup and was sung by international singer
Shakira. The present chapter is a song sung by Brayan Adams
and Nelly Furtado at the opening ceremony of 2010 winter
Olympics. I started to read the verse from the song as it was not
a lengthy song I easily explained each line and letting students
know what Olympics was about. I told them about the motto of
Olympics that was ‘Faster, Higher and Stronger’. I explained
to students that Olympics was more about participation and
oneness rather than winning. I gave them easy examples to
make the theme easily understand. Later on I asked some
scaffolding questions related to the chapter which were
correctly answered by the students. Further I explained poetic
devices to the students like simile, metaphor, personification
etc. and also identified the same from the song. After that I
discussed question and answers with students to which they
responded appropriately.
Before ending the class we thanked the students and the subject
teacher for patiently listening to us and providing us the
opportunity to us to take online classes. They also thanked us
for the classes taken and there was appreciation from their side.