Experience of virtual classes | Ms. Sanika Rai, Kanjirowa National School

Beginning anything is always difficult and confusing. When I first got introduced to virtual teaching and learning mode, there were a lot of overwhelming situations. However, exploring the virtual teaching itself was intriguing and with time, it became convenient. I especially found virtual platforms to be a lot better in terms of carrying out group or individual ppt presentations which encourages group work and engagements among students. Unlike physical classes, it’s easy to share their presentation in Google slides through screen sharing and can use any of the technical tools when necessary. Also, the students can use Google meet anytime for discussions and preparations. This whole process turned out to be very beneficial for students to initiate and lead their tasks and explore with their own creativity. I am a Social Studies Teacher. I aspire to make my students understand the real concept of the subject. Apart from the regular chapters, we are always trying our best to understand the current situations of all the societies of the world. During our virtual classes, we held a number of special classes and open-discussions on current affairs, be it national or international. We successfully held online awareness campaigns like Covid Enough is Enough Campaign in Nepal, Black Lives Matter, Dalit Lives Matter, and so on. At the time of the Lebanon Explosion, students were given a task to make group-message videos for Lebanese people where each student wished for the safety of Lebanese. Also, leading the “Dashain Dakshina Donation” Campaign for Siyona Shrestha (a two-year-old with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1) through online discussions and planning was indeed an exemplary use of technology. While doing so, I found my students change into different personas with a high sense of humility and empathy. Sometimes in the teaching-learning process, not only academic and technical learning is something to be proud of. 

I would definitely recommend virtual learning in days to come. In the time of the internet we are living now, virtual learning has become standard learning of modern time. It is convenient, less time-consuming, and can become a good playground where the students can play with their creativity with the help of different apps and tools. 

I had a wonderful time in virtual teaching. Albeit, it was challenging to maintain students’ regularity in the initial days, we overcame it slowly. Then it was more of playing with tools and using them wisely to make the classes more fun and dynamic.