Great, I agreed and note with what you mentioned on the last sentence: " …that setting ground rules and explaining the course netiquette…"
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Teaching is a very noble profession. Every year we touch so many souls to make a difference in their life.
The most embarrassing part of any teacher is when students give nicknames to their teachers as Miss Makeup kit, Alzebra( algebra), or any novel character as it comes to their mind.
The most beautiful moment for me is when students give a quality pass in my subject area. It puts a bright smile on my face when we discuss the analysis in the staff meeting and the highest/quality pass rate is highlighted.
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Hi Ashley
I agree with your comments. It happens to all (Indian and I-taukei) teachers who do not understand the language and students make fun of them.
As teachers we have to act smart and control the situations.
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Hi Esther
I agree on your point of view. Students do leave a memory when they depart. On the other hand we can recall our school days where we had so many beautiful memories to cherish. In those memories we have our hard working teachers who have mentored us so well.
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In my teaching, I have experienced many positive situations with the students like going for a field trip, having teachers’ day functions, early morning greetings with a flower and having the best class prefect. But the best moment a teacher’s life is when we see the kids under our care succeed. There was a kid in my class; I am a Year 1 teacher. He did not go to kindergarten and when he came to school, he used to cry in the morning then sit whole day and look at others. When I used to call him to sit on the rug for story time or singing, he used to hide under his table. Slowly I developed a bond with him by calling him to do activities like set the blackboard, etc. He changed. I started sitting beside him on the same table then he started responding to my instructions. He gradually started writing and communicating. Now the child is in Year 8 and he is an average child. I believe we teachers have an attitude that all the students under our care should succeed. So I was really happy and I still feel proud and honored to be the one to instill the love of learning in him.
I negative experience with a student was that in our school we usually have counseling sessions every month. I was in charge of the junior girls. We are part of a Sanatan school so the rule for the girls was to tie two plaits. So in the counseling session I told all the junior girls to tie two plaits. A child went home and relayed the message home. The next day, the father came to school with the child and came directly to me and told me that “my wife is busy in the morning and she can’t tie two plaits. If you problem teacher, you can tie 2 plaits.” It was the worst moment for me as a teacher. My statement was generalized to all the junior girls but this parent took it intently. This moment is still fresh in my mind.
Some of the proactive measures that I can take to prevent and manage conflicts amongst my course participants are by taking responsibility, brainstorming ideas and solutions, acknowledging others and not criticizing anyone.
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True… At times student also imitate the teachers in absence of the teacher in the classroom.
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Vinaka master. It gives a different feeling to the teachers to see the child under your care succeed due to a few positives decisions by you.
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Positive
Learning Styles
Every student has a different learning journey and a different learning style. Some students are visual learners, while some students prefer to learn through audio. Similarly, some students thrive in the classroom, and other students are solo learners who get distracted by large groups.
The online learning system, with its range of options and resources, can be personalized in many ways. It is the best way to create a perfect learning environment suited to the needs of each student.
Negative
Inability to Focus On Screens
For many students, one of the biggest challenges of online learning is the struggle with focusing on the screen for long periods of time. With online learning, there is also a greater chance for students to be easily distracted by social media or other sites. Therefore, it is imperative for the teachers to keep their online classes crisp, engaging, and interactive to help students stay focused on the lesson.
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I experiences both positive and negative in face to face and e-learning with students everyday. During Covid19 lock down I usually conduct zoom classes for my Y12 and Y11 students. It was a memorable experience because it was the first time I have to go through this new plat form of learning and teaching, also I have to teach my student how to adopt to this new form of learning and for them to understand what I am teaching. It was slow when we started and it went smoothly as we goes on. Now we are back on face to face we are preparing for their external examination.
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There have been many honestly. The positive experiences are ofcourse when students communicate, and are able to reflect and apply theories and concepts to the real world. I coordinate a course that was very theory heavy to begin with but over the years, we have recognised the importance of teaching theory-driven courses in an applied manner. And students talk amongst themselves so when I was really new, I stuck to the course descriptor to the T which was ofcourse theory heavy. And to be very honest - it became dull for me at a certain point as well which is when I decided to spice things up a bit. And now when a student walks up to me at the end of the semester that you know Afrada, many of my friends told me this course will be so difficult but it has helped me in various aspects of my life. There have been a few instances like that when I have received feedback even constructive criticism - I really cherish those moments.
Not so much a negative experience (well not entirely) - but during the whole transition to online teaching and learning, I remember I had a student who had his video turned on and he was smoking. I don’t have any issues with people smoking but in a “normal” classroom setting, the unwritten boundaries are already established - you wouldn’t expect a student to sit and smoke in class during a lecture. I was taken aback for a few minutes and had asked the student if he would do that in a normal classroom and his response was “no” and then he apologised and so on. However, afterwards it dawned on me that I had not really set the boundaries for a virtual classroom and that was a very important teachable moment for me. I had to be empathetic as students were really struggling with the sudden transition. I quickly did my research and now I think I have quite a good course outline/syllabus document for students so that they can familiarize themselves about all the expectations and boundaries for our online classes right from Day 1. I think as an educator, it is important that we think ahead about all the things that could have an impact on the teaching and learning process.
In relation to conflicts - this has become so much easier, all I have to do is create a separate Viber group for the students involved, give them the space to sort things out, end it with them doing a virtual handshake or a hug and that group is deleted. Touchwood nothing really drastic has happened yet and I hope that continues 
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Hi there. I totally get it - when you actually see them progress - best feeling ever!
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Hey there. If I may ask a question (you don’t have to respond) - how do you feel about going back to traditonal classroom learning? Just curious 
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One of the proactive measures that I can use to prevent and manage conflicts amongst course participants on chat rooms or discussion boards is reminding them of netiquettes already introduced to them at the beginning of the course. I will first remind them of the rules pertaining to the issues on ground, then call them to order based on these netiquettes.
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Surprisingly I had to teach a new comer at work in fuel differentiation and the amazing thing about it was I knew that the beginner had no knowledge at all of how to be able to grasp the knowledge of fuel from simply conversing with him on how I had started gaining interest on the same field so I made up a few simple acronym for him to understand which is which. it worked out perfectly. The big disappointment for me was this is not what was taught by book but he carried on with the teaching the same way I taught him which was a bit an uneasy way of accepting.
If I was to bring up some proactive measure to prevent and manage conflicts amongst the course participants in a chat room; I would minimize time during in a chat room and also specifically warn and notify paticipants that there is a nill acceptance of conflicts in the chat room. and all participants must practice netiquette.
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It’ll be o.k. provided there a less participants given the pandemic situation that we are currently facing
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yes, I totally agree. Netiquette all the way. that brings order
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CS4ODFL (PAC)- MODULE 4 Forum : I have come across situations like some students are not writing their notes. I tried allowing them time but they still did not do the work. I tried to find out the reason however, there was no genuine reason. I also tried to motivate them but some of them were just not realizing the importance of it and did not do the work. So instead of waiting for any longer, I tried to give printed notes which solved the problem.
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I would like share a story of how I chose to have teaching as my passion and not just a career. It start when I was in form 5 (Year 11) I had chosen to pursue my career in doing commerce I wanted to work as an accounted. My accounting teacher was my worst experience in school, Maths was my favorite subject and anything to deal with numbers I loved it, so my accounting teacher walked in class and started the class, half of the class was just screaming and throwing chalk and anything that was in her hand to us students so I got scared and slowly slowly in the first term I started losing interest in doing accounting and it was because of her so I had to asked the Principal if I could change my subject combination. In term 2 I had switch from commerce to science and I promised myself on that day that I will become a teacher but a better teacher than her where I will try my very best not to crush a child hope and dreams. She still does not know that she was the very reason that I chose teaching to be a passion and try to help my children achieve what they want in their lives.
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Bula Asenaca. Thank you for sharing this because I had a similar experience. A few of the worst teachers I ever had actually taught me something - and that is what NOT to do 
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Conflicts in an Open, Distance and Flexible Learning classroom can occur from disagreements around content to misunderstanding in text-based communication.
Listed below are some of the proactive measures or tactics I would employ to prevent and manage conflicts amongst the course participants on chat room or discussion board:
Be Credible - On the first day, establish your credibility by providing some background information about your experience as an instructor, on your experience as a student. Show that you are focused and prepared.
Set Clear Expectations - You can describe the goals of the course and other roles for you and your students You can also clearly emphasize your expectations for student behavior, stressed mutual respect as a rationale for any ground rules. You can also include school’s policies towards certain behavior, example plagiarism in your course outlines.
Develop Rappot - Students work better when they feel that their instructors care about them, therefore try to reduce anonymity and use students name whenever possible.
Use a Dynamic Teaching Style - Good presentation and facilitation skills as well as enthusiasm for you students attention focused and help distracting classroom behavior. Using interactive teaching methods helps distracting behavior by involving students in the lecture.
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