Since late August, Ibaraki prefecture (among many other prefectures) had been under a State of Emergency (here on out referred to as SOE). What this entails is that people are required to work from home (where possible), restaurants have their hours shortened to only open until 8pm - and no alcohol to be served during that time - and schools, although technically open for classes from the beginning of this month, are to have online lessons.
In my city, this is the first time for all teachers to run their classes online. Of course, for students to be able to attend online classes, they need laptops and access to the internet. For the former, Ibaraki prefecture has had some sort of special funding by the central government where all schools are being supplied with Chromebooks for each and every student to use, and all schools have had their internet infrastructure given upgrades to allow all students to access the internet via their chromebooks when they're at school. However, for those who do not have internet access at home (and there are a few students here and there that do not), and for those who do not have any parents at home to supervise them (due to work), the school is open for them, and they can still do online lessons using the school's internet.
However, because the classes are online, it's possible to run a lesson with all classes from each grade attending at the same time - so for example, if there are four classes worth of second graders, you can run the class for all to attend at once - basically leaving teachers with more time freed up after class. For the last three weeks, I've run a few online lessons for my elementary school. I was a bit nervous with my first lesson for a couple of reasons. For one, as I'm looking at a camera, rather than students, it was hard to gauge reactions of students to see if they're paying attention, understand, or have no idea what I'm talking about. The other reason, is that because most of the activities I do in class require some sort of direct interaction with teachers or with other students, I've had to adjust my activities accordingly. One activity I normally do, is "small talk" where the home room teacher and I will split the class in half, and the teacher and I will go to each student asking one question for them to answer (which we explain/demonstrate before the start of the activity) - this ensures that the students have to speak English, while it also gets the home room teacher involved, and by setting an example, it gets the students to also try (in theory anyway...). Instead, what I have had to do, is pick students at random to do small talk (of course, with a demonstration first with the teacher), as there's not enough time to go through two classes worth of students for this exercise.
Another change I have made, is using powerpoint slides. Normally, I use the blackboard, but in this case, to make it easier for students to see and understand, I've been preparing powerpoint slides instead to explain certain grammar points, or as flashcards for students to practice pronouncing the vocab. For my first class, it seemed to go well with them. On the other hand, with more time freed up, as a result of doing both classes at once, I have more time to prepare lessons and powerpoint slides.
The SOE will actually be wrapping up on Thursday, with Friday meaning the return of regular classes. Honestly, I'm looking forward to it, as I really don't like sitting at my desk at the teachers' office for long periods of time. That, and being able to interact with the students will be nice too.
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