video conference goodbye

I wonder if this is happening to my colleague teachers.

 

 

 

 

 

I keep thinking about a suitable way to close up this very atypical school year which started in the classroom and is coming to an end in a videoconference room. There are no hands to shake online if you want to say ‘Congratulations on a job well done’, no eyes to connect when you need to encourage those who couldn’t finish up their course. There is no kiss goodbye. No ‘Have a well deserved summer time!’ hug. No floor to do one last musical chair activity. No tears to comfort and no laughters to join in.

 

 

So if you find yourself in my position and feel the inconvenience of closing up this course in the distance you may like to write a letter to your students. Not only that but also encourage them to write each other a letter. A letter to a friend that they made this year which hasn’t been other than unique.

 

After all, it does not happen every year that classmates find themselves locked in their homes for months having to learn by themselves how to download this application to do their tasks.  Or find this other platform where they can follow their lessons. It has certainly been weird to follow links to complete Listening Comprehension activities in real time from home, no matter having to understand how they work first. As it has been a little nightmare sometimes to get back to the videoconference room when you have been «expelled» several times. But what about trying to listen and repeat the pronunciation of such word after the teacher when the kids are around!

 

What an unparalleled end-of-course!

 

And what good work and strong determination have we all put into getting the course going. I am very positive there are students in the group who, like me, feel an enormous satisfaction to have completed the course in unprecedented times. A person who, like me, will have appreciated collaborative work and team effort, and hours and hours of patiently trying to set it all up in a new reality. And it must have undoubtedly been an extraordinary experience, which has brought them closer as it can be shown and illustrated in this end-of-course online celebration fabulously performed by themselves. So here is the proposal for an end-of-course follow-up activity: to write a letter [or email] to that classmate who has become a real friend in adversity this year.

To me it has been a very special year indeed which with difficulty will I be able to forget. I will certainly remember the expressions of uncertainty and preoccupation on the screen every morning, the worries and the questions about the coming weeks, the smiles after lockdown ease, the tears and then the laughters.

I have already written a letter to all of my students. How about you?