MULTICHALLENGE-online lessons in Multischool International School

Who would have thought of regular distance teaching/learning on such a scale? Definitely not many, not in Poland. Before the lockdown, we had been conducting some individual lessons via Skype as such extracurricular activities are on offer at school. Also, as a part of our own educational program (Multichallenge, for instance) we had introduced new technologies on a daily basis at our school. Additionally, the school organized winter workshops in February for our English teachers devoted to one of the online grammar platforms available on the market-Grammar Lab. But these were to be implemented without any rush next school year, simultaneously with the new list of coursebooks for our students. We were considering such elements rather as novelty than necessary precautions, while planning an attractive way to teach grammar to engage teenage learners as blended learning.

As the saying goes: ‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread’, we were deliberately cautious to commence the new adventure with online applications specializing in group communication. However, very quickly the school administration and teachers here realized that there must be something more on our offer than just sending tasks and assignments via Librus register-that was simply out of question, we could do much better!

That’s when our staff workshops began. While everyone was holding their breath and checking the news frantically, teachers got back to our school building to attend internal trainings and to try out some new solutions under the watchful eye of IT specialists. There have been several sessions for all of us, while being grouped in 6-8 adults, in order to meet the demands of a 2 metre distance while the coronavirus pandemic. For a while, during online teaching we had been trying out a range of communicators: Skype, Discord, and Microsoft Teams, plus Zoom as one of our options.

After the first week of remote teaching, and receiving constructive feedback from students, parents, and teachers alike, we opted for the sole usage of Teams in Multischool. Right now, after a couple of weeks with working on Teams, we (meaning the whole school), gradually got used to functioning this way, including online teachers’ meetings, joining in video conversations, or chats with almost all school members: students, teachers, the headmistress, or our school educator. We are doing our best to engage, explore, and motivate while delivering our lessons in the new circumstances. By regularly assessing our progress, looking for new tools and applications and ways to work with students,we are meeting the expectations of our community. But still, all of us can’t wait to get back where we belong, to school!

With greetings,

Multischool community