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Connecting With Students Through a one to one phone Call

In April COVID-19 came to our country. Schools were closed and kids stayed home. 

 And our Access lessons were canceled too. But in May till August 2020 till now  Our Access lessons have changed dues to COVID-19. 

 I began to teach my Acess group of 12 students remotely and asynchronously. We had our lessons through one phone call. It was a challenge both for me and the students. Even pre-corona, it has always been hard for me to remember their phone call and remind them to gather at the bus stop where we usually meet to wait for our bus to go to American Space once or twice in a month to have our Computer lesson, Intensive sessions or meeting with native speakers, diplomat. Students had challenges that they do not have a cellphone. Parents did not allow them to have it. Each time they gave me different numbers of their relatives and I tried to reach them. Some had one cellphone at home and if a parent took it with them I could not reach the student and I had additional lessons through IMO or Whatsapp applications.

In these strange times in the midst of a pandemic, I called each student and had more than 10 minutes conversation lesson. I started phone calling from 2 pm till 7 even at 8 pm at the beginning.  Students were connected with each other and practiced and developed speaking skills. I called each individually it looked like tutoring. And my weaker students became more confident after a lot of attention they had from me.  In the beginning, I was very exhausted besides it was during Ramadan month when we all were fasting. But we overcame this challenge and became resilient. Then I started grouping students by their interest and ability and sometimes I mixed them and had group phone call conferences.  Students created groups in IMO and WhatsApp and we had communication there and I shared there some worksheets. Little by little, we all adapted and worked together helped and supported each other.

Now, nearly four months later, I have a lot more information about each of my students than I ever thought possible. The one tech tool that helped me achieve this was the good cell telephone. One of my cellphones Samsung GalaxyA5 got broken it was a very new phone I have bought it in March and during the pandemic, I overused it during our phone call lessons and it got broken and I could not fix it. Then I bought a new one Redmi.

 Access students supposed to go to the capt in summer which they look forward very much but COVID-19 took this hance from them. In September thanks to our coordinator Mr. Khaitov he bought students a modern cellphone and provided with the internet. Now we have our lessons on Zoom and Google meet. Students are very excited to have cellphones and be connected with the world.