@Torsten Great idea!! I think it’s a real struggle for kids to be stuck indoors! It is also difficult to motivate them. Some UK teachers suggest we shouldn’t home school but rather enjoy doing fun things at home together. The pressure is real for everyone. I also think it’s a challenging time for parents who are not used to teaching their own kids at home! The frustration for them I’m sure will be very intense! As teachers we are used to many kids around us and it is easier. 
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In my country most of the special needs children go to regular schools. We are big on inclusion. I have a couple of students who are on the autistic spectrum, so the first thing that popped in my mind when the schools closed three weeks ago was to continue with their routine. Many of the students who are on the autistic spectrum need continuity, a routine because that’s what makes them feel safe. I immediately started online sessions with them so that they could hear my voice. I also repeated some exercises from previous lessons so that the transition would be smoother. I use a lot of visuals, a lot of audio files, and the lessons last for 15 minutes because I’ve noticed that they can pay close attention for only 15 minutes, which is alright.
I agree with @Torsten that this also affects their mental well being and calmness.
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@Elida You’re doing a great job in helping these kids. Definitely, the change of routine will affect them for sure. Yes, kids with special needs are in mainstream schools here too. We also have special schools, so not sure what they will do.
Attention span is always a difficult one. Visuals and voice exercises are great. Kids love to see things and we have to make lessons fun.
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Thanks! I hope they won’t be marginalized again.
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@Elida I admire you for doing this great job.
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Thanks, @Masme! I appreciate the support!
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@Elida You’re very welcome, Elida. I see that I have heartened you.
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Hey everyone! I hope you all had a relaxing weekend. 
I think an important aspect to bear in mind is maintaining connection for children and adult learners in school. During the day, I work as a curriculum editor for a private college and over the last couple of weeks we’ve been working furiously to move all of our courses online. One of the main questions we had to keep asking ourselves as we began to transition was, “How can we maintain a human connection between staff and students?” In our case, we already had tons of content, such as instructional videos, textbooks, and other materials that were ready for online use, but our challenge was how to stay virtually in touch with the students so that they wouldn’t feel further isolated. As a solution, we thought to use apps like Skype for Business or Google Meet to accommodate large class sizes in attempts to personalize the learning experience.
My mom is also a grade one teacher who is going back to work tomorrow after having spring break and she’ll also be using Google Meet to deliver the core curriculum to her grade one class online. She agrees that maintaining connection with her grade one class will be key, and video and audio will play a big part in maintaining that connection with her young students. I imagine her running a virtual online classroom in a similar fashion to a regular class, in which she will do certain activities with the kids and provide recess breaks just like regular school. However, I’m not sure if this will actually be the case. 
She’ll let me know how her first week goes!
Anyway, I just wanted to throw my two cents in. We’re with you @Elida! Navigating online learning will be a big learning curve for us all! 
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Hi @Tamar!
Your 10 new test are online:
Thank you! 
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Thanks for your insights, Tamar. I wish you great success in the process of online teaching. Cheers! Stay safe!
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Hi again @Sumejja, @Elida, @KellyW, @Tamar, @tim_m, @Sean-C, @Masme, @Alan, @Andrea and anyone else who is interested 
I have an idea. Through to Friday evening I’m teaching a group of 5 to 8 IT professionals who are in a two year further education and re-education program. My job is to coach and train them 8 hours a day. Today was our first day and we stuck to text chat because I want everyone get comfortable reading and writing simple sentences and responding to questions. Of course I also shared a number of external resources such as YouTube videos, podcasts, texts and materials from our site here including forum posts. Now, there are several hundred thousand people being trained full-time in Germany right now and this is just the beginning of a new era of online tuition. This is where you come into play. Most learners have great difficulty interacting with other people in English. They are afraid of being stuck in a conversation searching for words or finding themselves searching for words. So, if we build them a bridge by sharing voice recordings with them, they have time to listen to them and they can decide whether they want to respond via audio message or text or not at all. What do you think? Are you ready for a little prototype project? If so, for starters please record a short message similar to this one:
It can be shorter than Natalie’s message but maybe tuned a little more toward their situation. By that I mean you can include some the background information I have given you such as that they are based in Germany and training to work in the IT field.
What do you think so far? I look forward to your positive responses
PS: With a little bit of brainstorming I’m sure we could build something really exciting here together. Are you on board?
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Hi, Torsten,
I agree with Alan, but I’d like to add you can encourage your students even more, when you tell them that anyone who’s learning a foreign language makes mistakes and that they should not be afraid to speak. One suggestion: when a student starts speaking, do not immediately interrupt them when you hear a mistake. This might frighten them from speaking again. So just let them finish and let them say what they have to say. When you evaluate, then first mention the positive things and then draw their attention to where it went a bit wrong.
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Hi Torsten,
Is my information a bit useful?
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Absolutely Marc, I’ll try to share it with my group tomorrow and hopefully we will get them to start interacting with you.
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That would be lovely.
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Thank you. Do you think my sentences make sense? Usually when Alan doesn’t reply, I think, it must be right. What do you think? Or don’t you use those constructions. Sorry, I have to ask you here. Moreover, how would your students start to interact with me? Is on the forum?
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Sure, everything you say makes perfect sense. I’ll try to introduce them to some of the concepts and ideas shared here on the forum though I have to tread very carefully due to the strict rules of the GDPR.
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I understand. Oh and one more thing don’t record your student’s speaking abilities. To give an example. I was employed in a school and the headmaster came in one day to evaluate my teaching abilities. After that he called me into his office to discuss the class. That nasty individual had recorded everything. I was angry he’d done that and I said: ‘Sir, if this is the way you treat your colleagues, - after all it was teamworking and he ‘coached’ my colleagues and me - I refuse to come back here tomorrow, I resign!’ However, after begging me saying that all had gone well, I decided not to resign and kept on doing my work just because I had wonderful students. They were worth it. But after the schoolyear had finished, I went to the headmaster’s office and I said: ‘I do not wish to be employed here next year. Have nice holiday. There’s another school who wants my services and I’ll go there.’ I also told my students that I was saying goodbye to them. You know, it was so hart rendering when they gave me lots cards saying: ‘We’ve learnt a great deal from you, we will miss you.’ But they knew our boss wasn’t treating my colleagues and me very well, I don’t know how they knew, but they said: 'We would also like to leave if our boss treated us the way your boss treats you and your colleagues.
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Hi Torsten,
Any value in what I recorded?
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