Continuing from Part #1…
Let’s talk a little more about how the students will go about their “school day” at home.
Students will receive a schedule and they will have “deadlines” to submit their classwork/homework. They can follow a school-like schedule at home planned in a way that works out best for the family. This is serious schooling, so they will be expected to put in the hours for core subjects the way they would on a normal school day (considering school time + homework time). Discipline and the right mindset is very important here. We will be talking about that later as well. The students will have subject wise classrooms and can even ask doubts in those classrooms. More on that in later emails.
We have carefully looked at the curricular material that we already use and have analyzed the extra part that happens in the classroom. We have created material to add in that extra part that happens dynamically with the teachers and students as well. So now, each period will have 7 different resources which the students will access and then submit their work for approval. As you can see, in this format there is a LOT more curricular material that has been created for a smoother e-schooling experience. More on this in later emails too.
There will be live interaction in small groups with teachers of core subjects (Languages, Math, Science, Social Studies). The students will have about one core subject interaction a day on Google Meet. The small group sizes will keep the discussions focused, conversations relevant, and will enable teachers to give more personal attention, which is crucial normally, and more so in an online environment.
As you can see, smaller sizes means more groups, which means more complexity for planning and operations. Our R&D, schools and tech teams are working hard to iron out details for this.
We know that students love to socialize with their friends. How can we bring this experience online if the group sizes are small? To address that issue, we have separate Google Classrooms for non-core subject interactions, and also have a separate Google classroom for fun and activities!
The live interactions will happen according to a fixed timetable. If a student cannot log on and take part in a certain interaction (which can happen if the device is engaged, there is a connection problem etc.) it’s not a problem. The main “studying” parts are all happening offline. The live part is for getting queries resolved and for the social aspect.
Every day students will have one live interaction with a core teacher. This will be at a fixed time and in groups of about 15 students. They will also have interaction with a non-core teacher. This will be in a bigger group. What if there are connection problems or the device is not available at the time? It’s absolutely okay. The students can still interact with the teacher and ask doubts to the teacher and other students in the classroom. The design of the program is made such that the live part is not critical for learning outcomes – it is to keep the social aspect of the school on to some extent. So if the student misses one, it’s fine, just catch the next one!
All this planning for this has been done by the R&D team and teachers, to make sure that students are engaged and entertained during the online schooling experience!
In the next post we will talk about the different components in the classroom and what their purpose is.
