Being a Teacher During a Pandemic

Being a Teacher During a Pandemic

The video demonstrates the difficulties of being a non-English speaker teacher during a pandemic. Since last year, I've been observing my mom teach online, and I must admit that's not an easy job. First of all, my mom isn't a technological individual. In other words, she doesn't know much about how to use programs on the computer, nonetheless teaching using an online platform. Meaning, she had to learn how to navigate all of the different online platforms the school mandated. Then, the administration told her that she had to teach her students how to navigate the online platforms. Even though she still wasn't sure how to use them. I must admit that it was difficult for her to learn all this new material and information in a matter of a week and then teach the students the same thing. However, the main focus of the videos is the language barrier. My family came to the United States 5 years ago, and even though my sister speaks English perfectly, the rest of the family doesn't speak it that well. Therefore, having to teach in English for my mom was a challenge. Although, having to teach English online was a real struggle for her. The first part of the video shows my mom teaching in Spanish, and you can notice her confidence and fluency. In the second part of the video, you can see my mom teaching in English, and you can see that she needs assistance from her student teacher. Also, you can notice that she has a strong accent and isn't as confident. Due to her accent, it's sometimes difficult for her students to understand her, and this became more evident teaching online. Therefore, the pandemic affected and complicated learning for all (students and teachers).

Stefanie Roldan-Calderon

The videos were taken on March 27th of 2021.

Stefanie Roldan-Calderon