My 'Empowering' Journey at Empowering Hours Online Workshop

Recently I had an opportunity to participate in an online workshop series conducted by Empowerment Academy which was a wonderful opportunity for me to learn,connect with other fellow teachers and grow as an educator. As the workshop came to an end this week, I thought it was a good idea to compile my reflections of 3 sessions that I attended in the last 3 weeks. This is for me to keep as something to look back at when I feel like and also I thought it could be useful for other teachers who are with me in this journey of teaching online. 

Please feel free to message me if you want to know/ learn more about any particular activity that I have discussed in these journals. 

Day 1 Reflection

I enrolled in this workshop because I was struggling a lot finding ways to design activities that require students to work in collaboration with each other and that can promote critical thinking. I just couldn’t go beyond breakout rooms and think and share (without the pair). I was afraid that I was speaking a lot in my class and students were losing focus. But having attended the first session on Wednesday, I feel like I am back on track. And although I might take some time to pick up the pace (considering all the challenges and limitations of working from home), I am glad that I can clearly see where I am struggling and how I can overcome the challenges. 

Here’s 3 new ideas that I picked:

1. Chat section can be utilised for classroom discussion. I was apprehensive of using the chat section because students usually start having funny conversations in chat. But I realised how we could use it to have fruitful discussions and even the ones who are camera or microphone shy, could use this feature to share their ideas and thoughts. 

2. Zoom Breakouts could be even more interesting if we could link it with Google Forms. I was assigning homeworks and quick quizzes in Google Forms but I never realised I could design an activity with the two together.

3. Write/ Raise/ Share is exactly what I needed in class. The problem in my class was I was spending a lot of time asking students to speak up, unmute, wait, speak, call out names, wait. There was a lot of time being wasted in this whole transition, Write/ Raise/ Share eases the process and it just gives me a lot more confidence to have a healthy discussion in the classroom now.

2 questions that I still have are:

a. How can I put these small activities together and design and plan for a project work that I could carry out for a few weeks.

b.What more could I do to make my students work in collaboration and become more creative? 

1 action that I am implementing right away is definitely ‘Write/ Raise/ Share’. I have already improvised my lesson plans and added this whole new idea to it. And I am eagerly looking forward to taking it to my class next week. 

Picture Source: Empowerment Academy official facebook account

Day 2 Reflection 

This has to be my favorite part of attending any workshop. Writing reflection because it helps me store what I have learned in my memory and I have something to look back at when all this is over. 

So, the three main ideas I have internalised are:

1. How I can make my students build their imagination and express their thoughts and understanding through art. Not only are these picture activities fun but it’s also important that we integrate art in every subject because everything we see in the real world is actually a product of someone’s imagination. Hence, I am definitely including more art in my lesson plans.

2. The next idea is how essential it is that students ask more questions. I have been asking myself ‘do my students ask enough questions?’, áre my students hesitant to ask questions?’, ‘have I encouraged my students to ask me questions?’” I usually have Éssential Questions’ list in my lesson plan. I try to make sure that students bring up these questions in discussion but to be honest, I hadn’t given it much thought. Post last session, I am definitely working hard on éssential questions when planning my lesson.

3. Next idea is incorporating games in my class. Kahoot has a colorful and very attractive layout that can help generate interest in my students. So that’s another idea that I have internalized. This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity for my students to learn through online games. I am definitely using it the best way I can. 

I will definitely make an effort to implement all the above ideas in my class because I know if I don’t do it now I may never do it in my life. I have already made slight changes in my next plan. There was an activity where students had to discuss and answer questions. Now, instead of them coming up with answers, they are required to discuss and come up with questions. It's an activity to teach the caste system in Nepal. I have a feeling it's a wonderful idea to have them question the caste system in Nepal. I hope they grow up to question everything in life. 

Picture Source: Empowerment Academy official facebook account

Day 3 Reflection

Here’s my final class reflection. 

The three concepts/ ideas that I will implement in my teaching are as follows:

• Incorporating activities like Picture Pause in my lesson plan and being more conscious of the need to integrate art in every subject. I think art is a wonderful way for students to connect with their understanding and also, demonstrate their learning and express how they feel about what they have learnt. 
• Allowing students to question more and create a safe space where students don’t feel intimidated to ask anything to me or even to their peers. I want to work on students’ critical thinking skills and I believe questioning everything that we are presented with is one of the ways we can develop that skill in our students.
• That visually appealing efforts make a difference. Slides could be colorful. Classes could be musical. Teachers could be casual and learning could be fun. In only 3 classes, I feel a strong connection to the teachers/ trainers/ facilitators. I want to bring that level of comfort and confidence in my students. I want to be present for them. (I have started giving feedback to my students’ assignments sooner than I used to) 

Moving onto the next point, two points I would like to start for self- learning are: 

1. I would like to make an effort to be in a community of teachers/ educators/ school leaders. Sharing ideas and experiences is one way of learning. I learn a lot by simply reading/ listening to what other teachers have to write/ share. Workshops and training do help in professional development but being in such communities help in the continuous process of learning. 

2. I like to read fiction a lot. And I am starting to realise that I have started to despise any other genre of writing. I have tried a couple of biographies and I read a lot of blogs and articles online but I have never read any other genre of books. I am going to start reading ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’  that has been lying on my shelf since forever. This will be my first step towards self learning ‘out of my comfort read’. 

Visual Summary of the session: A happy heart is a way to an enlightened mind

Lastly, one thing I have realized about myself is that I am still a very ardent  student. I am glad I can still catch up with my classmates and actively participate in classroom discussions. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do this. With all the school work, household chores and a 13 month old clinging onto me all day (and all the reading I wish to do and movies I want to watch), I had serious doubts but here I am, writing my final reflection with a happy heart. 

Thank You for giving this wonderful platform to learn, connect and grow!

For anyone interested in Empowerment Academy's other such workshops, here's the link to their page: Empowerment Academy