Happy Monday Everyone! I am back and here with more resources for teaching English to adult learners online. Prior to the pandemic there were a lot ESL organizations and ministries that were operating at least in some part online. However, mine like many others were not. Prior to Covid-19 we were hosting 100% in-person meetings, classes, conferences, and just about everything else you could think of that is ESL related. But 2021 is a different world. Now more than ever, most organizations are operating partially, if not entirely online.
With the shift from in-person to virtual came a lot of growing pains, and I mean A LOT of growing pains. Teachers and tutors had to figure out how to shift their lessons from class to an online platform, figure out how to work that platform, and keep their students engaged. Program coordinators had to figure out how to move their whole organization online and not lose their students or their teachers in the process. And let’s not forget the transition of the luddites (as our director Lester Meriwether likes to refer to them as) into the virtual world. Needless to say the transition we’ve all taken, for better or for worse (and hopefully the former), has been a BIG one.
Although some organizations jumped headfirst into the virtual world last March, some have been patiently biding their time and preparing to do so – even if just in part. And whether your organization has been at this since last year (or further back if you’re really fancy), you’re just getting started, or you just need a little support – the Literacy Minnesota Organization has created some fantastic resources for remote teaching.
Literacy Minnesota has created digital platform guides for Zoom, Google Meet, and WhatsApp, along with helpful checklists, learner’s guides, training and technical support, and even onboarding email templates for Zoom, Google Meet, and WhatsApp. You can check out these remote teaching resources here and use whatever works for you. I hope that some of this helps someone out there! Tell us in the comments if your organization is in-person or virtual right now and how you feel about virtual learning