Excellence International School wants you, our school parents, to know that about online learning

These tips are adapted from a blog post on Teachervision.com along with insights from the EIS leadership team.We know that most parents supporting their child’s home learning are not trained teachers! You may think it is easy for teachers to assume that parents will know how to explain things clearly, how to break concepts down and howto check understanding and progress. These things are second nature to experienced practitioners, thanks to our training and classroom practice. However, the reality is we understand that many parents may need guidance on how to support your child rather than just a list of what students need to cover and we have adapted some adjustments to our teaching strategies.

   We think that subjects, like Maths. that require more practice and memorizing can be enhanced by rote learning and drills.  We integrate this warm-up activity to most subjects. We also encourage students to clarify doubts before the period ends. It is our duty and obligation to answer to your children’s need for more enhanced learning.

We are considering the fact that many of you, parents, are working full-time, trying to juggle demanding jobs with managing their children’s timetable. Not all jobs are flexible so making catch-up videos or extending extra time for explanation is essential for those students unable to make it to attend classes. This is even more critical when there are not enough devices to go around, as children don’t necessarily have priority on the family computer – or even have access to one at all.

We understand that not every family has just one child! Lots of parents are trying to oversee two or more children of various ages and stages, including pre-schoolers. Students may have more siblings that you as parents attend to; not to mention the other chores and work obligations. So, we set a mixture of taught tasks and independent learning to help you to manage this challenge. We minimize the assignments. Homework is given only when practice books are ready at hand. We provide photocopies at a low cost because we are fully aware that printing on your own is expensive. How much more with many children!

We admit that it’s impossible for teachers to provide personal feedback to each individual student on a daily basis, timely communication is the key to keeping things positive. Teachers report any incident of the negligence of the tasks assigned, like non-submission of any work immediately to the level coordinator. To keep you and your children engaged, we make sure we are communicating regularly both about what’s gone well and about work that still needs to be done.

We see to it that for every task assigned, we make sure we provide answers in Classera, in our classroom discussions. We don’t forget to double check that the answers are accurate to avoid frustration and confusion. We mark the work since these answers can be a useful support tool to improve the students’ performance, so you know your child is on the right track.

We believe that it is possible for students to achieve some tasks in a day when working at home, so we don’t overload them to the point that they start to stress out. Families need downtime and if students are still working in the evenings their mental health will suffer. On the other hand, we also don’t set too little work as children need to work within an appropriate and ideal length of time for school activities. We make sure that extended assignments are within the students’ capabilities in a reasonable balanced time.

We strive to prioritise a positive effect on your children’s behaviour. In this time of the pandemic, most of them have felt too bored to be staying at home and stated to long be time outside and how to deal with their peers. We integrate the five Social and Emotional Learning competencies (self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness, and relationship skills), to our teachings. In this way, your children will learn proper manners and good behaviour.

We perceive it helpful to have a tight turnaround for some tasks (to motivate students to get the work done in a timely fashion) and a reasonable deadline for every homework is given. It is a mandate from the academic coordinators not to give assignments during long tests. We understand that all subjects with assignments create every day pressure. That’s the main reason why we give fortnight plans with the homework made known in advance.

Projects are an essential part of the grading system. We assign projects that are easily doable and simple. The school management reminds teachers that it is far better done with materials that are at your reach at home. Projects that don’t require much thorough guidance by the parents are assigned.