She woke up with a start. All of a sudden, the night was very still and quiet. Without moving an inch, she looked around, the place seemed very familiar but somehow looked a lot different. Her hand, only half gripping the red pen she's using to check the papers, is right in front of her. She had fallen asleep to the rhythmic whirring sound of her old and untrusty printer. Remembering about it, she wondered why the sound had stopped. At the back of her head, she already knew it was not good news, but still, she had to see. Trying to stretch her left arm that became numb when she rested her head on it while sleeping, she stood up and walked towards the printer sitting quietly at the makeshift shelf her husband had made for her.
Their house was not "homeschooling" ready but they had to adjust to at least make her a bit comfortable while teaching half her class online. She had to make their learning as efficient as possible because half her class doesn't have access to modern technologies, so she resorted to printing out their manuals. It's Wednesday today, she has until tomorrow to thoroughly check her students' papers. Come Friday, she will once again bring the newly printed manuals to the several drops off points assigned to her. Oh, the printouts! Her printer has stopped working. Yet again. She's not surprised at all. She had a good deal buying this second-hand machine. Or so she thought.
Once their faculty opens today, she will have to go to school and line up with all the other teachers waiting for their turn for the RISO machine. Like the paper-checking, she too has until tomorrow to print them all out so she can drop them off tomorrow while picking up the previous week's manuals. Which she will check too, on the following week. She remembers she has a set student who doesn't have mobile phones and cellular signals so she will have to do some house to house next Monday. She has done her first round last Monday.
Ahh, too much to do, so little time. She's a mother of two. She's a wife. She's a teacher. Now, she has become a printing personnel, a delivery girl, a personal tutor, and an online instructor. She knew from the start that this job required an incredible amount of passion but this is just too much for a person to bear. But she's not complaining. She's just tired. Maybe she just needs another cup of coffee. Ahh, there it is. Her cup of coffee, half-full, and in need of another reheating. Today is, yet again, another day.
October 5th, 2020 is World Teachers' day. This year is unlike any other teachers' day. This year, they are not just teachers in front of the class, chalk on hand notes on the blackboard. This year, they too, are front liners. Nurses and Doctors work night and day to help cure the sick, policemen, and military men work tirelessly to help ensure the nation's security. Teachers do the same things they do to make sure children get the education they so badly need. Only a lot more challenging. And a lot more demanding.
All over the internet, I've been reading about parents and students complaining about how difficult distance learning is. How the manuals are so hard to understand, or how difficult it is to assist their children in their online classes. Imagine that kind of challenge, multiplied by the number of students a teacher has to reach out to. Teachers have been dealing with teaching several children with different studying habits and varying personalities simultaneously.
This kind of homeschooling isn't really what they had in mind when they decided to become teachers. The distance learning imposed in our country may have seemed like taking off some workload from our teachers but if you happen to live in places where technology isn't an option, distance learning is another hurdle that provincial teachers will have to deal with. This will truly show the amount of love our teachers put into their duties as educators.
To all the teachers out there, having to go through insurmountable obstacles just to deliver the much-needed education to their students, the highest level of respect to you! You have always been our heroes.