Building a class community online in an age of isolation
Abstract
In this best practice paper, pandemic-induced challenges informed innovative teaching strategies developed by a high school teacher of English as a second language at a private school in northeast United States whose international students Zoomed into class from their home countries. Representing seven different countries in three different continents over six different time zones, the students were not able to convene online at the same time, hampering the goal of interacting with each other to gain confidence in using English socially and academically. Employing a variety of technological platforms, this teacher redesigned the programme to allow student-to-student and student-to-teacher access and ultimately resulted in building a community that reached beyond the classroom.
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Author's Biography
Meg Eubank , a graduate of Arcadia University (Pennsylvania) and current doctoral candidate at University of Houston (Texas), has worked in non-profit and education communities with people from around the globe. She has worked with students of all ages from toddlers to adults and is currently a Professor at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania in the United States. Her many roles have included college professor, non-profit director, professional tutor, high school teacher and curriculum designer. Meg was honoured as the TESOL International Teacher of the Year in 2022 for her work engaging students online during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has previously been the recipient of the Dr Finbarr O’Connor Prize for Shifting the Paradigm and was named 40 Under 40 in 2020 and an Emerging Leader in 2016. She has been published in Teaching as a Human Experience (Cambridge Scholars Publishing) and in Poetry Sustains, Challenges, Connects, Inspires: Four Teacher-Poets Reflect in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) blog. Meg’s work was also featured the English language textbook The Big Picture (2nd edn, Richmond Publishing, 2022).
Citation
Eubank, Meg (2023, June 1). Building a class community online in an age of isolation. In the Advances in Online Education: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Volume 1, Issue 4. https://doi.org/10.69554/YTIZ7547.
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