How teachers were the unsung heroes in QF schools during the pandemic

When the pandemic hit the world last year, it shook the ground beneath people’s feet. Regardless of their profession, every person suddenly found themselves needing figure out what their new work model would look like – and if it would work.

For teachers, their challenge was even greater. They needed to make immediate decisions and work on innovative solutions to ensure learning continued as usual for their students almost overnight. And in the background, they had to keep numerous plates spinning.

As full classroom learning resumes, Heather Lang, Head of Teaching and Learning at Qatar Academy Sidra – one of the schools under Qatar Foundation’s (QF) Pre-University Education (PUE) – recalls the first few days of last year’s shift to online education, saying: “I remember sitting in a room with my two-year-old, attempting to teach, answer emails, and do Zoom nursery fingerpainting at the same time, while my husband was on his desk working in the next room.”

“To help my students stay on track via email and Zoom, plan, track attendance, and coordinate my team, I was working long hours at my computer, far beyond the typical workday. I was receiving around 200-300 emails a day from parents, teachers, and students needing support, and I tried to manage my role and my family as best as I could. And to keep my balance, I used to go on nightly walks away from technology with my toddler in tow to get us away from the house.”

It was a similar situation for Ali Shah, a Grade-12 teacher at Qatar Academy Al Khor, another school under PUE. “At the spring break in 2020, soon after the pandemic hit, I had traveled home to the UK, and I couldn’t leave due to how the situation escalated at that point. So I remained teaching from the UK for the rest of the academic year.”

Although Ali has always incorporated technology in his lessons, it was his first-time conducting classes entirely online. “It makes me smile just thinking about it – I was running around the house looking for my headphones as technology was failing me,” he said.

“I borrowed my neighbor’s laptop for a week to ensure my lessons were set up and ready for students. From a teaching perspective, it was a little difficult to use applications like Zoom and Google Classroom, then we had to learn how to use other platforms which were deemed safer options. Now, having meetings online has become the norm. To me, this shows the adaptability of humans and how we can find solutions to problems.

“One funny incident I recall during my first online lesson with Grade 12 was when I had borrowed my five-year-old daughter’s little whiteboard to use it for my class. Students couldn’t hide their laughter as the board had all these animals on while we were discussing key business concepts.”

Although this new mode of tuition was initially challenging for teachers, especially for those teaching younger age groups, they have gained skills that may have taken years to learn if it hadn’t been for the pandemic. “This experience improved my abilities in using technology to curate lessons virtually,” said Lama Frangieh, an Arabic Teacher at Qatar Academy Sidra. “I had to learn how to reshape the lessons, and deal with daily or weekly queries about the suitable tech tools that fit my students’ needs.

“Despite the struggles I may have faced during the pandemic, I learned, I progressed, and I achieved my goals. It has also helped me to be always be prepared for any changes that may occur in the field of education.”

Lama emphasized how Qatar Academy Sidra parents were constantly supportive despite recurring modifications and updates to the teaching model. “Parents were always among my priorities, as them being aware of these updates facilitated my work,” she said.

“It was crucial to share with parents a clear understanding of the new teaching models I provided for their children, even if it meant double the work for me to prepare explanation videos on how to use the technology tools with their kids at home.”

Heather highlights how teachers became extremely agile, and adaptation became their new tangible skill. “Our teachers were instrumental in adapting to new schedules that were sometimes emailed late on a Saturday or provided on Sunday mornings,” she said. “As a leadership team, we worked through the weekend to turn them around and prepare staff and students for new guidelines.”

And Ali believes the pandemic has reinvigorated creativity and teamwork among teachers “Creativity, in every aspect of teaching, was required because you wanted to deliver a lesson that was full of content but also enjoyable for the students,” he said.

“Teamwork was also clearly visible throughout this period. I had colleagues in Australia who wanted to use my resources and vice versa. We made a WhatsApp group for sharing all the valuable resources and practices to ensure our Grade 12 students were ready for the International Baccalaureate and mock exams.”