As the COVID-19 pandemic broke out last year, the way things work completely

changed. From the start, no one imagined how this crisis would affect us all in one way or
another, and education is no special case. As schools began to close in late March, educators
were tasked to figure out how to adjust to the new ways to continue teaching their students. And
while we may understand the challenges faced in the classroom, none of us have experienced
anything like this unprecedented, wide-spread, drastic shift to distance learning that we’re
currently facing.
Teaching Araling Panlipunan in a distance learning was never an easy feat. The subject,
in itself, covers a wide scope and requires a lot of reading. It doesn’t only concern with history
but also economics, government, politics, and the current events and issues existing in the
society. Apparently, most students deem it as a boring subject because the lessons are complex,
requiring highly objective information that should be learned precisely and thoroughly. Hence,
teachers should make the learning process more enjoyable and interesting.
Now, because of the pandemic, teaching the subject became more difficult for me as a
teacher. As per DepEd advisory, we followed the printed modular learning system as the new
learning delivery modality. Under this, students will be provided with self-learning materials
(SLMs). However, in my school’s case, we used Learning Activity Sheets (LAS) instead. LAS is
a simplified version which still contained the lessons from the modules but teachers can indicate
in the sheets the step by step process that students needed to follow in learning the concepts.
On the other hand, the grasp for learning also became harder on the part of my students
because they had to master the lessons by themselves. I did not conduct a virtual meeting with
my students, so the only way I connected with them is through their parents who submitted their
answered worksheets, and at the same time, claimed a new set of LAS. It became part of my
weekly routine to have a serious one-on-one talk with the parents to give my feedbacks and
suggestions towards the performance of their children. This is one way to help them come up
with methods on how to assist or support their children when answering their LAS. Moreover,
talking to the parents also helped me know the progress of my students, how they were coping up
and if they had any other concerns or clarifications related to the worksheets that needed to be
addressed.
To wrap up my first school year experience with distance learning, it is something that is
really new to all of us. Needless to say, the children weren’t the only ones learning. We, the
educators, were also learning along with them. It is very understandable that this new setup is
quite strenuous and demanding. Teachers like me should carefully scrutinize the effects of
changes in the mode of learning on the students. Many students assumed new roles in their
home; others have lost the daily escape of leaving home to attend school. Furthermore, most of
the students have already associated a physical classroom with learning as it promotes social
motivation. At school, students are driven by personal connections and relationships and
encounter face-to-face accountability for their work and behavior by their peers and teachers.
When these systems are not present, many students seem to struggle to find the self-motivation
to ‘log on’ to engage in learning. Setting realistic expectations and intentionally recognizing the
new contexts of the students is really helpful in practicing patience in this new teaching roles.