February half-term is upon us (hurrah) and what a surreal term it has been, again. While I know that teaching and learning in the classroom is how it should be, I must say that I’ve been enjoying this period of online delivery.

That said, the novelty is starting to wear off. While commuting to the dining room and spending less money on my caffeine addiction have been welcomed, other repercussions are starting to rear their ugly heads, like my expanding waistline - and I’m beginning to miss teaching in a classroom.

Screen time overload

I thought looking at a screen for hours was no big deal - I was used to it - but this type of screen time is different. It’s constant. If I’m not teaching, I’m marking work online, if I’m not marking, I’m sending emails, if I’m not sending emails, I’m in a Zoom meeting…no wonder I have constant eye strain.

It’s not that my institution is expecting me to be constantly sitting in front of my screen. On the contrary, they encourage regular breaks and time away from the screen. I think the combination of feeling so aggrieved for my learners about the predicament they are in and my naivety about the effects of increased screen time have really impacted me, more than I had previously thought.

If I was on campus, I might spend an hour on the computer catching up on emails and tweaking lessons, but then I would be teaching most of the day. The screen time is much more broken up - and this is something I’m really starting to miss.

To combat screen time overload, every 20 minutes, try looking away from your screen (preferably into the distance and not your phone) and count to up to 20. Staying hydrated and using eye drops also help me to cope with increased screen time.

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You can’t replace face to face

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some wonderful (and some rather amusing) moments with my learners while teaching them online, but I really miss exchanging pleasantries as learners enter the class and seeing the smiles (or frowns) as they enter the classroom. Staring at their little profile picture (or the other bizarre images and icons they use to represent themselves) just isn’t the same.

In addition, while some learners have flourished during remote learning - in their verbal contributions and productivity - others have become silent, unmotivated and absent, which is very worrying, and I feel limited in what I can do to support them while teaching remotely.

I also miss that face-to-face interaction with my colleagues. Even though we have online weekly meetings, I think being on campus fosters that sense of belonging whereas, with remote teaching, it’s easy to feel isolated and that you’re the only one on this rollercoaster.

Make sure you take time to connect with your friends, both teachers and non-teachers, and ask them how they are coping with a lack of face-to-face interaction. 

Response times

I think teachers (and possibly other professions as well) up and down the country are working in a hugely different way compared to when we’re in the classroom. Do you feel an immense pressure to answer your emails much quicker than you would if you were at work? Are your learners being more demanding about how quickly you’re marking their work? Are deadlines being set much closer together?

Sound familiar? Something very strange seems to happen when working remotely. There seems to be an assumption that there are suddenly more hours in the day and that we can reply instantly to that email or mark that work on the spot.

We mustn’t be afraid to explain to learners that they are not the only ones we teach. We mustn’t be afraid to wait an hour or so to reply to that email and, if you need an extension on a deadline, speak to your line manager or ask a trusted colleague to see if they can help you.

With at least another half-term of remote teaching, it’s important to acknowledge what you’re missing about being in the classroom. This could help you realise what issues you need to tackle, and simple changes could really boost your mental and physical wellbeing.

Hopefully by April, the infection and death rates will have dropped significantly and we will be back in our classrooms again, caffeine coursing through our veins, repeating instructions numerous times, giving out pens and wondering if remote teaching was all a dream.  

Kate Watts is a further education lecturer at a college in London.