From karaoke to TikTok, Auckland's teachers are using every trick they can think of to keep their pupils interested in learning through the lockdown.
Teacher Europa Lusa dusted off his microphone and resumed his emergency entertainment channel - lockdown karaoke. Photo: Supplied
Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate principal, Kiri Turketo, said the lockdown did not have the novelty value of last year's experience and that was making it harder to enthuse students.
"This time it's different, we've done it before and it's 'oh no here we go again'. So the motivation in students is lower than what it was the last time," she said.
She said teachers were having to go the extra mile to make sure their students were okay.
"It's almost like every person on deck has become a personal trainer, life coach," she said.
The Karaoke Teacher
When the nation moved to alert level 4 last month, Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate English and social studies teacher Europa Lusa dusted off his microphone and resumed his emergency entertainment channel - lockdown karaoke.
He said he started recording and posting his karaoke online during the national lockdown last year as a way of entertaining his family and friends.
But when he returned to school he found out that students had discovered it and liked it.
"A lot of our students had come across my YouTube channel and were saying 'Sir, I see you're recording your karaoke and it's so awesome to see you doing that'."
He said he used karaoke as a way of sharing positive energy with his students during the lockdown and yes, he takes requests.
The TikTok teacher
Glenfield College Business Studies teacher Rena Zhu has taken to the video-sharing network TikTok as a means of supplementing her students' lessons.
"I know a lot of them are probably on their phones during lockdown and might not be as engaged in learning, so I thought maybe I'll just create a TikTok and upload some short, educational videos about my subject so that students can be on their phone but also on a platform that they love to use," she said.
Rena Zhu. Photo: Supplied
And it's working.
"Students have said that the videos do help them understand more and I've got a few comments from random students that are not from Glenfield College saying that the videos have helped them as well," she said.
Zhu said it was important to set work that was not so hard that it switched students off and also to include sessions that were about fun first and foremost.
"Doing fun zoom calls that are not always about learning, so trying to mix it up a bit so people are still motivated to come on to the Google classrooms and meet the teachers and communicate in a positive way," she said.
Games and challenges
At Randwick Park School in Manurewa, Year 5-6 teacher Kristin Rich said the children were keen learners.
"I'm really surprised at how motivated they are. They do really enjoy coming online and at this age they can actually figure out how to work the internet and work out their devices a lot better," she said.
Rich said she suspected online sessions gave children a welcome break from the routine at home.
"As soon as we get online a lot of them chatterbox continuously because they are so excited to see their friends," she said.
She said the biggest challenges were technical, with problems such as children's internet connections dropping out during video sessions.
However, she said some pupils were less motivated to work and quizzes and competitions were helpful for engaging them.
Students finding motivation
Glenfield student Emily Freestone said she lost interest in schooling during the first few days of the current lockdown, but she had established a routine that kept her on track.
"A couple of days in I found a good routine, I did things that made me motivated. For example, before school I'd go for a good walk. It would wake me up, it will get the brain working," she said.
She said earlier in the year she had set herself a goal of getting an excellence endorsement for NCEA level 3 and that also helped to keep her on track.
Papatoetoe High student Lyric Te Ao said she found it hard to stay motivated at the best of times so lockdown was a bit of a struggle.
"All of my motivation for doing schoolwork or getting stuff done has just completely diminished since lockdown started," she said.
"My teachers guilt-tripping me has been very good. Throughout all of the lockdowns I have been procrastinating, the only thing that motivates me is my internals being due and I just have to rush the whole thing," she said.