Intro

[1111cassandra]

My name is Cassandra Heard. I’ve been at SDCCD over 30 years, teaching ESL to adult students. It always seems strange that I would have stayed in one place so long, but I enjoy the community and love working with my students.

I have no online teaching experience, except for trying to maintain class online once the pandemic shut us down. I had set up my Canvas with lessons and emailed students frequently, but the majority of my level 3 ESL students couldn’t find their way to our online class. If we'd had access to student phone numbers early on perhaps that would have allowed for a smoother segue.

 I have never liked the idea of online classes. I love the in-person contact with my students. Most of my students are new to this country and need a sense of warmth and community. I miss the contact during this pandemic.

I’m told by some online teachers that they have better contact with students online because there’s more opportunity for one-on-one communication. I’m skeptical, but willing to experience what they’re talking about.

I’m taking this training because I need to learn resilience during the pandemic. This whole giant digital learning curve is very scary to me. However when I get over my initial anxiety, I think I’ll be excited.  I like learning new things.

If I were a superhero in this time on the planet, I’d make everyone have to take a few breaths and think before reacting. In some cases, I’d like to momentarily shift a person’s perspective to that of the person/situation they’re reacting to. I’d like to apply this to myself as well. After all, superhero egos are some of the most stubborn.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Good morning,  @1111cassandra  Welcome to the Canvas Community.  I am not sure if you realized this or not, but your above posting looks like something you should be posting within your school's Canvas course and not posting here in the Canvas Community website.  The Canvas Community website is a place where people from all over the world come to ask questions, suggest Feature Ideas, join focus groups, collaborate with others, review written and video how-to Guides, and a lot more...all about Canvas.  Based on your posting, it sounds like your instructor for the training you are taking might have asked you and your classmates to post a short intro about yourself.  The Canvas Community website is not your course.  Rather, you should be posting this within your actual course.  You can reach out to your instructor if you have questions on where to do this.  How do I get help with Canvas as a student?  Here are a couple additional resources for you:

• Discussions Written Guides (after watching the above video, if you want to take a deeper dive into learning more about Discussions, use this link)

I hope this information will be of help to you, Cassandra.  Let Community members know if you have any other questions about this.  Take care...be well...stay safe.