KUALA LUMPUR: Schools may still be out but that doesn't mean teachers are on vacation.
In fact, there are many selfless educators who care for their students' learning welfare, going beyond their virtual classroom to provide notes and pointers.
One of them is Johnny Loong, a 32-year-old educator in Puchong who provides study notes to his students through email to help them understand their subjects better.
He also knows that not every student has a printer. His solution is to send screenshots of the notes.
Like his students, Loong is adapting to online teaching-learning and making full use of technology.
"Some times I will record my lessons and upload them on YouTube so that my students can watch the videos and refer to them whenever they want," said Loong, who teaches chemistry, mathematics and additional mathematics in both national and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) syllabus.
He added that with the help of technology, lessons can be made more student-oriented.
"There are a lot of programmes or websites that provide interactive games to make learning fun. This is especially useful to keep the students on their toes," he said.
At the end of every lesson, Loong will conduct a short meeting through email or WhatsApp.
"My students will send me their homework through these platforms. They can even voice out their problems and we will find the solutions together."
However, Loong said he missed interacting with his students in the normal class setting.
"I miss speaking in front of the class and the bonding that I share with my students.
"This is why it's important to keep ourselves motivated even though it's online teaching," he added.
Another teacher, Dr Janson Ang, who helps to run the non-governmental organisation the Giving Bank, said all educators must be creative and start to connect with their students online.
"The Movement Control Order (MCO) is not a reason for you to be idle at home. We need to reach out to as many students as possible," said Ang, who taught Moral Education and The Humanities.
Part of the Giving Bank's initiative is to reach out to as many underprivileged students as possible, including those from the Orang Asli community, refugee groups and orphanages. All the classes are conducted based on passion and volunteerism.
"All our classes are free of charge. In normal circumstances, we conduct our classes four times a month. But due to MCO, we understand that some kids might be bored at home. So we have increased our tutoring to eight times a month."
Ang said along with 36 teachers from the organisation, they taught subjects like Maths, music, arts and general knowledge.
The online classes are designed so that they are easy to follow, learn and adapt.
"We make sure that no one is left behind even when they're stuck at home," he said, adding that most classes were conducted through Zoom or Skype in different groups.
Like most teachers out there, Ang loves the idea of online teaching as it allows a certain extent of freedom.
But he also said he misses the personalised bonding that he shared with his students.
"The children tend to lose focus easily when lessons are conducted online because there are no teachers there to physically see to their needs. But then, our objective and mission is to provide education through good and bad times," he said.