Part 40
By Eleni Elefterias
So you have decided to allow your child to continue Greek lessons with their class teachers online.
Congratulations, you are a dedicated parent.
Very young students, however, need parental support to be able to do this successfully. Unfortunately for many, the helpful grandparents are just not available to help, especially with the Covid restrictions. That means that mum or dad needs to take control of the situation.
Firstly, talk to your child before the lesson and explain what is happening and why. Tell them what is expected of them and that you will be there to help.
Secondly, make sure everything works. The computer, the internet, the sound and the video.
Thirdly, it is a good idea, if you can get some indication of what the lesson will be about from the teacher or the school, as children need to know the purpose of their lesson otherwise they will feel lost and lose interest.
With this information a parent can be the best support for their chid and a great help to the teacher, allowing him or her to concentrate on the lesson rather than wasting time with technical issues that are bound to come up during the lesson.
Lastly, be there to help your child share his/ her screen of necessary, annotate when asked to, mute when they have to and unmute when they need to talk.
Technical issues are the biggest reasons children give up on the lesson and stop taking part.
If you have more than one child, it is very difficult to do. You may have to spend some time with one child and some with the other.
Make sure each child has their own study space away from younger siblings, who may distract them.
If you value what they are doing by making sure they have peace and quite to do their work, they will value what they are doing too.
I hope the advice on these columns has been useful to some of you and wish you all the best as we look forward to a future out of this Covid nightmare.
*Eleni Elefterias-Kostakidis is a teacher of Modern Greek and University lecturer.
