Written by Marielos Bonilla, ¡Supérate! Fundación Raíces Principal. Translated by Jesús Cerén, ¡Supérate! Fundación Raíces English teacher.
During January this year, we were sharing our class proposals and we expected to develop new practices we had had prepared for different topics in all subjects. We had also planned trips, visits to other centers, we were thinking in all the events we were used to develop year after year, asking ourselves how things are going to go during this year.
But during our tenth week of classes, we were notified we must end our face-to-face classes due to a very contagious virus arrival to our country; it was impossible to go back to classes having our students in the classrooms. There were some of us together when we got the news and we didn’t know what to say. It seemed like something out of the movies, but it had become our new reality.
The virtual modality started with different expectations for improving the development of the classes; we held WhatsApp groups with our students and their parents; we used platforms such as TEAMS and Zoom to communicate. It has been the year in which we have communicated the most in a virtual way with messages, emails, meetings in Zoom... All of this has made us feel very close, in spite of the distance.
As weeks passed, we had a clearer idea about how to develop our classes, but above all how to communicate with each other. We held many meetings with the families, we played games, we dressed up, we had many guests, we celebrated one more anniversary, we went to the university fair and we visited Panama during all the “Expos”. In addition, we have delivered groceries packages for 7 months, we have supported several families that were affected by storms Amanda and Cristobal with construction materials. We could say nothing has stopped us. Every month that passed we could talk about everything we had done, before it was in person and we had transformed it into virtuality.
Without a doubt, we have learned a lot, but above all we got to understand each other more, we talked more and we gave ourselves the opportunity to share how we felt. There was more emotional support, because many times, uncertainty came to us; but it was always defeated with the right words that made us see everything we had and we want to continue doing more in 2021.
There is nothing left to say than Thank you! Thanks to our Sponsors who believe in our work; thanks to the teachers for challenging themselves and for filling the classes with creativity every day; thanks to the families of our students for answering and for attending very time we called for a virtual meeting; thanks to all the administrative and maintenance teams for keeping our centers running. Without a doubt, we will remember 2020 as the year of changes and learning opportunities.