Lockdown reflection

When we went into lockdown, I was really worried how I would carry on with my apprenticeship. I was furloughed from March and thought that I would not have contact with Jill my tutor. Luckily, Jill called and explained how the teaching and learning lessons would be held using video calling called zoom. I had never used this way of teaching but after the first time really enjoyed this way of learning. As you can share documents, I found it very useful.  Another advantage was that we could arrange our meetings any time of the day and I could also have 2 meetings a month instead of one. The meetings on zoom were also less intrusive, when learning in the setting we sometimes must move rooms or can get disturbed by members of staff.

The most challenging thing for me was motivation. Because I was at home, I sometimes found it hard to get motivated to do my work and could get distracted by my family. I overcame this by making a timetable to complete work and Jill would give me smaller targets to complete.

If lockdown were to happen again, I think workplaces should have a training room with a computer so that we could carry on our training with tutors via zoom. My setting does not allow use to have the WI FI code or bring our laptops to work for safeguarding reasons and I found it hard to learn over the phone.

Lockdown has shown me how important hygiene is in the setting and in life. Simple hands washing can protect you from a lot of viruses, covering your mouth when talking and coughing and how to teach this to the children. It has also taught me how to use different platforms for learning which I think will benefit me in the future, the internet is not just for shopping but can aid your learning!!

I have enjoyed having more time at home to learn with no distractions, remote learning also gave me time to spend more time with my tutor. Once I was back at work in June  I had to complete learning via a phone call which I did not like, Jill would explain the lesson and email resources but I missed seeing her and the resources for the lesson.

When I have completed this apprenticeship and I am hoping to go onto university, I will have experience of remote learning and am looking forward to this.