2020

Hey guys, its been a while!

As 2020 is about to come to an end, I will be doing a series of posts here to wrap up on the year. And what a crazy year it has been. I think the COVID-19 pandemic will be on everyone's minds when they think about 2020, but this year was so much more for me.

This year, I moved two times, changed my job, bought a car and my second child was born 11 days ago. I was constantly fighting fires both during my work (I switched to another school, so yeah, more or less same same but different) and at home. But I see it as a good form of challenge.

I think most people have a pessimistic view on COVID-19. Don't get me wrong, I can see why. I do miss the travelling and the social gatherings. And I can sympathize with people who lost their livelihoods during this period; My dad did too. But I think it forced us to rethink the way we work and play. It also accelerated the adoption of digital tools in our lives.

For my drawing lessons, I brought my lecture and demo content online onto my YouTube channel. I was initially apprehensive about showing my face to the world (my previous tutorials only included audio narrations over the screen captures) but I had to do so because I think it will bring across a stronger personal touch. Keep in mind that the students viewing these videos started their first day of school at home and have thus never met me in person.

You can view the first video of the series here:

You can also check out the rest of the playlist here.

I think this experiment paid off. My students feedback that they liked the format as they could consume the content at their own pace. They could also refer back to the videos if they encountered any difficulties with their assignments. Moving forward, I will like to incorporate this mode of lesson delivery in future classes and continue with this workflow beyond the pandemic.