How FlashCardz is helping teachers and students in these trying times

Mrs Menon is a wonderful Maths teacher in a leading school in Pune. She has a very pleasant manner, and has the ability to put you at ease when you meet her. She can be stern with the students, as we discovered during a large gathering of students at the school, but at heart she has a quality that all wonderful teachers have - she loves her students and strives for the best for every one of them. She is one of those teachers that students love and respect, and will remember for the rest of their lives.

Recently Mrs. Menon encountered an unexpected problem. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of her school, and the school had to switch to online teaching for the 9th and 10th standard students. Online teaching meant that suitable content had to be created overnight. Microsoft Teams, power-point presentations, and other forms of digital content and teaching became the new normal. With almost 160 students signing in to her online class, Mrs. Menon discovered that it was a challenge to keep the students engaged. There was the additional discomfort of not knowing how much the kids were understanding. And what about testing and evaluating the students if this continued? Some of these challenges exist with classroom teaching as well, but were suddenly heightened in online teaching.

Mrs. Menon is not alone. Other teachers at her school, and teachers around the country are coming to terms with this new normal. COVID-19 has forced everyone to look at alternative ways to engage students, and to use technology to complement what teachers like Mrs. Menon do at school.

At FlashCardz we have been working with schools and students for the last 3 years. Our purpose is to help students get better through research-based self-study best practices with top-class engaging content. Early this year we implemented features to enable schools to use our platform to complement the efforts of the teachers.

Several leading schools have implemented FlashCardz now, including Mrs. Menon's school. The results have far exceeded our expectations and have been very gratifying for our team. Here is an actual quote from a Social Sciences teacher, a colleague of Mrs. Menon.

"Today I took my class using FlashCardz. Believe me children participated in good numbers. I could actually revise the whole chapter (1 and 3 markers) and also solved a crossword puzzle with them. They really enjoyed the class."

FlashCardz has benefited the teachers in many ways. Here are three of them.

1. The teachers have been able to use our content for their online teaching, reducing their workload, and improving student engagement. Innovative content like Crosswords and quizzes have helped to get the students to participate more actively in the class.
2. The increased engagement and the ability to see self-study reports of students is providing meaningful feedback to the teachers about how each one of their students is doing, and the concepts that the class is finding difficult.
3. The ability to assign tests using pre-existing content, and to see the results immediately is saving a lot of time for the teachers. This is allowing them to do more of what they do best - teach, and help students with their difficulties.

Mrs. Menon especially loves our unique MathCard process for maths revision, which helps students with pattern recognition and guided revision.

The teachers and students are using the FlashCardz platform in many different ways, and the usage and benefits will continue as the schools re-open and normalcy is restored. 

As more schools are embracing FlashCardz, it is really gratifying for our team. We are making a small contribution to helping students reduce stress, study smart, and perform better.

If you or your school would like to know more, please write to us at info@flashcardz.in, or call us at 98230-35464 or 98901-07776.