Amazing Gestures by Amazing Students

Distance learning is not as cold or impersonal as you'd think.

I'm speechless.

The other day one of my adult students sent me an admittedly heavy package all the way from his hometown in Limnos, a Greek island, as a token of his appreciation and gratitude for the staggering progress he'd made in English in the last few months.

He wanted me to taste some of Limnos's finest traditional products, including locally produced honey and wine, halva, cheeses like melichloro and kaskavali, and Limnos's little desserts going by the name of 'Venizelika'.

Needless to say that I'm at a loss for words when trying to describe the feelings such a gesture evokes. For me, it's a reminder of the immense significance of effective teaching and building a good rapport with your students, whether it be young or adult learners, elementary or advanced, in-class or online students.

​Last but not least, this is also a testament to the effectiveness of online teaching since this is a case of distance learning (as mentioned, the student is an inhabitant of an island located more than 250 km far way from the capital city where I reside).

Who said that you cannot build a good rapport or have a positive influence in your online students' lives?

​It's high time we ditched such misconceptions regarding online teaching and distance learning, don't you think?