ABSTRACT
At the time of writing, New York City high schools had been working remotely for a year, with educators facing some great challenges. Working remotely marked a significant difference in the way we teach and the way our students learn. Classroom spaces were no longer room numbers on doors;they were virtual meeting room numbers on platforms like Teams or Google Classroom, and they were accessible from anywhere by Wi-Fi. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2020), school closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic affected over 1.5 billion students and families. The Covid-19 pandemic presented multiple challenges for teaching students with English as a second language in an online instructional environment, but also opportunities for collaboration, training, and communication for inclusive educators to strive to meet the needs of their students. This article addresses the following teacher-researcher questions: 1) What opportunities do I find most rewarding teaching in an online environment to students for whom English is a second language? 2) What do I find to be most challenging teaching English second language (ESL) students in the online context? 3) How can media play a part in online teaching and learning, and how do students respond to online learning with these mixed media platforms? 4) What recommendations can be offered to other inclusive educators who are teaching online? The researcher discusses the methodological approach used to conduct the research, using methods including surveys and field notes. Further research conducted was based on the researcher's journal of field notes kept throughout teaching a unit titled "Beowulf.” An analysis of student assessment data is also provided to show progress, where applicable, for one class of English Second Language students.