This reflective essay discusses my experience over one year during the COVID-19 global pandemic. I analyze my experiences teaching and my observations of students, concluding that the affordances of blended learning can be useful for engaging multilingual students, and that such engagement allows for more time for formative feedback for students. Specifically, a blended approach was used in a graduate ESL communications class for international students, most of whom took the class from their home countries. However, this approach may not necessarily fit with the teaching style of the instructor. Thus, the teaching and learning context adjusted by the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a transformative teaching experience, wherein the instructor learned the value of more self-directed learning by the students. In this paper, course context will first be outlined, followed by detailed accounts of each course design approach, including cases in which students took the classes entirely asynchronously due to time zone conflicts. Specific assignments for synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning contexts will be described, and I include a critical analysis of my teaching style with each. I review the supports that allowed for experimentation with teaching approaches during this remote time and I describe overall pedagogical implications.