In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close, students from marginalised communities across the world were disproportionately impacted in terms of educational access, opportunities and outcomes. This article explores reorientations to technology for online remote instruction from the perspective of educators delivering instruction with the educational non-profit organisation Teach for India (TFI) in Pune, a city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. From qualitative ethnographic interviews with TFI fellows and programme managers to online classroom observations from April 2020 until October 2021, this article illustrates successes and challenges in online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, which facilitated both teaching innovations and made apparent cleavages in access to education among marginalised students and their families. Ultimately, TFI's short-term fellowship model provided novice instructors with a unique window of opportunity during the COVID-19 pandemic to integrate technology into pedagogy in novel ways.