Do you appreciate teachers more, or less now than in normal times?

[Bluewavescrashing]

Genuine question. I'm a full time infant school teacher. Our school is offering more than most in terms of online education, personalised learning, 1:1 zoom sessions etc. But I wonder how parents feel. Has lockdown showed you how much teachers give to your children through planning lessons, making resources, delivering lessons to cater for all levels of attainment? Do you find it easy to teach your child? When lockdown ends would you carry on with home learning and deregister as they have made more progress 1:1 with you or are you looking forward to sending them back to school?

Nb I have a large group of key worker children, up to 25 each day whom I teach in person in school - this is aimed at parents accessing home learning rather than key worker / vulnerable provision in school.

[TheNortherner]

I dont feel any differently about teachers, you get ones that the children engage with and you get ones that they dont, whatever medium it is in. The whole situation has left me feeling a bit confused as to why teaching is such a seemingly inefficient process outside of the classroom. Take for example the planning that seems to be the bain of a teachers life, I don't really understand why...the curriculum is national, so why does each individual teacher have to prepare a taught class from scratch why isn't there a national teachers central library of approved/standardised class lessons/paperwork (not twinkl) to draw from?...also in primary the curriculum doesn't change massively year on year (since 2014) so why can't the same prep be used from the previous year for maths/english? This is not me trying to be goady I genuinely don't understand why it's so seemingly inefficient, I'm obviously missing something?

[Doublefaced]

@TheNortherner

I dont feel any differently about teachers, you get ones that the children engage with and you get ones that they dont, whatever medium it is in. The whole situation has left me feeling a bit confused as to why teaching is such a seemingly inefficient process outside of the classroom. Take for example the planning that seems to be the bain of a teachers life, I don't really understand why...the curriculum is national, so why does each individual teacher have to prepare a taught class from scratch why isn't there a national teachers central library of approved/standardised class lessons/paperwork (not twinkl) to draw from?...also in primary the curriculum doesn't change massively year on year (since 2014) so why can't the same prep be used from the previous year for maths/english? This is not me trying to be goady I genuinely don't understand why it's so seemingly inefficient, I'm obviously missing something?

DC 1 unearthed all their GCSE notes/assignments/resources from a few years ago so that sibling could use them as extra resources this year. But it’s all exactly the same stuff. History, English, Biology, Geography. The only content that’s different is for IT.

[AnnabelleMarx]

@Bluewavescrashing

In any other sector, staff would be given 3 days' paid training on teams or zoom with a cushy lunch.

In school we are shown what to do and told to 'play with it' until we feel competent 😁

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Not sure that seriously deluded and ignorant comments like this help your cause.

Perhaps come and join us in ICU? For the days of training and the lunches.....😂😂😂😂😂😂

[Pinkblueberry]

the curriculum is national, so why does each individual teacher have to prepare a taught class from scratch why isn't there a national teachers central library of approved/standardised class lessons/paperwork (not twinkl) to draw from?
Because classes of children are not ‘standardised’. Everything needs adapting for the children, their needs, their interests and their rates of progress - and much good a standardised version would do now that children’s abilities are even more varied having missed school. And approved by who? (And why not just TWINKL then???) would you really want you’re children to be educated in this way? Sounds very dull. There are resources widely used for certain subjects - white rose maths for example (free online, take a look) - it’s great but very vague, purposely so because to be effective it needs to be adapted to suit your class. A standardised instructional maths plan doesn’t work, it will always need tweaking and adapting.

Also, because OFSTED will think you’re shit if you blatantly follow some pre-written plan word for word.

[MyDcAreMarvel]

I don’t appreciate teachers any less but I have little appreciation for the education system. Covid-19 home schooling made me realise how little my children were learning at school and how narrow and dull the National curriculum is. Children ae not taught to be critical thinkers. They are now home educated and thriving.

[Disneymum1993]

I have so much admiration for teachers both my dd have great teachers who have there own home life and children to homeschool too. They are providing more than enough work and recording stories and YouTube videos and challenging the kids to fun things. They have been a great support
To me during lock down too messaging to see if I was coping and giving me methods to help dd (asd) with e learning

[U2HasTheEdge]

@Bluewavescrashing

It's not seeking a pat on the head for doing paid work. None of us resent working

It's the fact that we have had to adapt everything we do with no funding, no time for training and in many cases no leadership

I work in mental health. We have had to adapt so much it is untrue, during a time where we are busier than ever. We have also been under funded for a very long time. So many of us have had to adapt how we work in significant ways. I don't think teachers are alone in this.

You said a lot of what you do behind the scenes isn't recognised, but why would it be by people not teaching? No one recognises what I do behind the scenes unless they have worked in the field. Same for any job.


I have always appreciated good teachers. I don't appreciate them any more because of lockdown . My experience of supporting my children's learning doesn't give me any extra insight into what it is like to be a teacher.

[AllAroundTheWrekin]

More. They do an amazing job. I would like to give Government a piece of my mind over failing to protect them.

[MotherOfSuburbia]

I'm a teacher, teaching a full timetable of 6 hrs live lessons per day at the moment. I absolutely adore my job and wouldn't do any other. In normal times I work between 60 and 70 hours per week and don't mind the unpaid overtime as I'm passionate about what I do and want to do it to the best of my ability.
I'm trying to make online live teaching just as exciting, but so much has to be simplified to make sure the children can all access the learning independently so their parents can get on and work that, with the best will in the world, it can become a little dull at times. I feel a bit sad that the parents may think this is what my classroom is like all the time!
Lockdown teaching is far from ideal but I don't think we're in any worse a situation than anyone else who is trying to adapt their job in the current climate. The difference is that many people seem to be taking a swing at us, calling us lazy and criticising what we do. This understandably makes teachers defensive which can certainly come across to others at 'whiny' when they are working hard too. It's all a bit self-perpetuating.

[TheNortherner]

@Pinkblueberry thanks for the reply and trying to shed some light on it for me. I wouldn't have an issue if a teacher used the same prep as someone else if it was a good quality lesson, why not if it has clear and correct examples at appropriate levels, why reinvent the wheel...shame if that is the case for ofsted.
In a class of 30 are children generally that vastly different year on year wrt their interests and abilities or is it you might get a 'high performing' class one year and less so the next or a different year group?
I get it is going to be horrendous when the children go back...nightmare for all .
My children are middle of the road and I worry that they won't reach where they could, because they do 'enough' to meet the minimum criteria, but then i guess everyone has their own worries and they do have lovely, conscientious teachers.

[Mangofandangoo]

DD's teacher has been brilliant, I quite enjoy watching the recorded lessons myself

[everydaysablessing]

I have always respected teachers and that has grown during Covid seeing the constant adaptation that's been undertaken and the personal risk teachers are taking

I don't think this is different to other industries and as I saw on another post if the shoe was on the other foot teachers would also find it hard to suddenly need to do another job with no training or resources whilst still doing their job.

The comment about teams training I find quite naive, I swear some teachers think office workers just google all day. It doesn't help teachers looking for constant praise and appreciation, just comes across as a bit silly.

[mrsanflowerpot]

I'm SLT at secondary - having my children mainly at home (due to one of them shielding) makes me BOW DOWN to primary 👏

[EffYouSeeKaye]

@TheNortherner

I dont feel any differently about teachers, you get ones that the children engage with and you get ones that they dont, whatever medium it is in. The whole situation has left me feeling a bit confused as to why teaching is such a seemingly inefficient process outside of the classroom. Take for example the planning that seems to be the bain of a teachers life, I don't really understand why...the curriculum is national, so why does each individual teacher have to prepare a taught class from scratch why isn't there a national teachers central library of approved/standardised class lessons/paperwork (not twinkl) to draw from?...also in primary the curriculum doesn't change massively year on year (since 2014) so why can't the same prep be used from the previous year for maths/english? This is not me trying to be goady I genuinely don't understand why it's so seemingly inefficient, I'm obviously missing something?

At a wild guess, I’d say that what you are missing is any professional training followed by practical experience in the job that you are not really understanding the difficulty of.

[user1506328491]

One thing that might make parents less appreciative of teachers is that many - not all - teachers can do their work with singular focus. (OP said she's glad she can 'palm off' her kids with KW places.)
So the planning, prep, delivery, adaptation to tech, budget constraints (none of which are unique to teaching prof), are arguably more manageable when you don't have the distraction of home learning.
That may equate to less appreciation for teachers as many will think they have it pretty ok.

[user1506328491]

@motherofsuburbia - think that sounds very fair assessment of the situation

[Sorka]

@Bluewavescrashing

In any other sector, staff would be given 3 days' paid training on teams or zoom with a cushy lunch.

In school we are shown what to do and told to 'play with it' until we feel competent 😁

I got an email telling me how to use zoom. It had a few screenshots. That was it. No cushy three days training here. Private sector. Part of my job involves training people, admittedly adults who are paid to be there.

[ichundich]

I've always appreciated teachers who are dedicated and inspire young children. The issue with home-learning is that it is undeliverable for younger children; it just isn't as effective or engaging as children being taught in school, with their peers, games, toys at break time, etc. The sooner they are all allowed back the better. Since this lockdown every Tom, Dick and Harry at our school is a "keyworker", which has created what feels like a two-class system and seems very unfair on those children whose parents work full time, but aren't keyworkers.

[FMSucks]

In my (humble) opinion I feel like some teachers are looking for constant validation about how great they are and people are tired of listening to it. Yes I’ve seen the teacher bashing threads but there are just as many about how fabulous teachers are and how well they’ve adapted etc

The whole training thing really grates on me. I had one phone call as a handover to my new role, I’ve never been shown how to use MS teams (the teachers in my son’s secondary school had a whole day off to be trained in November just for teams) but I get on with it and figure it out like the rest of the people I work with and most people who work. It’s not rocket science and yet after one whole days training my son’s teachers are still sending out meeting invites for 10pm instead of 10am!

My son is thriving working from home. His grades have greatly improved so I’m not sure what that says about his teachers, if anything at all.

[ineedaholidaynow]

I am a school governor, one of the things teachers are finding really difficult is that suddenly they have a lot of critics ie parents, observing them teach, and have received feedback on how they could do it better! There can't be many other professionals having about 20 random people judging their every move/word.

Also many of them are putting their heart and soul in producing a brilliant remote provision, for a number of families (for a variety of reasons) to not engage and ignore everything they have done. Again how often do other employees spend days preparing work for it to be effectively thrown in the bin without even being looked at.

I have watched teachers simultaneously teaching their class and the children at home, and I think it is amazing, and you can see how they love to interact with their class and how happy they are to catch up with the children who aren't in class.

If parents are happy with what their child's teacher is doing please let them know, so they don't just receive the could do better feedback from parents.

[noblegiraffe]

are still sending out meeting invites for 10pm instead of 10am!

Glitch in Teams at the moment is fucking up when meetings are scheduled for. Type the time in, press enter, and it sets it to something different.

[TheNortherner]

@EffYouSeeKaye absolutely which is why i am asking. I dont know if your reply was meant to come across as dismissive, but it did and I was after an understanding of why it can't be repeated verbatim each year as i won't be on my own wondering why for the reasons stated. Thankfully @Pinkblueberry attempted to explain for those of us who haven't become teachers.

[ineedaholidaynow]

And @TheNortherner just imagine the work teachers are going to have to do when all the students are back in school to assess where each child is, as they will all have accessed the work during lockdown differently and so there will be very students at the same level.And then plan their work accordingly

[FMSucks]

That’s never happened to me @noblegiraffe and I send out many meeting invites on teams daily

[noblegiraffe]

Good for you, FMsucks, can assure you it’s a problem.

Here is a Facebook post discussing it if you don’t believe me.