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.

If there wasn’t a centralised curriculum, how would teachers be able to prove that they were equipping children with the basic skills needed? How would they gain the trust of parents to do so?

I have been working with teachers a lot recently and I’m afraid it has not improved my regard for this whole profession.

There are few other areas of life where the call for accountability and transparency have been so resisted. Let’s face it, it’s a certain type of person who enjoys the idea of being the only adult in a room with a group of children, hence the need for greater controls. I have sat in too many staff rooms listening to ‘banter’ - and been criticised for not joining in - to be entirely comfortable with the constant demands on the internet for greater status for an already very-well paid profession and more freedom from oversight. Meanwhile if you ask about struggling children who could be helped you often hear one excuse after another.

I like the ones at our schools.

My opinion hasn't changed really. I don't appreciate or not appreciate teachers. Teachers do a job they choose to do in exchange for money - it is a job that many people admire as a career and rightly so.

There are good and bad teachers. The good ones I have massive respect for. The bad ones not so much. I don't understand why a lot of people seem to feel the need to either bash or fetishise an entire profession.

PotDaffodil

Let’s face it, it’s a certain type of person who enjoys the idea of being the only adult in a room with a group of children,

Wow, would you like to expand on this?

@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 can honestly say I don't of a single person who got these three days training with a 'cushy' lunch! I'd love to know what sectors they work in!

I have a lot of admiration for some of my children's teachers but it is comments like this that make me lose a lot of sympathy. Teachers really don't have it harder than absolutely everybody else!

3 days paid training? No I don’t think teachers have it harder.

I appreciate my primary child’s teachers enormously. They go above and beyond - countless times correcting work out of school hours (obviously, as they are working full time), always checking in, giving suggestions, mental health support, daily zoom calls to read afternoon story, one on one zoom calls, printing everything for us when we didn’t have a printer (we bought one to relieve her of this job as well). I tell the school often how fantastic they are and how much we value their time. It’s still hard because sometimes teachers get their examples wrong and then I have to go out of my way to re do their work etc. I do get it, we are all human. But that’s the only thing I would suggest - always include an answer sheet. I understand the reasons behind not offering that as they’d like to see how the pupils get on independently, but as a parent I’m very involved and it would help me help them teach if they could sometimes talk me through their methods. 😂

My secondary child’s school has done appallingly however and I have nothing nice to say about it. They’ve been sending out broken links for 8 weeks now and have changed their platform four times so far. In the first lockdown they were fantastic, I couldn’t praise them enough and even dropped off thank you cards and little token gifts to cheer them on. But this time around - seriously, with two weeks notice (before Christmas), they sent out work where 9/10 didn’t even load. Now they’re using every single government excuse handed to them to excuse why this isn’t their fault. But even I understand that you need to click on the link you provide to check that YouTube has uploaded it. Really, there is no excuse for them.

I’m not teacher bashing at all. I give credit where credit is due. I cheer both my kids on enormously, I write thank you emails the second I feel it’s deserved.

OP, the answer is that your question is very individually based on what has been provided. There are many teachers like my daughter’s in primary whom I hugely admire and couldn’t be more thankful to. She will be acknowledged by me in every way.
There are also teachers who don’t put in anywhere near enough effort into their teaching right now, sending broken links and giving no feedback whatsoever. I’ve even emailed them to say I’d be happy with once a fortnight, that they’ve had a look through the work my 13 year old sends in. He’s even included direct questions in the work he sends in, directly to his teacher. We never ever hear back. They’re not even checking his work - I know because I’ve asked for call backs and no one has even seen it.

It varies hugely across the countries and you cannot for one second believe that the lockdown is harder on every single teacher. I’ve bumped into a secondary teacher having a take away coffee on a bench with a friend, laughing loudly and discussing a program on tv during school hours, when he’s so say providing full time support to concerned pupils and parents. That might not be the norm but it does happen.

3 days paid training? No I don’t think teachers have it harder

I’m a teacher but have worked in the private sector most of my working life. Yes self teaching yourself a new system is common.

I think the difference is that teachers have to teach themselves how to use Teams / google classroom. Then they have to teach 180 children to use it.
Most of these children have no idea how to send an email or save a file. This is the stressful bit.

I have less appreciation. My dc has learnt so much more at home despite me struggling to wfh as well. They are year 3. This year is bet tree r because they have a teacher who actually cares but the other class has a teacher that doesn't care as much so we're definitely going to have a situation where one lot has more of an education than the other, controls should have been thought of to prevent this happening imo.

I think it's educational management I have the most problem with though because I can't understand why after all these months it hasn't been though through.

And how odd OP that you think in any other sector you'd get training, that shows your ignorance of a lot of sectors!

@Londonmummy66

The problem I have always had with teachers (and I've been one) is that they seem to think that they have the hardest job in the world when it is actually no more stressful than a lot of others. What has really done it for me this pandemic is that not only have they played the "welcome to my world card" to so many who are home schooling and trying to wfh in other jobs at the same time and trying to say it is the same, but the teaching unions have also been so obstructive in first lock down about a) teaching children not at school and b) going back to do their job again. I don't think that parents will forget this.,

It won’t be forgotten no.

Also as a profession many teachers seem technologically backwards and scared of adapting.

Remember that our job isn't about technology. Tech might support some aspects of our job, but mostly we are about people. We weren't given training on the stuff we've had to use - and even if we were, it wasn't enough. We're not a tech profession, we're a people profession.

so many who are home schooling and trying to wfh in other jobs at the same time

What? Like I am? I'm live online all morning from half 8 - 12, with a gap of 15 minutes now. I know what it's like, it's shit. My child watches TV at least 6 hours a day with me and her dad working around those 6 hours to at least get her outside. We don't have time to do the homeschooling at all.

Many teachers have had to fight to get technology so they can actually provide remote provision!

Also as a profession many teachers seem technologically backwards and scared of adapting.

Ever considered that a large part of that (if it's even true) might be down to lack of funding for IT in schools? So, for many years the only computers there were in primary schools were those funded by the PTA. And even now, we have ancient, slow and clunky devices that regularly cut out under our creaking in inadequate wifi at school.

And all the home-learning I'm providing at the moment, is being done on my own laptop, via my own wifi and using my own electricity. All my knowledge about delivering the current work on a completely new platform is self-taught. Yes, there are occasional glitches but, in the main, our parents have bee very sweet and supportive about it.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot again some teachers are better than others. Our teacher who is probably about 60 has gone over all the tech she needs to use in her own time to be able to be completely fluent on what she's forced to use. Sometimes she still needs to ask the dc how to do a certain thing but it's clear she's tried very hard to learn how to use it.

In my game I regularly do YouTube videos in my own time to up my skills, why do teachers think they are exempt from doing this? Teaching is a vocation,' I'm in a vocation. You should do it because you want to. When you want to get the best out of the dc you'll be one of the teachers that YouTube teams/zoom/whatever other tech is required.
I think it's so easy to say nah my management didn't train me on that. I can say in the private sector you generally have to up your skills in your time because you want to compete on the market without things being handed to you on a plate,

Tricky one. My experience with online learning has been poor. My dc primary has been awful in terms on whats on offer and support. Some days things dont get posted . So my dc dont have any work. Saying that i know of teachers/schools who are breaking there backs to help out and teaching online

It depends on the school your child attends. There are some wonderful teachers and schools who are giving their pupils a good lockdown experience and running live lockdown lessons for 3 hours primary and 5 hours secondary every day. They are marking work too. There are other teachers and schools who have used lockdown as an excuse to do very little. They are not offering live lessons, are not marking work and some are only sending out very basic work for pupils to do as homework with no teacher input. Glad to hear you are offering live teaching to your pupils. There will be huge differences in kids progress over last year and postcode lottery if your child gets taught or made to just do homework.

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?

@TheNortherner All of the above!

I agree with you that reinventing the wheel can be a problem. But best practice is not static either - there all always new ways of doing things, new resources to try, new pedagogical research coming out that can improve how we teach and it’s important to take that onboard.

Following a ready made plan is also not always easier - I used to use Abacus for maths which told you what to do word for word but if you really followed it word for word it would take you some time to get your head around it. I find white rose much easier and quicker although a lot of the planning is left up to me.

School expectations can be a problem too - the school I work at now doesn’t look at our planning, we are trusted to know what we’re doing! But in previous schools I’ve worked in they would monitor and check it and it needed to be in certain format - even ready made planning had to be put into school formatting and include a bunch of additional hoop jumping. I’m sad to say I have in the past planned lessons for SLT to look at, not to work from - what I did with my class was considerably different to what was on paper!

Both. Listening to the online lessons and can’t imagine dealing with the kids and their nonsense and not going stark staring mad. So I’m impressed with their fortitude. Also having to deal with parents who are completely baffled by protractors must be wearing on the patience! And I’m impressed with the creativity and ability to pivot faster than a corporate environment to create new learning environments. They also take onboard feedback as much as is possible.

But their level of spelling and grammar makes me wonder how they can expect the kids to learn. I’m trying to assume it’s to do with rushing to get through it all.

Less 🤷🏻‍♀️ won't go down well!
I will say I hugely support all staffs right to have safety in schools and if that means being closed to all except key worker children that is fine, but I'm a support worker and times have been tough here but then I go home and have a day off and school have a 15 minute lesson 3 times a day and then give the children work to do and log off but I'm also trying to start a business, my daughter is dyslexic and has ADD, my son is really young, I can see that it must be hard for them but it's hard for everyone. My daughter behaviour has really deteriorated this lockdown because she is missing her friends, we don't qualify for a key worker place because they aren't offering it unless both parents are out, but my partner is working from home as a key worker.
I don't want to 'teacher bash' but there's been an awful lot of people in shit situations and I haven't seen a lot of support for them.

I’d say the same maybe a little less tbh.

We get 2 x 30 minute zoom lessons per day but we can only hear the teacher, we can’t see her or any of the other children. So there’s no interaction. I appreciate there may be reasons this is the case (safeguarding etc).

It’s dull. The delivery is dull and the work is dull. We spend a week learning one number, we’re up to number 7 now 🙄.

I understand it’s easier to get them to engage at school and they can mix up the teaching style etc but their online provision is poor ime.

Generally I think most teachers in normal times are great. I appreciate they do a job I couldn’t do.

Any work that gets uploaded gets no feedback but I was phoned last week to find out why I hadn’t uploaded anything for a week. Why bother?

I do think there is a profound lack of understanding that other jobs are difficult too (as evidenced by the idiotic 3 day zoom training course comment). That other jobs face tech issues, underfunding, weak management. That isn’t unique to teaching.

I spent a decade as a secondary teacher. I was not impressed with the DCs' school in the summer term. Teacher A was fine, the work appropriate, sent out in a timely fashion. Printer heavy would be my greatest criticism, but you really can't win them all. He also did a weekly zoom quiz which gave a casual check in opportinity with all members of the class.

Teacher B was appalling. DS has multiple SENs, but even then, the photo of the outline of the illegible lesson plan on the laptop screen was sub-standard. No resources. It simply was not feasible to keep a child with ASD hanging on indefinitely while trying to create an appropriate resource that would work, and trying to keep a younger child on track. After a week or two, we moved onto Bitesize for both (for consistency of management for DS2). It was just simpler to leave it rather than give a barrage of feedback.
Teacher B never checked on DS1 despite his SENs, other than once for his statutory review. Come June when she was delegated to another class in-school, she completely washed her hands of the class. Teacher A and his team remained in touch weekly.

It has been better this time, but a lot of damage was done first time round, that simply can't be undone while isolated at home. School also chose to ignore the email detailing how DS1 needs to be in school to learn and thrive with his SNs and the damage that it inflicts upon DS2. Now DS2 has lost another month of struggling there is begining to be some remote dialogue with school.

I strongly resent the vociferous NEU and contingent of teachers making demands that they knew would never be funded, for forcing my children back out of school to struggle and battle daily. They have tarnished their profession's reputation. Teacher's have had to battle unfair clichés of only working 9-3 for decades, and this gobby cohort have just made it look like teachers are desperate to be out of the classroom and get away with as little as possible. I know that's not the whole truth and the majority have been quietly working away trying to keep up with constant changes, but after suffering for months with a teacher that barely scraped 30 mins per day into the crappy plan, it's hard to shake that off and keep a wider perspective.

My son hasn’t had a PE lesson since December. The student gets a break at PE time but there is no structured exercise or even being told to go out for a walk and report back, so what have they been doing?