Why are teachers not teaching live lessons online

[Shouldistayorshouldimove]

This is not a teacher bashing thread.

Talking online with another mum in my son’s class today, both ourDCs are in p1 (Scotland). She is outraged that teachers next term will be posting work online rather than actually teaching using Zoom etc. Her argument is that universities are doing it so why aren’t teachers? And how is she supposed to work from home and educate her children?

Personally I don’t think teaching a bunch of 5 year olds a live lesson using Zoom is going to be all that effective and would probably require quite a lot of supervision anyway. AIBU to think that tasks posted online are quite sufficient given the circumstances? So as not to drip feed, I am also working from home with 2DCs.

Safeguarding
Poor sound quality
Teachers are at school teaching vulnerable children and children of keyworkers
Or working from home updating websites, uploading tasks etc

In our school, we're not allowed, due to safeguarding. Universities are different as students are adults, not the case in schools.

A class of 5 year olds are a challenge in the classroom. I'd actually love to see them try and zoom lesson! Secret life of 5 year olds special for channel 4 perhaps 😁

Your friend is bonkers

Our unions told us not to. Huge safeguarding issues.

And, this.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-52240251

Many kids will need to share laptops with parents/siblings. So better to have work online they can access whenever, rather than anything live. Similarly homelives may or may not lead themselves to children being able to be online at specific times.

Some teachers - like me - ARE teaching live lessons. I'm teaching my normal timetable, setting work, marking it online and returning via Google Classroom and still doing all my usual pastoral jobs/planning etc. I'm working very hard.

-because with that age group their attention is often too short for a meaningful online class
-with adults you still get very little done (I'm a lecturer and my classes are really no substitute even though I'm trying very hard)
-it's exhausting
-you can't really teach a full class of 30 online unless you're giving a lecture which isn't appropriate to that age group
-university teachers do an hour or two lecture / seminar, not a full school day

You'd need to ensure a parent supervising each child/connection, because on zoom sometimes the host can't turn off other peoples cameras/audio, and you wouldn't want the kids all on camera.

You could in theory run live classes via facey, be.live etc, but theres no way of ensuring those watching are actually paying attention or of seeing the work they are doing - so it works ok for adults but not kids who want to mess about, daydream etc etc.

In short because the unions have strongly advised against it. 5 year olds aren't the problem, but they are concerned about secondary-aged students copying the lessons, altering them digitally and putting them on the web, leaving the teacher open to all sorts.

Thank you for being so reasonable. Most parents of the kids I teach are similarly sensible but there are the odd few who are making life rather unpleasant. We didn't train for this situation and at the end of the day, I think that the mental health of my students is more important than grades. However, some Heads are putting teachers under ridiculous pressure. Perhaps your mum friend is in that camp.

Trying to teach certain age groups and topics via Zoom is nonsensical. I'm sure the teacher will upload perfectly suitable activities for the kids. They'll get a lot more out of that than they would looking at her on a screen.

FFS this again?! 😂 Rofl 🤣....

@Mementoquadcinises HOW!!! all advice welcome please. I'm crap at this.

Tbh I wonder why there isn’t live teaching at least at secondary. The private schools have got over these issues

Safeguarding. And logistics of getting everyone in the right place at the right time. And we also might have children who need looking after and who wouldn't let us deliver an actual lesson.

I'll ask the opposing question "Why can't the UK's little darlings behave and be trusted to not abuse live video teaching?"

My year 1 child doesn’t have his own phone/laptop and I’m working so can’t supervise him - how could it ever work?

I do...well, I did before rather holidays started and will probably start again after the break. However, I teach abroad...at an independent school. Most of our parents are able to kit their children out with the required technology on short notice. I don't teach them as a whole class, either, but small groups of up to 8 as a maximum. That's challenging enough.
State schools in the UK have safeguarding rules to consider and the fact that some children won't have the technology at home. It's not like teaching in a classroom. I do half an hour per group for each subject I teach and they then have independent tasks to complete. No way am I able to teach my whole class all day through Zoom. I'm a teacher, not a children's tv entertainer. I also have a toddler DS at home and DH has to teach his class from home, too.

Your friend is being silly

Seriously, how does she think that would work?

That makes no sense.

I think the unions are wrong. Lots of teachers twiddling their thumbs. Should be teaching. If “safeguarding” issues why cant they record their lesson so kids can watch not in real time? No one enjoying this we need to work round it. Saying “safeguarding” and hoping that will make parents sod off isnt good enough. And I am usually a teacher supporter lots of my family teach.

Hahahahahahaha! That's the response from anyone who has ever taught a class of 5 year olds.
I teach year 2 and that would still be my response.
I suggest she tries it at home first from another room with her own children and let you know how it works out. Then tell her to multiply the distraction by 25-30 children.

Somebody posted the youtube Foil, Arms and Hogg "Quarantine Maths" clip in answer to this question a week or two ago. Have a look at that OP, it'll answer your question.

And I'm most certainly not at home twiddling my thumbs! I'm online daily setting lessons and uploading them onto a platform we use and then responding to the work whilst monitoring the work my own children are doing. My own children's school is observing the easter holidays , my school isn't so I'm still working.

No ones suggesting someone try teach 30 5 year olds via zoom 🙄 but why can’t older primary / secondary teachers record their lesson so kids can watch and then email questions? I get doing it live could cause issues.

It's a massive safeguarding risk for the kids, and for the teachers and the teachers' children. It relies heavily on kids all having access to their own laptop or device (this is why private schools are much more likely to do it). It would only work if kids were all able to work at the same time (see above). It still would require supervision from parents (we can't babysit your friend's children from a distance).