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.

I think it might be nice if the form tutor called or emailed every fortnight or so, but I don't see it as essential.

To be honest I think it might be more important that those on the pastoral vulnerable lists (to check welfare & to know they are cared about), or those on PP (to encourage work / 'closing the gap') are called more frequently than everyone on a regular basis.

I don't think academic teachers can be expected to do regular general contact.

Teachers use zoom for 3yo and older here (US) and honestly, it's mostly a shit-show. Not necessarily because of the kids though, but because teachers don't seem to understand technology nor how to adapt their teaching skills and because parents don't seem to understand that if they don't mute themselves we can hear them/not hear the teacher.

Kids will melt after a while but from what I have seen, kids can stay engaged, though here for people to teach you online parents are paying $700 a month for pretty much what is an hour of class a day.

I am a former teacher (and I would do this for this price! haha) but otherwise you absolutely wouldn't pay me to give online classes to toddlers/young children.

A lot of the welfare checks are being done by pastoral staff visiting pupils at our place. We aren't concerned about them not being in because we are in regular contact.

I am worried also about the number of people who think robust safeguarding measures can just be thrown out of the window at the moment : they are even more important I'd say!
Same here.
I am much more worried about the safeguarding issues implications of schools being closed than fear of the virus 'killing us all'.

Yes it’s current school policy but kids/parents can request no calls and that’s fine. A few of mine have just said ‘I’ll let you know if I need you’ sort of thing. I think our head was trying to balance teacher interaction with pupils and obviously not being there to be honest. It’s a bit of a weird one. It may fizzle out as like you say, I’m not sure it’s having much impact other than kids and parents going through the motions

I call vulnerable families every 2 days and see them every week, I'm also in constant contact with social workers who are doing similar. That's part of my safeguarding role but I wouldn't expect class teachers to phone. We use Class Dojo for teachers and parents to keep in touch.

I think most people know that a phone call isn’t the same as seeing a child every day. There are huge issues brewing and social services will never have enough time to visit all their vulnerable clients once a week! Lack of staff prevents this in reality. What they want to do but actually can manage are two different things and they certainly can not replicate what teachers see.

Thankfully most of our most vulnerable children are still in school everyday but not all. A phone call is certainly not a substitute for daily contact with those but it's the best we can do. I think there will be an explosion in safeguarding referrals( I've made three since school closed which is more than usual!) and social workers will be even more overwhelmed than normal.

Having witnessed car crash lessons for a class of 20, 10 year olds I can only imagine teaching a class of 5 year olds to be like herding cats.

Ours were. Audio only. Not allowed to see pupils in their home environment for safeguarding issues that I don't quite understand. But now on Easter holidays.

Agreed a phonecall isn't the same. I know some of our staff are going to physically check on them. We're secondary so if we speak to the child we can also ask yes/no questions they can answer on the phone.

The students don't want to be in school. A fair few of them are looking after siblings and don't want to leave them (understandably).

@ellanwood an example of why you should not see your pupils in home environment could be as follows. Imagine a scenario, before all this madness started, a parent went into her DD’s bedroom and found her FaceTiming her teacher whilst sitting in her bed in her pjs. There was nothing untoward about what they were talking about they were just talking about a maths question the DD was struggling with. Even so I can’t imagine the parent would be too impressed. And would have huge safeguarding issues for both the child and the teacher.
Now fast forward to today. This scenario seems to be ok. Yes the children will be told to sit in a family room and not a private one and to wear appropriate clothing, but that won’t necessarily happen. Even if they are in a family room, there could be all sorts going on in the background.

I am worried also about the number of people who think robust safeguarding measures can just be thrown out of the window at the moment : they are even more important I'd say!
Same here, but I'm also not surprised given that I've been on multiple threads where lots of posters tell an OP with concerns about a child's welfare and safety to shut up and say nothing because it's none of their business, or even better tell the OP to approach the parent they are concerned about for a chat because maybe they're just struggling a bit. Some get quite shitty when told not to do that because it could place a child at greater risk. There's also been people arguing that instead of sharing concerns with schools or social services, the OP should offer to have the child move in with them for a few days to help.

Some attitudes on here towards safeguarding are worrying.

Well as many can only now think about Covid19 l, and the news is of nothing else, safeguarding is yesterday’s news. And yesterday’s concern. It will come back to shame us.

At my school class teachers are calling EVERY child in their class and speaking to the pupil and parent(s) weekly. We have to do this and keep calling until we get an answer- this takes hours to get through a whole class. We have not been provided with a school phone or given any money to do this, just told to withhold our numbers. These phone calls are in addition to the ones the vulnerable children/ families are getting.

I agree with all the previously stated reasons why live lessons are a bad idea. I also want to point out it’s not just secondary pupils who could use the content inappropriately. I have been sexually assaulted by Year 6 pupils before, including one case where they doctored an image of me which they got from the school website. If I was still teaching in that school I would absolutely never agree to live teach or even pre record a lesson.

In my current school before Easter we have been doing a mixture of pre recorded video lessons that are uploaded on our secure learning platform which we had pre Corona and work packs emailed to parents. We have also been posting paper copies of the work but this is SO expensive and not sustainable.

Before Easter the head at my school was hinting that we may be moving towards live lessons after Easter and I think it’s a terrible idea.

My kids’ primary haven’t called once, which is absolutely fine, quite happy for them not to phone at all, tbh. These schools that are phoning daily would drive me mad.

We've been asked to phone children/parents using our own phones (and blocking numbers) which totally goes against union advice. Also been told we'll be delivering live audio-based lessons daily where there should be no noise interruptions from our homes.
I have very young children. It's just not workable as they will not leave me alone.

My dc primary has zoom online classes one of the rules are “ make sure you are fully dressed ( pyjamas are fine” . Some of the teachers comments on here are very paranoid.

@MyDcAreMarvel

Realistic not paranoid.

Staff have been unskirted in a classroom where I work. Heaven only knows what those students would do with a live video of a teacher into their bedroom. I'm certainly not taking my chances.

Someone with primary school kids is probably blissfully unaware of secondary life.

@MyDcAreMarvel do they insist that a parent is in the room when they are having their zoom online class? Can't believe they have said pyjamas are fine.

No “ get permission from an adult before joining the zoom lesson”
I didn’t stay in the room, it was her teachers and schools friends. I don’t stay in the room at school and they wear pjs to school for charity/world book day. I don’t see the difference.

We have a no pyjamas rule (independent secondary school so not sure what it’s like elsewhere) but some of their desks may be in their rooms. I’ve barely time to notice their surroundings when I’m busy concentrating on teaching 25 students virtually!! It’s hard work and I’d much rather be at school!!

This is a primary school my dd is 9.

@MyDcAreMarvel for charity day pyjamas are worn as clothes so I assume underwear will be worn as well. Not always the case when worn as nightwear.

When worn in class there are also witnesses, not so when it's just a camera, if there is a safeguarding issue.