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 come from a teaching family although no current teachers. And obviously grew up a long time ago. I’m a bit puzzled by the “selling” of educational materials and education. Suspicious, even....it seems all so over complicated now. Sorry if I sound naive.

Why would anyone hate a textbook? Makes no sense to me.

Why would anyone hate a textbook?

Because it doesn’t create enough work for teachers.

The people in charge aren’t happy unless teachers are dancing around entertaining the class like they work for CBeebies despite evidence that sitting and quietly doing some work is pretty effective.

The English language may not change (actually it does constantly!) but the way it is taught and assessed does.

As I said before it is almost completely out of a belief that it is lazy to rely on textbooks and that teaching should involve huge amount of planning and effort.

Plus money.

Plus most textbooks are extremely expensive. And shit.

Seriously? That is actually shocking.

This may explain why my son is a lot less stressed sitting here doing quiet work alone. School classroom doesn’t seem to suit him (conscientious, concentrated type ) whereas I am the same but loved school. Hmmm.

Welcome to our world fascinated !

I thought our textbooks were quite good and I ended up with various degrees. Remember many fondly - I can recall very precise detail of how they looked even now! We had to cover them with wallpaper, or plastic or whatever, or brown paper.

I feel for teachers now, I really do.

I went on to “Twinkl”and had to back away, overwhelmed. Instead I have had my kid work through this .... easy to keep track of. Checking where he currently is then I will buy the next one in the series.

So does nothing like this exist for general school use, then?

How can they go out of date? Arithmetic , for instance, is arithmetic. The English language does not change at lightening speed. 2 subjects already covered.

To an extent no, but exam boards ( and I'm talking about secondary schools) change their syllabus and their specifications, so what different topics need to be covered.

Again though, in order to cover a situation like we have now, every student needs to have a text book that they can take home and that is just too expensive.

Ofsted also hate them because they don't want students just learning from a book. They want individual lessons, with differentiation and more engagement.

When my children were at school we were given lists of books that they recommend they have for parents to buy and they were expensive.

The textbooks I use to teach maths are 20 years old and falling apart.

The PGCE students I’ve mentored I’ve had to force them to use textbooks by making it a target as they are so averse to them due to being told that it’s ‘lazy teaching’.

The current thing in maths is having 3 levels of questions and the kids pick which level to do. It’s a pile of shit, obviously. But the textbooks aren’t set up that way because they use the more sensible option of progressively more difficult questions.

So even in maths which hasn’t changed for a couple of thousand years textbook use is frowned upon.

Depressing.

Hmm. No wonder there is an attainment gap!

I've just checked, there is a primary maths scheme with textbooks. Over the year it would cost £22 per child in KS2 so £660 per class. Which is fine, except our maths budget this year is £300 in total! By the time we had bought enough books for everyone ( and assuming we didn't have to replace any dog eared, chewed and scribbled on books!) it would take 8 years for every child to have a book. By which time we will have a different government with a different curriculum and the books wouldn't cover everything we need and so we would need new ones!

Oh dear, I'm in hysterics here - my family think I've lost the plot. I keep imagining Piggy's dh having a training session through the window;

"Have you turned the power on?"
"Is there a green light?"
"Try the button on the left."
"No, the left."
"Move the cat out of the way - I can't see what you're doing." ...

Have they got two paper cups and a piece of string for next time?

Sorry. Need to get out more.

I think you will find that it was the laptop delivered through the window, not the training!

I think you will find that it was the laptop delivered through the window, not the training!

Too late - I can't stop laughing - fixed in my head now!

@noblegiraffe not Rainer books by any chance ? Our school copies are so tatty and I absolutely hate them !!!
I managed a remote lesson on ionic bonding with the use of a white board (kids used to like playing schools), some balls and my rather enthusiastic 20 year old as helper. Was exhausting but very satisfying when the work I got in showed they'd understood it. Yeah, except 3 were not in lesson, all PP kids who have no wi fi. So some how we need to sort this out. Not sure how to bridge this gap but I'm going to try.

Oh and our textbooks are all on line. So great as long as kids have access.

Banks and Alcorn not Rayner- there are some people on twitter who worship Rayner but I love my Banks and Alcorn. The best ones are the Intermediate Tier ones which shows how old they are!

Schools should be aware that Pearson have given free access to their online textbooks.

No, I have to be honest, it was both laptop and training delivered through a window .

Always happy to provide good cheer.

Today's 45 minute meeting my DH attended might as well have been done through a window.

Two minutes of umming followed by attendees saying 'is that it? Can I go now ?'

Happy to help @Piggywaspushed if he wants a quick Teams chat 😂. And I do agree @noblegiraffe I hate Rayner too. Soooo repetitive.

I've just finished a safeguarding conference by phone- half a dozen people going, hello, hello, anyone there followed by silence then six voices all apologising at the same time! All good fun!

I saw in Keir Starmer’s first digital PMQs his six questions were ‘Can you hear me?’ ‘Can you hear me now?’ ‘What about now?’...