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.

And to highlight the lack of Internet Safety many are using Google services. Youtube gets hacked and accounts taken over.

There are some amazing learning portals out there that can be used that are a lot safer than many mentioned on this thread. Easy to use, properly stored, secured etc.

However, they come at a cost. Where does this money come from? Before now, schools in the UK haven't needed to provide on-line education. Some schools do but on a much smaller scale.

Recording, editing, uploading etc all take time. Although the lesson is an hour, it will require more time for recording. If you really think it's that easy. Talk about something you are passionate about, produce a one hour video and upload it to Youtube. And of course, we want to see you in your normal home workspace and recorded during a typical one-hour time-tabled lesson. Share it with us, and then tell us how easy it was, and how you enjoy being publicly exposed in such a way.

We also have a little policy in the UK about how we can share our picture, and this extends to online presence. Last time I worked in education, a part of the Internet policy I signed ticked hell no to videos of me being shared online. If I wanted to be seen online, I would have gone down that path.

You cannot force people to do something they are very uncomfortable with. You cannot force people to cross their own boundaries, and nor should you.

Don't forget teachers across the globe are advised about how to safely use Facebook so students/parents cannot find them. Their SM accounts are all locked down.

Oh and technically primary schools shouldn't be using Google Classroom, youtuve etc. It violates their t&c's as all account holders should be over the age of 13. Which goes back to E-safety and safeguarding.

However, we've managed to get a third of the class together on zoom at the same time so they can say hello and share some news - so it is possible. It was password protected, so I don't see how it could be hacked easily.

Please please please read the links that have already been posted about Zoom or Google the security issues and educate yourself as to how it can be hacked so easily.

You owe it to your students to not make them use a program that is knowingly dangerous to them.

Use another platform (Microsoft Teams has end to end encryption, as does Adobe Room)

Oh and technically primary schools shouldn't be using Google Classroom, youtuve etc. It violates their t&c's as all account holders should be over the age of 13. Which goes back to E-safety and safeguarding.

Very very very good point

"not every family has a computer"

Exactly

Kids are addicted to devices so why can't they focus for a 30 min lesson?

That's dumbest question I've ever heard. Because they want to watch YouTube videos and don't want to attend a physics lesson. Have you ever met a teenager?

There’s a slight difference in the T&Cs with regards the use of Google Classrooms etc. With parental consent, the age limit is NOT 13. Much like you can sign children younger than 13 up for a Google account and manage via family link.

Universities aren't all doing it. I tried to do one lecture using Google Meet a couple of weeks ago but my home broadband is way too slow to handle a presentation and audio at the same time. I'd imagine many teachers have the same problem.

Same goes for recording lessons, if that involves narrating over PowerPoints or screen captures. The files are often enormous and non-fibre home broadband can't upload them without timing out.

Also, Zoom has major security/confidentiality issues and shouldn't be being used for teaching anyway.

I am very concerned about my middle son falling behind his teachers have put learning on show my homework, Google classroom and through emails but he just won't do most of it and is overwhelmed by it. I am sick of the constant meltdowns. He is going to be so behind when he gets back. I've been in contact with the school but it hasn't helped much. My other two are doing fine but the lack of routine and his asd are not helping the current situation.

@maddening

It is EMERGENCY childcare for key worker children. I.e if they cannot be cared for at home. I cannot put my children in it just so I have peace to zoom-teach all day. Especially when we can teach remotely through resources we provide, mark etc through email, when possible. I also shouldn’t have to put my children and our family at risk by sending them to childcare, just so I can zoom-teach all day to keep people like you satisfied that I am a good enough teacher. Getting really REALLY fed up now of people telling we teachers what we should be doing. You don’t know our job and everything we are doing. I don’t know your job or whatnot involves. So I would never try to tell you what you should be doing in the current circumstances.

And if you still think its easy, sit your child in front of a screen during school hours, record and watch back. All done whilst you work and do the usual household stuff. They will fidget, go onto other sites/apps - hence many tablets and phones you can stay locked into a specific app because people and not just children get distracted.

Sitting in front of the screen for 6 hours or even 3 hours isn't good for anyone. Hence workplaces encourage you to move around, and many offer a free eye check. Imagine what 3 hours. in front of a screen will have on developing minds.

It's weird though if someone suggested playing Mario for 3 hours there would be outrage.

And anyone who has studied online knows how hard it can get because although you have the tutor once a week or whatever, you don't have that input from classmates. The dynamics are different. Think back to your school days - you helped each other in class, did homework together etc. All that is what helped you get through. It's very easy to start a quick conversation on-line and 3 hours later, you haven't moved.

I’m a lecturer. I am delivering classes via Teams, and my students see my slides, with me talking to them, at our normal lecture times. We then use the chat function for discussion, and I do one to one video meetings. It’s not perfect by any means, and we are all muddling away. I am lucky to have great students who have been very kind and patient while I tried to get to grips with everything.

In contrast, my friend teaches in a secondary school. There is no way that she can do this, because lots of the students come from homes where they can’t afford the technology or WiFi. To quote her, “we have no way of poverty proofing this”. That’s without considering all the other issues raised by pp.

Given how quickly everything happened, teaching staff are doing the absolute best they can, without much training, and with their own home circumstances to manage. That thread suggesting teachers shouldn’t get paid was properly bonkers - I am on Easter holidays right now, but worked far harder in the last fortnight than I do when I am in my actual work.

I teach live lessons.

I work in a British International school overseas in the primary section.

I teach English and Maths live via Google Meet each morning for the first 2 hours. Then a supervise a social chat so the kids can talk to each other. After that, the children watch videos that I've made for the other subjects and carry out the activity via google classroom. I am live again for an hour long live session at the end of the day for any questions or to prove further help.

Specialist teachers provide videos and tasks and have set times where they are available each day for live google meets too.

In the time when I'm not live - I have to mark ALL the work and provide feedback on each piece before the following day. I also use that time to make the videos for the next day too as they need to be preloaded to appear at 7.30am on google classroom each day.

I also have to email parents if students miss lessons or if they are not submitting work properly.

My husband is doing the same and we have 2 kids and have to make sure they are online etc at the right time. My 8 year old has gotten the hang of it now thank god but getting my 5 year old onto live lessons at the correct time when I'm also live is a nightmare.

My biggest issue with it all is the parents if I'm going to be honest. One was feeding a child in my maths class the wrong bloody answers the other day - and the worst part was that the student is actually very good at maths and was more than capable of doing it herself without interference. I also have lots of work being submitted that is blatantly not the child's own work. Others interrupt my live lessons to ask unnecessary questions.

Who's going to look after my 18 month old whilst I teach 5 hours of live lessons? 🤣*
*
What an utterly LAME excuse @Lemonanimes123 for not teaching live lessons. If that's your only excuse then you would have to use childcare. Or you could prerecord lessons.

But using your child as an excuse for not doing your job is ridiculous. What does everyone else do?!

It amazes me that people seriously expect teacher to be able to just pull, high quality online teaching out if their arses as if they’d been preparing for weeks and had nothing else to do right now.

Personally, I think there was time to allow home learning before Easter for primary school children, without formal online learning led by teachers. The fact that some schools are pressuring their teachers to do these lessons alongside work out and do everything else that has changed is daft imo. They’ve given teachers no time whatsoever to work out how to do this in a way that actually works for the children and considers safeguarding. I’d question whether these lessons were more for show and to appease parents, rather than for the benefit of the children.

@maddening you're absolutely right that teachers cannot use their kids are reasons for not teaching and if they have to use childcare then SO BE IT

I'll just say that to my employer too shall I? "Sorry boss but I can't do my job as the kids are around but still pay me please".

My dc primary does one zoom lesson a week in each junior class, it’s a well being lesson. The kids loved it.

My DH is teaching a full time table live from our kitchen!! He has even demonstrated a few science practicals.
Not this week though, it's the Easter holidays.

@MarieQueenofScots
Which goes back to E-safety and safe-guarding.
Many people out there are simply clueless including schools. Companies are always trying to give them info about their amazing products that are a pile of expensive shite. They aren't clued up enough to begin with to really be making these decisions but have no choice.

Just look at all the parents and teachers talking about amazing Zoom is. It really, really isn't and I surprised so many support the use. But it's all they know. And trying to get a large number of people to agree on something can be incredibly hard.

And it also all boils down to cost. Schools don't have the budget to allow every single teacher to work on a computer/laptop/device that is even semi up to date. They don't have the infrastructure or even someone specific to run this.

Many outsource this to a third party, and without that expert on-site, crap like Zoom slips through. A part of my job I loved was before we implemented anything we had to rigorously test it to find out how secure, info shared etc on everything. And I really doubt that google has changed so much from the 3 doubled sided pages of issues we found. Shame I no longer have access to it, it really highlighted a lot of vulnerabilities when it came to children using it.

The thing that impressed me most about the move to online learning from the two schools my dc go to, was how achievable and realistic the lessons set were.

They are setting enough to keep ticking over, keep the children engaged (and the variety of tasks set was impressive), and try to keep some semblance of normality and familiarity for the dc.

My ds’s school considers itself a high achieving prep. And even then, lessons set have been fun, engaging - ds has actively wanted to take part. No pressure - he is expected to turn up, be punctual, etc, but emphasis was on trying and taking part (there were many sports challenges!) rather than perfection.

Dad’s school also had an impressive array of sports challenges, and her academic lessons were also about staying in touch as much as learning. She was doing work, but the lessons often split into smaller groups who then joined up via text and FaceTime, giving her a similar amount of collaborative learning (and catching up with friends!) time as at school.

I was honestly amazed at how both schools seemed to hit the right combination of keeping the dc in touch with their school and friends, and at the least keeping in touch with academic subjects.

Could someone please link to the DFE safeguarding/online learning documents that have been released

Thank you

11mnahmnah "people like you" dfod I haven't made any judgement on how teachers are or are not doing, it is clear some are doing much more than others, however my post was simply about the excuse that no more can be offered because you have a dc at home.

As I said, whenever parents have raised concerns about the childcare issues they are facing due to the current situation they really are given short shrift - it is their problem - either they make it work or take unpaid leave, no different for you - do your job and make it work or take unpaid leave - your childcare issues are no one else's problem, just like "people like me". I am also wfh full time whilst trying to teach my son, however am not bitching off about it and stating that I can not do my full time job because I have my son at home.

And it also all boils down to cost. Schools don't have the budget to allow every single teacher to work on a computer/laptop/device that is even semi up to date.
Teachers in my dc school are obviously using there own devices! What an odd comment.

*their

Have you actually used Zoom? A family chat descends into chaos, how on earth do you expect a class of 30 to work.
Have you actually used zoom? The teacher muted the kids until it was their turn to talk. Hardly complicated.

@Phineyj the printing isn't necessary - you could write the questions or just the answers in the book and DS1 maths was lots of clocks for time telling which I sat and drew round a circle in his book when we ran out of ink.

For those without a computer they gave out a printed pack on the last day or dropped them round to their house.

Its the short film of the teacher doing phonics or explaining that really seems to connect them with the teaching in a way that I cannot.