Classroom Lessons via Zoom

[jjx111]

AIBU to expect the teachers at my daughter’s rs primary school to offer at least some lessons via Zoom? The feedback I have been given is that that they aren’t offering it due to a) safeguarding issues, and b) it would add to the teachers workload. Well, surely if we parents consent for our child to sign in for these lessons then no safeguarding issue. Plus, at present, we parents are doing at least 60% of the teachers work for them via homeschooling. (I appreciate that they are setting work for the children, but this is part of the planning they would do anyway).

Well, if it is glitchy, presumably the adult clients or customers can deal with that sensibly. With a class of 30 KS1 pupils, it would be a lot more difficult.

But I do think it's a shame that some schools are just handing over some Twinkl worksheets or just directing pupils to a webpage. I'd love to know what discussions they had to reach that decision.

(I'm worried that people would think I'm not trying to wfh on the days I'm not in school. I definitely am! I just think it's a poor substitute for the classroom experience.)

I can't imagine telling people I thought my job could be replaced by a text book/web page/Twinkl worksheet!

Oh for crying out loud. You are being deliberately obtuse and goady - I just don’t understand what you’re getting out of it?

@penguinsbegin I think you are correct Zoom for KS1 is not helpful I think it's an age where parents - siblings anyone can help encourage kids to learn - but they need people not just screens. I was speaking to neighbour who's 6 year old grandchild was struggling with school work via the worksheets - I said forget the worksheets - bake! - read simple recipes, read numbers, follow instructions, weigh ingredients, half recipes, double recipes, divide pizzas and cakes, improve finger strength and creativity by decorating biscuits, kneading bread, observe science and then eat the lovely results! It goes a long way!
But at secondary I think they are more able to take direction from screens and we need teachers to provide the instructions.

@penguinsbegin I think people don't think baking, observing flowers and nature is enough, exploring ideas, problem solving, creating movies, plays and narratives the simple things - they are so obsessed with maths sheets and bloody reading schemes...oh! to do the whole thing again but I had twins, so I couldn't learn from my misguided mistakes.

@sultan

We're doing the same, playing games that involve money, painting stones, building models etc. However our KS1 loves the small lessons from her teacher (she tends to get three or four 3 minute long videos that help her practice phonics etc.). The KS2 children would love to get that, they can sit through an Oak Academy lesson but I think are desperate to see/hear from their teacher (slightly ironic considering how they are in normal times!).

They use seesaw as a platform which seems good, just the KS2 are not getting the feedback (it's treated a bit like Facebook). I personally don't care if it's Zoom, Google or Microsoft (or anything else for that matter), they just want to hear/see their teacher (and friends).

Agreed about baking!

My first comment on social media after schools closed was on a friend's status where they'd posted about enjoying baking at home with their Year 4 child that day. I said something along the lines of how baking is covering all manner of Maths (weighing), Literacy (reading and understanding instructions), art (cake decorating), perhaps history (even just a look at an old family recipe book), science (changing states), not to mention all the social, emotional stuff too. So actually, it's a great activity to do.

But at secondary I think they are more able to take direction from screens and we need teachers to provide the instructions.

I agree but those instructions don't need to be on a live video stream or zoom!

I think everyone is baking, judging by the stock of flour and eggs in the shops.
But not in school time in our case, we need to at least try to work. Admit I have given up and baked some days. To increasing extent we have sorted out our own activities for the kids that take longer than the school ones and they can do more independently. We can't keep up with the school ones as they require more adult time than they actually occupy the kids for. I do feel like we're trying to do school's job as well as our own and failing at both. Only consolation kids are not unhappy. Probably because they're getting away with unholy amounts of YouTube

@thirdfiddle I think we have all had days like that.

I'm firmly of the opinion the problem is that we are all trying to do 100% of our jobs but in s fraction of the time available, whilst distracted by our own kids.

All of us. Teachers included.

And it's impossible to do. We simply cannot do our normal roles, any of us, whilst trying to home school and everything else.

So yes, have a baking day. Christ, we need some joy in it. Use cutting a cake to teach fractions. Yes dear, that's right, 2/3 of the cake is for mummy 😉🤣

I gave my neighbour flour & eggs because she couldn’t find any in the shops but she got really stressed about carbs! Her kids are skinny and healthy...three’s only so much you can do!

Doing a few tasks a week with ur child is hardly doing 60% of the teacher’s job. Too many parents expect everyone else to teach their kids even basic life skills like tying their laces? I think the teachers are doing a great job preparing learning activities for our kids at home.

@TwinsetAndPearlss we had hoped for more than being directed towards a text book and told to get on with it.

@Cb2020 if that is the case then you should feel grateful but it is not the universal experience. Not even close judging by the number of posts on MN.

Before I retired early I taught GCSE and A Level. As s secondary teacher I taught 3 sets the same topic with differentiation for set ability. The specification has not changed this year, therefore all of the PowerPoints and differentiated work sheets from last year can be reused. When at school teaching topic to 3 sets of GCSE took 3 1/2 hours. In lockdown uploading PowerPoints and differentiated worksheets takes 5 minutes. Same with A Level. 2 sets took 2 hours 20 mins, uploading pre prepared work from last year to keep students on track with specification. This would be saving me 5 hours each time I normally taught each set which in school would be 3 times each week. Thus saving about 14 hours. This time could/should be used for marking and providing feedback for improvement. Secondary teachers only need to work half their hours to be effective if they are organised and well prepared. Obviously harder for Primary as children of that age have lower attention spans. If I had a toddler and needed to do online lesson for 40 mins toddler would be put into playpen with toys and books and possibly a Thomas the Tank Engine dvd or similar or I would schedule online lesson for when toddler had their nap. Lots of excuses and claims of overwork is not doing teachers any good and is insulting to many teachers who are making it work and getting on with their job. Child minders are now working again, with no fuss.

I also have a complete set of resources inc Powerpoints for y7-y13. I am having to rework everything to make it work remotely. It does not take 5 minutes, I promise you!

@caringcarer That’s all well and good unless you teach a practical based subject and year’s worth of resources are mostly based around practical lessons. It takes considerably longer than five minutes to adapt one lesson. It’s taking me longer to plan the work than it takes my students to complete it. It’s like doing a PGCE all over again.

It does seem a bit nuts that maths teachers uk wide are all preparing the same work and running individual online class on say, probability. That would seem like a lot of wasted hours of them all producing the same thing when you really have one online audience.

Why don’t we try an experiment? Currently a lot of parents are having to home school, why don’t you pop in another room and run the teaching day over Zoom. Report back how it went. I’d be really interested to hear how it goes but no cheating, e.g. if a 5yo walks off screen and disappears you have to pretend you are far away and can’t go check on him. Also keep it up for all the teaching hours because one of the objective here is to free up parents for their work so you need to offer a live lesson for the duration of the school session.

I think some schools have got it wrong by allowing the idea that they need to provide the same level of provision for all as a reason to provide poor provision for everyone.

Lockdown will be a disaster for children without support at home regardless of whether it is Zoom provided or paper provided. The idea of a significant percentage of deprived children knuckling down to complete paper resources, diligently (somehow) sending them back, and reading detailed written feedback only exists in the over fertile imagination of a teaching college staff member. The less support children have at home, the more dependent they are on the structure of a school, with positive adult role modelling and positive peer pressure.

It should be an urgent government priority to get devices and fast internet access to homes with children who do not already have it.

In the interim, we should do our best, which is inevitably a compromise. We should provide as much face to face teaching as possible, given the constraints of the medium (it is intense for both pupils and teachers) and teachers with their own families at home. For some, that might be an hour a day, for others it might be 60-70% of a normal timetable. No, pupils will not see homogeneity of lesson style, some may he mostly zooming (teachers with no families at home) and some may be mostly providing resources with a few minutes Zooming at the beginning and end of each lesson. In addition, the relatively few pupils without internet or device will relatively (though not absolutely) suffer.

However, it is far better that 90% of pupils make 70% progress than 100% of pupils make less than 50% of progress. It also frees parents to get on with their jobs, vital to the economy.

But it isn't 90% though! In a particular school it might be the majority of students with limited tech and internet access.
I keep saying, from my experience teaching on platforms like Zoom, even 1-1, Explaining a new concept live on Zoom is a WORSE learning experience than getting a student to watch a well prepared video! Zoom really isn't the answer.

@caringcarer, Got any useful powerpoints on how to write in paragraphs that I could borrow?