Did any teachers have it easy over last 11 weeks?

[PicaK]

I nearly lost my shit yesterday with someone who insisted most teachers have had an easy life and not doing a proper day's work during Covid.
I'm not a teacher but many friends are and I don't know any who haven't had a full workload. It's absolutely not the message that's coming across on social media either. Most teachers saying they've done more work.
But then I wondered if my snapshot was accurate.
Does anyone personally know any teacher who has coasted/had an easy ride? (I am not talking about your kids' teachers who you have opinions about but friends or family where you have more insight.)
I'm hoping it's a no tbh and I feel justified for feeling so put out.
Aibu
Yes - yeah the teachers I know have had it easy
No - you're right all the ones I know have worked as much if not more.

@YardleyX maybe their parents should have done a little more to make sure the work set had been completed. I doubt an online lesson would have made any difference.

I know of 4 primary schools local to me who have SET NO WORK AT ALL.

I don’t know what else to say.

Define SET NO WORK AT ALL ...
This is certainly not true for my class - work set weekly via dojo

• I am available all day to explain
• video lessons linked to
• videos of me weekly
• I comment on every single piece of work with feedback on how to improve
• paper copies for those who can’t access online learning
• weekly shout outs to share good work and engagement

And guess what? SOME OF THEM DON’T DO IT

[quote CarrieBlue]@YardleyX maybe their parents should have done a little more to make sure the work set had been completed. I doubt an online lesson would have made any difference.[/quote]
You’re right - not one bit of difference would it have made. No point in trying to teach the lazy brats!

@JimmyGrimble

Define SET NO WORK AT ALL ... This is certainly not true for my class - work set weekly via dojo

• I am available all day to explain
• video lessons linked to
• videos of me weekly
• I comment on every single piece of work with feedback on how to improve
• paper copies for those who can’t access online learning
• weekly shout outs to share good work and engagement

And guess what? SOME OF THEM DON’T DO IT

Why are you defending yourself when you are providing Education for your classes? I don’t understand? Our school provides nothing like this and has told us they won’t and that is that!

YardleyX

You don't have read too far into the article to see the spin.

"Four in 10 pupils have had little contact with teachers during lockdown"

So they have had contact, the type of which is not defined, it would be much better to state how many have had no contact at all.

Two separate studies raise fears that millions of children, particularly in state schools, have done almost no work at all

Yet it doesn't say why, the rest is an interesting article on how to spin stats.

Okay I will define SET NO WORK AT ALL.

Zero work.
No contact.
No work.
Nothing.
Radio silence.
No communication of any sort.

You think it would have made a difference then?
We asked our parents, about three weeks in, if they would like a formal timetable and live / video lessons. About 95% said no. They felt it would impact on family life and preferred to dip in and out. Go figure.

I get it.

Schools / teachers who have continued to provide a good education find it hard to believe that some schools have done nothing.

I sympathise with those teachers, and imagine it is very frustrating.

I’m a secondary teacher but part time and had a lot of exam classes so if I was in school I wouldn’t be doing much at the minute. My school have worked very efficiently, we have grouped classes together to set work instead of each reinventing the wheel and we are making the most of a virtual learning platform that we invested in a few years ago but never put to full use.
Students are getting 4 full lessons (from my subject) and marked tasks each week. We are also phoning our form classes fortnightly.
Reading about the level of work and contact other schools are giving I think we are setting a good amount. I’m also planning the curriculum for next year.
I am working 1-2 hours a days for this. So it’s considerably less than usual workload for me.

@YardleyX

Okay I will define SET NO WORK AT ALL.

Zero work.
No contact.
No work.
Nothing.
Radio silence.
No communication of any sort.

That, if true, is completely unacceptable. I would be contacting the school to ask why. That’s all anyone can say.

I think some teachers have had it easy, many have not.

My friend’s DC’s school has done very little- they were sent a pack of home at the start of lockdown. They’ve had the odd work sheet since- a couple every few weeks- all of it (including pack sent home at beginning) is identical to those you can access via Twinkl, so it’s not like they’ve made the worksheets themselves. The whole day’s work can be completed in an hour or so. In addition, one child is in composite class of year 5&6 and the work sent home was all at year 5 level and her child is year 6- all a repeat of what she has already done (so where is the incentive to do the work diligently?). Friend has tried to contact school to see what else she can do- called and emailed. She has one brief reply which did not address questions she asked. The school are not doing on-line learning of any sort. Work is not being sent in for marking. I think it would be a reasonable assumption that the teachers at that school have not been particularly busy for the last 11 weeks. I think the school should be ashamed of themselves TBH.

My DC’s school has done really well- full timetable provided with 3-4 hours of online teaching, teachers available via online classroom for duration of timetabled lessons when not doing that. There are also lots of online resources on the virtual classroom, where they also hand in homework/projects etc. These are marked and feedback given.

So I would say one set of teachers has clearly gone above and beyond, have been really busy and worked incredibly hard. The other set have done very little.

Well my child's teacher I have not heard from in 3 months, sets work once a week which they are not even marking. So what exactly has happened with her then?

Well I was setting work for every day for my KS2 class - Maths, English, Reading tasks.
I arranged weekly Zoom 'assemblies.' Not just worksheets but PowerPoint lessons, fully resources. Takes me hours.

I have produced fortnightly topic webs to give the children plenty of learning opportunities for other areas of the curriculum.

I am on call from 9-4 (& realistically afterwards) via email or Teams. I responded to every piece of work, to every communication from children & parents.

I have called every 2 weeks without fail and weekly in some cases. So, yeah. Pretty busy.

As of this week, I am now in school full time teaching a Y1 bubble. So I fully expect the parents of my class to be on here soon wondering what the hell happened and why my input has drastically reduced.

I am now supposed to be teaching Y1 and my class online. At the same time.

It's a mess....

@theluckiest

Well I was setting work for every day for my KS2 class - Maths, English, Reading tasks. I arranged weekly Zoom 'assemblies.' Not just worksheets but PowerPoint lessons, fully resources. Takes me hours.

I have produced fortnightly topic webs to give the children plenty of learning opportunities for other areas of the curriculum.

I am on call from 9-4 (& realistically afterwards) via email or Teams. I responded to every piece of work, to every communication from children & parents.

I have called every 2 weeks without fail and weekly in some cases. So, yeah. Pretty busy.

As of this week, I am now in school full time teaching a Y1 bubble. So I fully expect the parents of my class to be on here soon wondering what the hell happened and why my input has drastically reduced.

I am now supposed to be teaching Y1 and my class online. At the same time.

It's a mess....

Has the school not contacted the parents to let them know about your change in role?

@GazeboParty Yes, it has.

But I still feel that I'm letting my own class down as they will now not have the support we have been giving them. Online learning was working for our school. It's now vastly diminished.

[quote theluckiest]@GazeboParty Yes, it has.

But I still feel that I'm letting my own class down as they will now not have the support we have been giving them. Online learning was working for our school. It's now vastly diminished. [/quote]
I know we come across as "moany" parents but what we are asking for is some teaching - we haven't had any in 12 weeks.

According to their published learning through covid booklet. My kids should get a very large weekly piece of homework to complete for each A level, and if they don't receive that - we are told not to email the teacher - find something else to do. Teachers are not required to mark or give feedback - that we are told that isn't important. Teachers are not required to contact parents or chase kids for homework - 12 weeks without contact from a teacher.
We are basically told to expect the very basics ...it is very different to your situation. Kids have gone back to school today to have the first conversation with their teacher in 12 weeks. 3 hrs today and then back to a weekly email from that teacher (if they are lucky).

Our MP contacted the school after complaints from parents and the school reassured him that parents were happy and they were providing a good standard of education. Parents are paying for online tutors because the school is not providing teaching. That is our reality.

Some of this is just disgraceful.

We are paying for tutors. State appears to have unilaterally decided to no longer educate kids so we have to do so ourselves or pay others to.

I think we are going to have to turn to tutors too - teach yourself A levels is just not working.

MsTSwift
State appears to have unilaterally decided

Good to see that the generalisations are alive and well.

MsTSwift: State appears to have unilaterally decided

If the state has decided, take your complaints to government, why don't you?

In your own time......

I have emailed my mp obviously

I am campaigning on this yes.
In between home schooling and work 🙄

I contacted my mp last Tuesday actually no response 🙄🙄🙄 Hopping mad. Can you tell ?! Kids are being massively let down.