To wonder why schools are saying they’re not allowed to do live lessons

[Plinkplonkplank]

Because they’ve just started doing them at my ds’s state secondary. We had to fill in an online permission form. So it is possible after all.

@Shellycakes any idea how did the hacking happen? You wait in a 'lobby' to be let in, and the meeting information should be shared privately to ensure no interlopers. The only hacking I've heard of has been when some idiot published the meeting details.

No idea - sorry. They have code 5 mins before the start of the session sent to their emails. All lesson since have been Pre recorded.
I’m sure there were complaints but although not something any of us want our children exposed to, I appreciate the teachers are really trying their best and would have been as upset by this as pupils and parents.

worstofbothworlds
It depends on the purpose of the feedback.

Setting Covid to one side, there used to be a train of thought where amount of red pen was wrongly equated with good marking. What that meant was hours being spent writing lots, tick and click with very little impact for students or teachers. Some schools still hold this view, and some parents/students still think that everything has to be marked by a teacher. I've done book looks where staff have written 'lovely ideas / good effort / be more imaginative' and there's ticks everywhere, but their feedback isn't as good as another teacher who marks every 2-3 weeks with really useful comments and time for pupils to respond meaningfully.

There's rightly been a shift towards feedback, not just marking and an understanding that not everything needs to be commented on.

In terms of having impact, students need to do something to act on the feedback and good feedback (be it marking, online comments, verbal feedback, whole class feedback) needs to have some practical follow through. Feedback should also underpin future planning as staff know who understands doesn't. Good feedback that has impact is time specific, so being told to remember units in maths/use descriptive techniques in English is fairly useless if the children aren't coming back to that any time soon. It becomes something that looks good but is time consuming with limited impact.

Coming back to lockdown, there's more of a case for acknowledgement feedback now than under normal times. It's likely that students will benefit from knowing their teachers are looking at their work. Personally, depending on their age an overall comment that shows the teacher has seen their work in different subjects from their class teacher in primary once a fortnight would be good, rather than specific feedback. At secondary, feedback on specific tasks is probably easier but whether it's worth the time will depend on staff planning, what students are moving onto (for example in my subject it would be pointless telling students to use a range of sentence openers in March if the next series of work is analysis and they're not returning to creative writing til June).

Anything is better than a twinkl sheet we could print off ourselves.

I haven't read 21 pages to know what the excuses are as to why online lessons aren't happening.

But like probably every other private school my dc's gave been doing online lessons.

• For those who say their broadband connection isn't good enough, the teachers at my dc's school did the lessons from the school, problem solved.

• For those who say the have children to look after at home, well they don't have to as schools and nurseries are open to keyworkers' children.

• For those concerned about what might happen in the background of some people's homes. Here's a few things - teachers can mute particular children or even the whole class if this is an issue and turn off cameras if necessary. Plus if it was a choice between the school providing teaching but my child potentially hearing another parent swear, I'd still take the teaching.

• For those concerned about teachers ending up being filmed or on memes etc... Really, how big a problem is this really? Maybe in a few rough secondaries but I don't think this would be wide spread any more than a child filming a teacher in school and doing it. I just don't believe it.

• For those who say children don't have enough laptops etc at home, again I don't believe this is an issue for the vast majority of children, most people have a tablet or smartphone they could use (a couple of times my dc did their lesson using my smartphone when I couldn't get the broadband to work). For the minority that don't, I think a plea to the community for donations of old laptops or tablets would have been responded to, loans from the schools, people raising money for this would have all happened.

I do understand that the private sector have it easier, they have more resources, smaller classes and parents who are motivated to support learning. But it feels to me like a lot of excuses from teachers who feel entitled to choose whether they do their job or not which has led to a race to the bottom.

As I've said in a previous thread, teachers at my school all came in to teach, no one was shielding, even those over 50. But they know that if they don't provide a service the school will go under and they won't have a job.

If only there was the same commitment in the state sector.

Safeguarding isn't a good reason to not do online teaching and even the unions have backed away from that assertion and are now acknowledging the benefits.

I don't think it is tenable to resist online teaching and a return to the classroom . One or the other should be provided for all children.

Both our y4 boys do online lessons now (w switched to private) and they are an unquantifiable improvement on the piecemeal worksheets and occasional emails from their old schools

I’m a part time teacher and have been going into school teaching key worker children on my days and setting home learning on the other days. So I’m technically doing more work than pre-lockdown.

I also have a 2 year old who would not sit still while mummy records an online lesson. It’s not a case of all teachers don’t want to.

@Noconceptofnormal sums it up pretty well. State school teachers have had it pretty easy this lockdown.

FWIW our state secondary is starting live lesson next week, not many however, maybe 2 a week!

I also have a 2 year old who would not sit still while mummy records an online lesson. It’s not a case of all teachers don’t want to.

What do you think everyone else whose job requires them to do presentations, consultations, meetings is doing right now?

Noconceptofnormal sums it up very well, yes.

The audacity of unions not to support a return to the classroom, whilst also not supporting online lessons is staggering!!!

Are you aware @Noconceptofnormal that many nurseries have shut entirely? Our campus nursery is still closed and I know of quite a few doctor/academic and teacher/academic couples who use it plus students who also work in food supply.

@LaurieMarlow

I also have a 2 year old who would not sit still while mummy records an online lesson. It’s not a case of all teachers don’t want to.

What do you think everyone else whose job requires them to do presentations, consultations, meetings is doing right now?

What do you do? Honestly. I’d like to know because mine won’t sit still!

And I am still going to work for my usual hours. The days I am setting online work I am not getting paid for.

@KeepYourGinUpHigh

Disney plus or tablet with headphones. Shut door. Mine is three though so can go a little bit longer. She no longer naps (which is sad) but also has to stay in her room for “quiet time” from 1pm-2pm and I get a lot done then

You don’t realise how hard it is to teach with no response or 30 little voices coming back at you. I do one online lesson and one assembly a week. I have young children who get placed in a different room with an iPad while I teach. It’s not ideal. I can manage it but I couldn’t do more. I set daily work and respond to parents and children throughout the day and evening. I mark work and record myself explaining little things. Everything takes at least 10x longer than it would in a classroom. I work more hours now than I did before. Some children do everything, others nothing. I support so much but there are going to be clear gaps when people return. We will address it.
I have been at home all the time due to health but many teachers are either now teaching or had key worker children throughout as well as looking after their own class. It’s not as easy as people keep saying it is. Plus you all get a blooming report which we need to write after not seeing the children in months!

[quote Nonotthatdr]@KeepYourGinUpHigh

Disney plus or tablet with headphones. Shut door. Mine is three though so can go a little bit longer. She no longer naps (which is sad) but also has to stay in her room for “quiet time” from 1pm-2pm and I get a lot done then[/quote]
Luckily mine is still napping as he recently turned two. I am replying to parent emails and making phone calls when he’s asleep. When he’s awake though he will not play alone. I’m hoping it’s just a (short) phase!

I'm not lecturing at the moment but we have a series of public lectures. I said I couldn't do one live and I was quietly dropped. Female academics' productivity has gone down in lockdown, male academics' have gone up.

Amused by those who don't realise how many times staff images are used online.

I teach in a relatively wealthy, rural area.

This year 3 Instagram accounts closed. Each using multiple images of different teachers with the most disgusting abuse on there.

It happens, and not just in tough schools. Our protagonists were very middle class kids.

Why are people asking for live lessons? If you want inetaction that's not really gping to be possible when doing a video call with 30m children. There are already prerecorded lessons on Oak Academy and BBC bitesize if you want to follow the NC. Plus lots of other educational programmes on TV and the internet.

30 children, not 30 million children!

The audacity of unions not to support a return to the classroom
They have explicitly said they support a return as long as it is safe.

whilst also not supporting online lessons is staggering!!!

Have you read why they don’t support live lessons? Betcha haven’t. Go look. It might not be as staggering as you think.

@LaurieMarlow

Does all online meeting technology allow virtual backgrounds?

Zoom and Teams do.

I do all meetings, consultations, presentations from my bedroom. I honestly don’t get why that’s a big deal. I angle the laptop so I’ve only got blank wall in the background.

Skype does too, and you can blur or choose your own photo or picture.

[quote HathorX]@Shellycakes any idea how did the hacking happen? You wait in a 'lobby' to be let in, and the meeting information should be shared privately to ensure no interlopers. The only hacking I've heard of has been when some idiot published the meeting details.[/quote]
Apparently it's possible to keep running random codes and join a meeting like that.

@SmileEachDay actually last time I looked the unions were softening their position on online teaching and acknowledging it could really help children

@adirondack I'm sure your colleagues wouldn't use a screenshot to photoshop your face onto a meme or onto porn. There is a much higher chance of that happening to a secondary school teacher and not something I'm comfortable with

That is horrendous and I am so sorry for the teachers that it happened to. How did they get the pics? I suppose kids could pics of teachers in class without them even knowing?

Unfortunately, it really isn't a reason though for teachers to refuse to record lessons. Anyone could take a pic of anyone at anytime, as I said above.

That’s wonderful @Noconceptofnormal

Do all parents of your year group feel the same?

Like I said earlier, on average I get 7-10 views of the videos I make out of potentially 60 year 4s.

I would rather put the effort into talking to each child individually and planning and feeding back on engaging work they can do in their own time without relying too much on technology.

No, I don’t just upload Twinkl worksheets, there is a middle ground that works for us.