AIBU to give a massive shout out to teachers

[Ihatefish]

This week I’ve been so amazed by how very hard the teachers at my son’s school have been working, they’ve had to deal with teaching classes where 50% of the pupils have turned up, making sure home schooling is available and working, answering questions from pupils and staff, making sure all the kids are happy whether in school or at home. They had no notice yet have done an amazing job. As a parent at home juggling work and homeschooling I really appreciate the enormous effort they are making in v difficult circumstances-so a big big thank you from a grateful parent to all the teachers on here -you’re amazing

I’m so sorry for the negative comments that are on here. I can’t really understand all the teacher bashing. One can only assume their kids all home educated as surely these people would not entrust their care and education of their child to the people the teacher bashers describe.

For those who suggested I email the school my DS and I have done this this afternoon.

Thank you once again, you really are appreciated.

@ChloeDecker - yes. Teachers have been back for the last three days to plan for online learning, but kids don’t start back remotely until Monday.

For those of you who have written positive, appreciate comments - thank you so so much. It means an awful lot to know that all of our work is helping children and their parents.

Yes, we were told months ago to ensure we had remote learning provision.

But we were given less than 12 hours notices to turn everything around as we had all been told explicitly by the Government that schools were opening (even though we all knew that they shouldn't)

It's bloody hard work teaching from home and if you have your own children to deal with as well, it's very very hard. Yes, we can get critical worker school places but many of us are either vulnerable or don't see why our children should be put at risk whilst others stay home...

doh, it's not ''teacher bashing''. It's an appeal to teachers to HAVE SOME SELF-AWARENESS.

@WiseOwlRelaxing

doh, it's not ''teacher bashing''. It's an appeal to teachers to HAVE SOME SELF-AWARENESS.

Teachers didn’t start this thread so enough with your ‘self awareness’

The OP did something nice to make some people smile this evening.

Contact your child’s school and tell them what you need from them and come to an agreement going forward.

Try to have a lovely weekend.

Teachers have all my respect and support. You are all doing the most amazing job and I think sometimes people forget that teachers are human with their own families and circumstances.

@Lemonpiano

They were told months ago that they had to be ready to provide high quality remote learning. They had plenty of notice and are now doing their jobs.

When would a teacher have time to adjust a curriculum to online learning when working full time? Also they never knew when the online learning would take place, because Bojo gave no notice at all and bang we are in Lockdown. My lessons have been extremely hard to convert from ppt to interactive online. So the lessons I planned for outside of my teaching hours, have now had to be completely changed for all 7 year groups I teach. What planet are you on woman?

I agree op, I've been amazed at how hard working and thoughtful all the teachers at my children's schools have been this week. Their energy is incredible.

Thank you OP our school has had some wonderful feedback from parents as well. I had a little weep earlier when I read a lovely email sent from a parent. Especially with the scaremongering of reporting your school to Ofsted from the government. Then they want us to test the kids everyday and get training for the new ways we will be grading students not taking their exams.

Can’t remember if I’ve already commented.

But no, you aren’t

Shout out from us too.

Well my DS's school (Y11) have been wonderful. Lessons going smoothly since Wednesday constant updates over the holidays including the HT doing a Loom video on a Sunday morning.
I appreciate every bloody one of them

A massive shout out here too, our teachers at our school are bloody amazing and no I’m not a teacher but even without coronavirus the majority of teachers are absolutely brilliant.

If any teachers are seeing the negative comments, please know they do not reflect the dominant part of society.

The person on thread complaining they had only been given worksheets in Scotland and person saying complain to the 'scotch' Parliament. Online learning doesn't start in any of Scotland until Monday 11th your school have been doing extra by 'just giving you a few worksheets'.

Hmm I both agree and disagree in some cases
I have two DC secondary age
There have definitely been opportunities to experience why they like some teachers and lessons yet voice upset of others. I've been able to see who the heroes and who the bare minimum villians are.
The teachers who really engage the kids, who spend a good 25 minutes at the start explaining and discussing the topic, ensuring they all know what they are doing, or who say "if you don't know stay in the call a bit longer". The ones who tell them a time to re-join the live at the end to ask what they did. Absolute stars that mean our house is calm and the DCs can get on unaided by (clueless in some cases) me. Or who just drop an email checking in on them.
Then we have the ones who literally speed through in 5 minutes or less, don't even check the slides or sheets are accessible to all, actively ignore the live chat and disable the kids being able to talk on their mics, and then disappear, or the one who when only 4 kids actually managed to get on the live call, all said the sheets (10 pages with graphs and stuff) wouldn't work, told them to hand draw it all (in 15 minutes) as it was their fault they didn't work. Who then wrote on the chat to my dc with Asperger's "well other years have done fantastic work, what's your excuse?' which resulted in huge meltdown.
You get the impression some are getting it done as quickly as possible so they can go laze about with a cuppa.
I would say at their School the great ones outweigh the lazy ignorant ones but I shall be looking forward to parents evening with some of them.
I do also email really great staff to say thanks which is always well received.

I love that parents have used Gavin Williamson's invitation as an opportunity to praise teachers and complain about him!

One of our parents (I'm Early Years) was so angry that she's written to our MP for the first time ever. Wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of it if she's written half of what she ranted to me!

My experience of real life outside of Mumsnet is that parents are appreciative of teachers' and schools' efforts and are raging mad with the Government's behaviour this last week.

What a lovely post and thought @Ihatefish

Teachers were being sacrificed by this government - required to work in conditions that would be illegal in most other workplaces. They’ve been heroes

The contempt they get here on MN is just despicable eg the 2nd post in this thread. I tend to wonder whether this is because many teachers are women, and a lot of people (particularly those with few qualifications themselves, or who did not enjoy their own education) are projecting their own inadequacy, envy, or unresolved issues around their own education. And of course, if something’s wrong in the community, it’s generally either a) a woman’s fault; or b) a woman’s job to fix.

So here’s to all the teachers!

They will have a job to go back to even if they do get long covid

Sod the long term health impacts, as long as they become economically active again.

A lot of people on social media aren't parents of school children.
Some are trolls, some are political, some are journalists, some are bored teenagers, some are not quite... well. Different reasons; same objective.

I think that's why there's so much goading of teachers on here where they can be anonymous when, in real life, most parents are supportive.

Tanith I hope you're right. Otherwise, the number of parents who behave despicably towards teachers is just depressing ...

I agree completely OP.

Both the school I work in (not a teacher, I'm in office admin) and my DC's schools have managed to turn around their online provision AND organised the re-opening of school to keyworker and vulnerable children at very short notice. The government were adamant that schools should prepare for reopening until they did their major u turn!

Everyone at the school I work in goes absolutely above and beyond for the children and we have had so much positive parental feedback, it's been lovely.

Inspired by that I made sure to send emails to my DC's teachers and headteacher yesterday. Just to say thank you. I know the online provision can never be perfect but they're doing their best.

OP: Thank you to teachers for what you're doing.

@WiseOwlRelaxing : TEACHERS NEED SOME SELF-AWARENESS

Yes to all teachers and school staff for managing both online and the KW provisions.

I teach secondary and I am using Google classroom to live teach to my normal timetable.

I was dreading it but the kids have absolutely kept me going! It was a steep learning curve but now I'm confidently presenting my PowerPoints and sharing work, speaking and flicking over their work and live marking it. I'm fecking proud of myself and them!

Kids have supported me,"Miss you are on mute", I've had kids email me telling me that they really appreciate my voice at the end of the laptop. I've enjoyed it and I am absolutely certain I can do nothing more for them at this time. It has been so much better this time around, our SLT have worked their arses off ensuring we were ready...and we were!

I have a daughter in primary who is only getting 40mins of live teaching a day, worksheets and recorded clips of how to do things.

My husband moaned the other day that they weren't pulling their weight. I raised an eyebrow and told him that small children absolutely cannot be on zoom all day. The videos are great as we can go back over stuff. It's the nature of younger students.

I hardly ever read these threads because of the usual, ignorant views. I'm happy I'm doing all I can and I sleep well at night and frankly, anybody who says otherwise can bugger right off.

Thank you to all my colleagues who are also doing what they can! And thank you to parents who have helped their kids log on, given up their laptop or had to spend money buying tech. Finally, thanks to the kids for being so flexible and helpful.

Hats off to everyone!

They are doing a stand up job, shout out to them and support staff like myself who are looking after the kids at school to facilitate this. 😁