To think live video lessons aren’t all they are cracked up to be

[Alex15]

During the last lockdown it seemed like people were almost obsessed with them and while they are good there are other forms of Homelearning the are also good and they really aren’t the silver bullet people claimed they were?

Absolute shit

Year 2 Dd spends an hour sat in front of a maths lesson when she has done the work sheet in 5 mins

Charming.

What did the school say when you emailed and said this?

I think they are brilliant for older pupils in secondary school and downright counterproductive for primary children. Unfortunately the standards for schools seems to take no account that what’s excellent for one age group is different to what is best for another.

Yes I agree - good idea in theory. But must be really hard work for teachers and I'm not sure my children are learning much. There seems little differentiation , lots of time wasted due to tech issues, waiting for everyone to join - can't see information needed to complete task etc. Felt much more productive to complete home learning tasks when you wanted freeing up time for other activities especially time away from screens.

I have DC in year 1, 4 and 7 and they all need help logging on, printing, finding tasks, completing and uploading tasks. Stressful and somewhat pointless because it could be done much quicker individually. There is no online chatting between children and only see teachers video most of the time.

Would love to avoid altogether but children are very conscientious and they would worry that they're missing out.

We had pre recorded video plus task last year and this year have a mix of that and live lessons.

The DC (5 and 8) seem much happier and more engaged now there are live lessons - it’s much more like actual school. It also somewhat reduces the amount of work I have to get them to do as the teacher is at least doing some of it with them.

On the other hand, I can see how it’s a nightmare if you are trying to juggle more than 2 kids and especially if you are also WFH and can’t choose when you do your work (which is most people!). Having multiple set times when they have to be plugged in, ready to go with the right bit of paper in front of them, is not that easy.

We had a zero in the first lock down, and this time they are doing the timetable, just as every other school did around here.

From dd being left, with no directions just pp, to having to be up at 8am ready for class, interacting with her teachers, seeing /hearing her classmates... Being properly occupied, busy...

The difference in her mood is remarkable. She's a good student, she works, wants to learn, does her hw... But she was set adrift last time.

She was also year 7 so her friends were not strong.

Other parents have complained about the quality of the teaching, but my expectation is low. I'm happy she's doing something and she's happy.
We all need to do our best to get through this.
Primary dd is getting no interaction, I'm quite happy about that, I don't think she could sit for ages.

Again I just want everyone to be as safe as they can be at this time, children, teachers etc.

YANBU. As an adult, I find nothing more annoying than someone spending an hour talking me through something I could have looked up in five minutes by myself, so I don't know how the kids are handling it with the old-school chalk-and-talk teachers. If it's used well, it's a great resource but it really depends on the teacher's teaching style.

Year 4 Teams calls are working well. My DD is enjoying them and is working well without needing much help.

My year 2 is more difficult but I think overall positive. The teacher is much better at explaining the work than I am, and were even managing music and PE (of a sort).

Some of the work is a little easy, but I can't expect the school to differentiate for individual children in a pandemic.

Worksheets are much more convenient if you have to work at set times, but our school has been great in acknowledging that not all parents can dial in, the lessons are recorded so available later.

As long as the school is understanding about how much work you can possibly do then that's all they can ask.

@Spanglebangle

I disagree. My DD is 9 and just being able to see and talk to her teachers and classmates on the live lessons have made a world or difference to her mental health. She still feels like part of a group and it's been brilliant for her.

Completely agree with this. My y9 struggled really badly over the first lockdown having to try and figure out what the hell she was supposed to be doing and when. This time they're following their timetable with live lessons and she's so much happier MH wise. I'm glad they've upped their game this time or I don't know what state she may have ended up in

I appreciate the efforts teachers are going to by providing them but in reality ds is struggling to access them. My main issues are
No flexibility to the day and hardly a break in between
DS struggles to follow the live lesson whilst simultaneously accessing the worksheets placed in assignments and the flitting between live and do a piece of work and back again is really hard.
The friggin live chat binging away constantly drives us up the bloody wall
Today his teacher told them to go off for ten minutes and watch a you tube clip and then helpfully talked throughout to a pupil in the live lesson so we had to leave the meeting to watch it.
It’s too much work and too fast paced and consequently I’m not sure what ds has actually learnt.
I’m leaning towards joking the live chat to show willing but muting it and working on the lesson material without the teacher.
Worksheets that can’t be edited but they want them to work on them as the lesson goes on.
The expectation that all work is uploaded by the end of the live lesson
I definitely feel we achieved more last lockdown when materials were just added to the assignments tab. I still had to support him the whole time but I feel at least we learnt something!

@NoOneOwnsTheRainbow

YANBU. As an adult, I find nothing more annoying than someone spending an hour talking me through something I could have looked up in five minutes by myself, so I don't know how the kids are handling it with the old-school chalk-and-talk teachers. If it's used well, it's a great resource but it really depends on the teacher's teaching style.

It certainly isn't an hour with the teacher talking at you here. They have 15 minutes teaching at the start of the lesson and then spend the next 30 minutes doing whatever work has been set. The teacher is in the online class the whole time if any body has questions or needs help/extension work

Live lessons wouldn’t work here, not for primary D.C. and two wfh parents whose schedules vary from day to day. As with other posters it’s much better for us to have pre-recorded lessons and other materials to access when convenient for us.
Saying that, I would quite like one live session a week maybe, if not an actual lesson but something where DC could see and talk to teacher and classmates, even if just for twenty minutes.
No complaints here though, v happy with provision. This thread does show you genuinely can’t please everyone!

The Ofsted guidance for remote learning says that live doesn’t mean best!

Oh yes and definitely no differentiation at all which for child with SEN is a bit shit really

P1 here and we have uploads on a Monday. Some is work that must be done, plus there's lots of optional extras and resources. There a week's worth.

They seem to be live marking, giving feedback and praise.

I'm very impressed as I know the same teachers are teaching the vulnerable and key workers children.

I've sorted the tasks based on what my DD can do independently so I have two lists. One for me to do with her and one that I can give her when I'm working.

I'm really pleased with the live lessons my 3 DC have on Teams. Years 5, 7 & 8. They got to grips with the technology in the last lockdown so had it all set up ready to go and are used to it. Use One Note for quite a lot of the classwork too so no need to 'hand' anything in as such because it saves automatically. Easy once you've been shown.

They really like seeing their classmates and teachers on screen too, it's great for their well-being, in my opinion. What's not ideal is being tied to a strict timetable, but ultimately it's me that finds that hardest, not the DC!

All ds’s live lessons are all pupils muted with cameras off. You hear the teacher but visually all you see is a PowerPoint

Live lessons only work at primary if you're lucky enough to have a free device at the right time. I'd rather they were recorded to watch at a time that suits.

I'm a secondary teacher. I show up several times a day to find that maybe 3/28 students have logged onto the live lesson, usually the keyworker kids on the school site who have been forced to.

We also have a lot of families with problems accessing online resources full stop.

So, I'm preparing each lesson three times. I'm presenting it live, but beforehand also creating a pre-recorded video input where I explain the work, and then ALSO creating a printable pack where students work completely offline without videos, research, or quizzes. Which for my subject renders it utterly lifeless. And is essentially a whole other lesson to plan and resource.

Also getting virtually no feedback from families/students and a low hand-in rate making it hard to differentiate or plan ahead effectively.

I honestly would be so happy if enough students came to the live lesson to make a debate, or a team quiz, or even the register worth doing. I miss my students. But they have to work however is manageable for them at home.

Our primary school are only doing one 29 minute meeting a week. The work is sent by email and school apps. Our secondary are doing mainly zoom classes with assignments sent through an app. They've used iPads from 1st year so not much of an upheaval for them.

@Tigertealeaves - you sound like a great teacher and that sounds really hard.
My DC are year 11 and 9 and I’ve been so impressed with the live lessons the school has been providing. The attendance is high and the kids are much more motivated than they were last time.

Our Y1 is having a full day timetable with a mix of live and pre records. Today was the first day and I'd given up by lunchtime. She found it quite boring and with a 2 year old to manage, once they were playing happily I couldn't face trying to keep him quiet and forcing her to sit down again.
My other issue is that we usually go out in the mornings and if we stick to it we have far less day to go outside in.

We are doing a mix of live lessons and I've nearly lost the will to live with it today. As I'm in school 2 days a week and on-call for another day a week I'm doing most of my live lessons Monday and Tuesday. Today I had 5 live lessons (all 6th form Science) and I've had a total of 19 students attend out of 78 students. All of them now have Chromebooks, and we have bough 4G dongles for those that needed it (not the Government issued ones; from our own budget) We don't allow them to have cameras or microphones on unless we release them because even with 6th form you get absolutely stupid comments and behaviour.

There is absolute value in using live sessions but I can't describe the frustration of spending 7 hours at the weekend on these 5 lessons only to get minimal gains and feedback. Some of these are BTEC students in Year 13 who haven't been able to sit exams this year and last, and we still have only 2 students from a class of 17 students appear at 11:15 am (I even let them have a lie in!)

I agree op.

I teach maths live on zoom and even though it's not a big class, the weaker pupils are finding it harder to access what I'm teaching so are taking longer meaning the more able students are finishing their work and extension sheets and are bored. I feel like I'm failing all my pupils simultaneously in different ways. Tech has failed me a couple of times too, which is so disheartening after I've spent forever changing my planning or shift it online and have it all mapped out and then everything delayed bc of connection issues etc.
I'm worn out and it's been one week. Goodness knows how the kids feel (full day timetable online)
Having said that I've seen some interesting ideas on here to try.
And I'm grateful that this is even possible! At least some teaching and progress is happening!

Just another example of us being damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

I taught my yr 7s live for an hour and a half today (just an example, I also taught 2 other year groups for a similar time). We achieved pretty much the same that we would have done if I’d been in the classroom with them. The only difference is the time I spent having to make sure that every detail and resource was there in advance and every possible problem foreseen, whereas in the classroom I would be able to be much more responsive in the moment. It took me longer to prepare than to deliver and I’ll have to mark the work tomorrow.

As someone will undoubtedly be along to tell me very soon, it’s my job. Yes, it is. It is also more labour intensive and totally unfamiliar to me. I, like the vast majority of my colleagues, are doing what we think is best for our pupils because we want to get it right.