Teachers and the current status quo

[Lifeisabeach09]

Maybe a teacher bashing thread or not, I can't decide.

My experience of this current lockdown is that my DD's teachers are streaming live or pre-recorded sessions from their homes. Support staff and teacher rotation are dealing with the kids in school. Learning is the same-school or home, it's streaming on Ipads, so the children are being treated fairly.

Surely, not have to deal with 30 unruly kids, not having to discipline, and being able to pre-record lessons or even livestream from home has made life easier (lovelier??) for some teachers. Obviously, each school is different and teachers situations are different (own kids, etc).

Any teachers enjoying the new status quo or AIBU?

Love streaming is an absolute ballache. Plus there's teaching 30 and then there's teaching 30 with half the parents watching.

YABU.

All of my colleagues would 100% rather be in school. Teaching children physically in front of you is MUCH easier than trying to do it remotely (while trying to homeschool your own children).

Also - in school I don't have to be tech support analyst for parents.

My daughters teachers are asking to be allowed to go into school to record/live stream as it’s so difficult todo it from home.

But they can’t as it’s not safe, there would be too many people.

Yabu, if I wanted to sit on my arse I wouldn’t have become a teacher. I’m trying to homeschool two of my own kids at the same time. I’ve been in school this week teaching key worker students as well as setting work for my own classes. Planning, teaching and responding to q’s takes 4x as long as planning teaching and marking in person lessons. So actually my life is pretty shit at the moment-I am grateful however, not to have covid (I hope).

Teaching online is much harder. We're 100% live but I can't see who is actually there, paying attention, doing the work, getting confused, whatever until they hand in their work. If they hand it in.
My commute is down from 45 mins each way to 1 minute. And I don't have to traverse the site for a wee.
But I'd rather do my job properly in school. Safely, though.

@Mumofsend, but not disciplining or telling the kids to be quiet as now that's the parents remit!
Do you see the parents?

It's harder in my experience but I teach SEN. I have so much pastoral stuff to get through, plus speaking to parents and encouraging them to send me back any work that has been set.

Even getting parents to log on can be a task.

It's hard for everyone and school offers differ, honestly everyone is trying their best.

It's so mind numbingly boring. I really miss my classes. I'm lucky because I have a big enough house that I can get away from the other members of my family and teach remotely without too many interruptions. But omg it is dull. Roll on normality and its wise-cracking, loud, lively glory.

All our teachers are in school, live streaming those at home and teaching those in school. it is MUCH harder live streaming than teaching live and that, coupled with having to upload all the worksheets/teaching aids for the week, printing off the same for those that cant cope with online resources, chasing up those that aren't attending or working and the ENDLESS stream of queries and complaints from parents is making their lives almost impossible

@superram - aren’t teachers entitled to school places for their children even if they’re WFH (as critical workers)?

YABU
All our staff are in school no rotas.
We are teaching online whilst simultaneously teaching in person to at least half the class.
It’s twice the work as all lessons have to be planned to be adapted to home learning. Then the admin of supporting those at home.
Life is not easier or lovelier as when I have done a full day in school I then go home to help my own kids with their school work.
Have you set up a teacher bashing thread , probably. But at least you have admitted it.

@MrsHamlet

Teaching online is much harder. We're 100% live but I can't see who is actually there, paying attention, doing the work, getting confused, whatever until they hand in their work. If they hand it in. My commute is down from 45 mins each way to 1 minute. And I don't have to traverse the site for a wee. But I'd rather do my job properly in school. Safely, though.

Is that down to you though re paying attention and doing the work? With my DD home, I ensure she does that (as much as I can) as how can you?

My child’s teacher hates it. He genuinely likes being in the classroom, bouncing off the kids, he’s sociable and enthusiastic and it’s clear that he finds teaching into the void frustrating (this is upper primary). My friends who teach secondary either hate it for similar reasons or prefer it because discipline and behaviour in their school is so horrific that this actually is a respite albeit one that brings a great deal of admin and chasing because there is so much non-engagement. Those are teachers who want to leave the profession though - I was one of them a couple of years ago and I know if I was still teaching that I’d be happier not being in the classroom as I absolutely hated the job by the end and left because it drove me to a breakdown! The ones in decent schools with supportive SLT and effective behaviour policies and/or the ones who are happy in the job would much rather be in the classroom as far as I can tell.

You have no clue. Teachers support staff and especially head teachers are under immense pressure. They now have face to face and online learning to do. Government guidance and new ideas change every day - they only know at the same time as you and me that tomorrow at 9 am they have to start x y z...... it’s relentless. ...And I’d bet everything that in a years time they’ll be getting shit from the government about poor outcomes. They just can’t win. I wouldn’t be a teacher for all the tea in China. ( not that I want to go to China either 😬)

It must be so much extra work for teachers. Having to plan and find resources that will work for both the children at home and the children in school.
Upload everything daily onto the website. Film 4 different videos a day teaching the children.
Respond to any immediate concerns during the school day.
Read and document all the work emailed in at the end of the day.
Provide daily email feedback on work that has been submitted.
Provide feedback and support to the staff in school delivering provision to children in school.

It must be never ending for them and my children's teachers seem to do all this while also remaining super positive.

We're cameras off by policy. I can hear them if they talk to me, or chat in the chat but if they're don't, then there's not much I can do. I can't see down the internet!

I want my pupils to learn and make progress. That is why I teach. Although I am live in lessons for 2-6 hours a day, I find it very hard to know if my teaching is leading to learning. It is particularly difficult the younger and weaker academically pupils are. Parental support helps too and many of the parents (25% in my school near a big hospital) are frontline NHS.

So, no. I want to be in school. I want to have a laugh with my classes and teach them stuff. I want to see colleagues who are also friends and have a laugh with the janitor and the lovely cleaners. I also want to have my life back and give pupils their life chances back.

So, no. Home is not easier. And my children are grown. I have colleagues home educating their own children. One has 3 under 10 and his wife is an ICT nurse so he is running the house and the home learning and teaching.

The only thing that is better is that every day of this shit is a day nearer me getting back into school and seeing my classes.

Well I am secondary and I personally find it much easier. Yes I do live lessons but then the pupils are off going to do their task and I don’t have to cajole them into working, or sort out arguments, or find a pen for them, etc etc. I do have to try my best to sort out their wifi and technical problems. Chasing up work is a ball ache. But I can do my marking from the previous lesson whilst pupils are on task.
It’s boring though and pupils are definitely not getting as good an experience that they would get in school.

The teachers like the children! That's the best bit for them.

What a disgustingly goady post!

I don't usually swear too much on here but I've been in school today with every Tom, Dick and Harry, so you can fuck right off in my opinion!!!

Idiot.

I should also point out that I only teach y10-13. In class I can loom over the ones who desktop traunt... looming online is much harder! And if they log in and leave, I can't do anything about it.

I have a large (in SEN terms) class of children, all of whom have an EHCP and complex needs. 50% of them are in school, 50% learning remotely (their choice). I have to go in every day because the extent of the behaviour that challenges in school means that it would be totally unacceptable to leave it to TAs- amazing as they are.

The children learning remotely are all progressing through the curriculum at different rates due to differing needs, amount of support and capacity to learn from home. I am rapidly approaching the point where I am trying to teach the equivalent of 5 different classes full-time simultaneously.

You can bog off with your lovelier time.

Not a teacher but DH is. Status quo currently is grim. All the lessons need rewriting- a lesson which can be delivered in school is not the same as a good lesson for remote teaching. Things as simple as the fact that you can’t simply cut and paste a worksheet from word into google docs because it messes up the formatting so all of those need redoing. They are delivering all of this from school and the reality now is that all the lessons need additional preparation as well as the keyworker / vulnerable kids needing supervising as well as delivering live lessons. So the workload has increased.

@starrynight19,

I try not to bash teachers. I'm frontline HCP and wouldn't trade jobs with teachers for anything (that's how tough I feel teachers have it!)
I just wondered if there was a silver-lining to working from home for some (I recognise not all) teachers.

100% harder. My workload has increased significantly. I’m teaching a full timetable in person (I work in a PRU), setting work online and creating hard copies to be posted home for those who are choosing not to attend / shielding - each version has to be adapted to suit the medium.

We are in an area of high deprivation. Most students don’t have access to remote lessons via laptop - only phones, if at all - so have to massively rethink how lessons are delivered remotely.

I’m having to significantly adapt my existing curriculum, create 3 versions of work for students, chase up students not engaging or handing in work on a daily basis. I put in a long day normally but finding that I’m working 7 days a week at the moment to keep afloat.

So no... not lovelier. Looking forward to going back to normal ASAP.