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?

I work in a ‘good’ school, so the behaviour issue doesn’t really come up, particularly as on our portal, you can mute the children so they can’t interrupt. I would 100% rather be in school interacting with the children. I ‘spoke’ to my form this morning just to do a welfare check, basically. I miss them, I’d far rather be with them in class. They wanted to unmute but 30 excited children is not going to work. They can put up their hands and I’ll unmute them, but it’s a bloody weird way to have a conversation.

Sometimes, it”s like getting blood out of a stone but I’m doing my best.

My departmentvare all in class teaching full time, we have 3/4 of pupils in, special needs. Online lessons are seperate from face to face ones, all are individually differentiated. Parents sometimes expect responses within 5 mins, which whilst I understand they know we are teaching. Chasing lack of engagement is really time consuming and we miss seeing all our kids. Working in school is great but risky. Onlybtoday a child sat and licked a member of staff then their arms and hands which were then wiped over the staff. Our protection a mask, when it isn't pulled off and handwashing when complied with or carried out properly. Also my own kids are at home, need 2 front line parents, and get home schooled when I finish work then I start planning and uploading again.

Easier? Not for us anyway. But so glad I get to see so many of my kids in class just now, makes me very lucky, most of the time.

Saoirse7 No it wasn't? That was the OP. The person posting the flowers has been against the OP the whole thread?

Your child's school doesn't sound very good - Perhaps @mineofuselessinformation would like to comment on the description I posted rather than just sticking flowers in everywhere. (Unless they work at my DD's school of course?!)

Why start a thread that you openly admit might be teacher bashing?

Might be construed as teacher-bashing. Bit like a trigger-warning.

VladimirCutiePutiPie
Yes it’s really cushy when a vulnerable pupil contacts you online to say they’re going to cut themselves . They send the message in the early hours. And if you’re in any doubt- this is a bashing thread. You have no idea.
You're right, I don't. Hence, the thread.

RudbeckiaGoldstrum
Live streaming teaching sucks the life force out of you.

It is easy to build energy in person. Building and holding energy via microsoft teams takes years off your life. I can't wait to get back in the classroom.

You are crazy unreasonable. Seriously, madly, unreasonable.
I am indeed.

HappyTimeTunnelDinosaur
YABU, but you know that really.
I do now!

Letseatgrandma
This thread highlights that most teachers are having a really shit time but a very small few see some positives (lack of commute, being able to go to the toilet), which is what I was getting at really.

What exactly was it that you were getting at really? That not commuting to work is nice?

Why just teachers though-can you explain? Why not just start a general thread about whether people are having a lovelier time working from home?
About any positives, I suppose. Re-reading my OP, I can see how it annoyed folks. I worded it badly.

Why teachers? Schoolwork and interactions with teachers have been the focal point of my child's life recently.

Barbie222
No, I don't like it. Weird thread. I can't imagine why you'd think home teaching was preferable from anyone's perspective. I think you are just up for a whinge but the ground's a bit thin isn't it.
Not at all. Plenty of other topics to whinge about.

SachaStark
“People would have attacked.”

This one hasn’t been on Mumsnet much during the last 10 months then!

Yes, the teachers are the ones doing the “attacking”... sure, Jan.

Gah, anyway. I managed to get my hoovering done during my lunch break today, as I would normally have been running a fun extra-curricular and can’t from home. I suppose that’s my silver lining...
People jump on what people say regardless of subject matter.

Letseatgrandma
I daresay people would have attacked regardless

I suspect if you’d asked people in general if there were any perks to WFH, you wouldn’t have been ‘attacked’ at all.
Nah, that would have started a debate between those WFH and those going out to work, which really would have got down and dirty.

For information, I'm not going to shut up about this.
I'm standing up for myself and all the other teachers on here (apologies if an individual teacher doesn't agree).
OP retiring behind the innocent wide eyes of 'oh, I didn't mean offend' really isn't good enough.
Yes, I posted daffodils in support of my colleagues. God knows we all need it. We still don't even know when / how we are returning to school. For those of us facing external exams, we have no clue yet of the official arrangements.
Speaking personally, I'm on my fucking knees. I've never worked like this, and I've been teaching a long time.
To have someone disingenuously asking a supposedly innocent question - in AIBU mind you - then making a half-hearted retraction well into the thread doesn't work for me.
Flame me if you will. It can't be worse than the stress I'm already dealing with.
And for anyone who can't work it out - there is the occasional teacher who is lazy, unprofessional etc.
The rest of us got into this because we want to make a difference and help students to be the best they can be. It's certainly not for the money, or the thanks we get.
Yes, I'm pissed off, and more than a little bit angry.

@DishingOutDone to reply, you really have the right to address this with your child's school (and you should),but that doesn't make all schools bad.

@DishingOutDone

Your child's school doesn't sound very good - Perhaps *@mineofuselessinformation* would like to comment on the description I posted rather than just sticking flowers in everywhere. (Unless they work at my DD's school of course?!)

mineofuseless information is addressing the, the OP, not you.

This thread is aimed at teachers, not parents, so if you want detailed responses as to how to deal with your DD's school, you need to start your own thread.

@Evvyjb I'm also a secondary HoD in a core subject. I've not stopped! So many new systems to put in place. Feeling your pain.

OP knows exactly what she is doing.

OP and other readers, primary teacher here. Just finished work for the day.
That's it really.

Seem to always be people determined to try and prove that teachers have it easy. Don't you have something better to do?

@Eleganz exactly.

Another teacher here, just finished for the night. Work it out for yourself, why don't you, op?
What a totally crap thread.
And to think I'm nearly killing myself, not to mention giving my own child scant attention, for the benefit of children with parents like you!

@Buddytheelf85 no they don't. Mad, isn't it?

@manicinsomniac you can change the settings to not let students unmute themselves in ‘meeting options’ which is a link on the scheduling page. I’ve used it for my more immature classes who forget to click the ‘hands up’ button before unmuting and shouting any random thoughts!

They are A level students! Very committed and engaged
Not all A level students are very committed and engaged.

You are right in some ways as you don't need to deal with bad behaviour and if there is bad behaviour you can just remove from the classroom. I also have a long commute so haven't had to do that so you would think I would be living the dream! However I actually thrive on the classroom interaction and genuinely love my job and the young people I work with so I am finding it all a bit miserable just talking to a computer screen for 5 hours a day. I mentor trainee teachers and I worry about them
Because they are having far too easy a time of it because they are not dealing with behaviour issues which is a big thing for student and early career teachers. I imagine like every profession there are some who are finding it easier working from home and some that aren't! I've taken to going into school as much as I can because I get frustrated with my laptop at home which is ancient and awful and I can't afford a new one and also because I'm struggling so much at home.

OP Why do you think it would be easier to manage behaviour from behind a screen rather than in person?
Live lessons are difficult to check engagement/understanding from looking at their little faces on a screen.
It's much harder to explain concepts in maths where you would have previously used equipment e.g. cubes, numicon etc.
The children complete work at different times/days. Today I marked work that was set two weeks ago.
Parents upload work during the evening (sometimes early hours) and weekends which makes it hard to switch off.
Parents have multiple children in multiple year groups and cant support them in different lessons each day.
Parents do not have enough devices for their children. Our school of over 200 has been given15 devices by the government to hand out....
I really miss my class.

I think it’s a reasonable question to ask and, before I became a teacher, I can imagine thinking the same thing. But no. Teaching from home is harder because:

• Live teaching when you have your own DC is always nerve wracking! I keep expecting them to have a loud fight in the other room or wander in half-dressed.
• So much of the joy of teaching is lost. I don’t have the same personal interaction with the children and it’s so much harder to teach effectively or assess how children are doing.
• I have that awful parental guilt all the time where I feel I’m not being a good enough mother to my own DC because I can’t support their online learning, but the minute I do find five minutes to help them I feel guilty about not working.
• It’s a whole new way of teaching with new technology to find your way around. I can’t rely on adapting what I taught last year, everything’s new.
• The children on the SEN register need bespoke packages and I can’t just have a quick word with the TA and use their support for differentiation like I would in school.
• I feel anxious about Covid anyway and I hate all this uncertainty. I never know if I’ll be in school or at home week to week so have no ability to plan beyond a couple of days.
• Live lessons are more tiring than being in school, partly because technology is crap and partly because of aforementioned worry about my DC. Also it puts extra pressure on me knowing parents are watching!
• I don’t have the casual reassurance of chatting with other teachers, running ideas past them.

I’m sure there’s more but those are the things off the top of my head. I can’t wait to get back to school! (On the plus side I do have an extra hour in bed and no commute on public transport so I’ll try to hold on to that )