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?

@Ashard20. Indeed - it is absolutely unbelievable.

I feel much less exhausted each day, but behaviour management is harder as you can’t stop them playing on phones/playing games when are you not in the same room. Quality of work produced is weaker which is frustrating too. I’m enjoying not doing clubs and duties, so easier finishes, but it’s all pretty mind numbing compared to normal

Yes! It is made teachers' faukt in that we have to chase work, make calls home, then when we eventually do get them back, we will be held account for their grades. "Progress for pay rise", people. You have no idea in your fluffy job

DH is finding it easier as he can pop off to the loo when he needs to and can set a task and quickly put the kettle on. Very different to the relentlessness of a school day on site. He misses seeing the students though and they don't cover the same amount of work online, or get the same level of feedback from the students, so it's storing up additional work for when they go back to f2f teaching. Swings and roundabouts.

For me yes it’s easier... on the absolute surface of it it is. It it as rewarding, no? Would I choose this job if this is what it was like all the time.. no- not even if it was double the salary.

I am a teacher as I love working with children and interacting face to face and dealing with all the challenges that comes with it. I like to collaborate with my colleagues and see other students around the school and chat to students on bus duty to see how they’re getting on in their football club or other subjects

Would you enjoy your job if it was sat at home playing operation by yourself all day? It would be easier than what you do now ?

If you are working from home as a teacher you cannot send your own kids to school.
It's safer for them being at home even if i.have to teach them and my own classes.

"I've observed many live lessons"...don't get ideas you can judge teachers...oh no, you did

So I'm a teacher delivering lessons from home, in school on a toys as you describe. I'm teaching 75% of my lessons as live lessons and I set work for the rest. I've been a teacher for over 20 years.

Benefits to working from home:

• morning lie ins. I start work at 8:30, so I can lie in til 8. Previously, I used to get up at 6:30 as I have over an hour's commute each day.

• not having to wear smart clothes or makeup. So long as I have a nice top on and my hair is done (we have a camera off policy, but just in case!)

• the five minute breaks between lessons are breaks, not a child just grabbing me for a worksheet, or someone just popping in to ask me something.

And the downsides...

• Having to rewrite all my lessons. My classroom lessons are all planned and ready to go, I just turn up, download the lesson and go, Lots of the activities don't work in live lessons, so I need to rewrite all of these activities, it's seriously time consuming trying to come up with something interesting when interaction is limited.

• I'm not trained for this, normally having a good lesson gives you a buzz, seeing children enjoy and learn really helps, but I have nothing being fed back to me. When I teach online, I can't look at the students faces to see if they've got it, are confused, ready to move on. It leaves you with a constant fear that the job you're doing is not good enough, and I hate that feeling.

• I find my year 7s and sixth form students are engaged, but trying to get my year 9/10 students involved is like pulling teeth. There are some lessons that I just dread. Of course, in the classroom, you develop little strategies for dealing with students not focussing (moving over to stand near them, a quiet word to check they're understanding it. All those easy strategies are gone and I'm having to relearn quick how to classroom manage / engage / support on a platform I don't really understand.

• Then there's the endless admin of students who sign in and go awol. I'm doing lots of taking registers in the middle of lessons etc... but the chasing up of students takes forever.

So yeah, the lie ins are nice. But they're not worth the extra hassle. There's a lot of unseen work in teaching, and that has increased exponentially.

Why does one poster keep posting what appears to be a daffodil?!

@DishingOutDone

It seems this is something no one is allowed to talk about so I am glad the OP put her head over the parapet and mentioned the war. Its helpful to me to see everything all the teachers are doing, because I too was confused and now I know why. Hardly any of this is available through DD's school.

Parents aren't allowed to ask teachers for technical help - they have one person they can email. Phone calls are not allowed. If there is a technical problem its just tough. No work is marked, no feedback given. You can email head of year or a teacher if you want, but they chose whether or not to reply. All lessons are slides - you can hear the teacher's voice - here's the slide, this is what it says, write your notes, here's the next slide. There is a chat box where students can ask questions, mostly ignored.

There is no register, no one knows who is online or not. No complaints are accepted or responded to. My DD has SEN, this is now being disregarded completely. She can't cope with online learning (in common with other children with similar SE needs) and they just say well, that is what we are offering, so we cant be expected to offer SEN support if she can't cope with what we are offering, that's just parents being unreasonable.

I have to say this isn't a million miles away from what happens when the school is open. But I am glad that it seems that a lot of very conscientious and caring teachers are out there trying their best. Just a shame my DD never got to be in front of one of them. This is her final year so too late now.

They will have some catching up to do then or a policy shift soon as schools are required to report attendance and engagement to the DfE

@MovedByFanciesThatAreCurled

Why does one poster keep posting what appears to be a daffodil?!

It's a message to the OP, a negative one.

It pretty much started last year as a way of pissing off the trolls and UFT bumptious who interested education threads.

Bumptious???? Numptoids.

@SunshineLollipopsRainbow

You would think that parents would discipline their children while they're working with them at home and ensure they understand and hand in the work but unfortunately that is not reality. We are getting 4/5 parents a day (in a class of 30) asking for phone calls from teachers as their children are being unruly and they want us to tell them off.

It was their technical issue, and I've had a parent, "you are late with your lesson, can yiu get on with it so I can get on with my work". Like the kick in the throat when there were snow days0

Oh do jog on.

My hours are longer then ever and there is no escape.

Does anyone else working from home
-have to record themselves for each hour meeting (6 meetings a day)? and answer any questions by email etc
mark all the uploaded work x30 sheets for each lesson ie 180 feedback sheets a day?
post worksheets to those not in a meeting?
Chase up anyone not there by email
and their parents?
Phone each of their colleagues 1-2-1 chats 10 minutes each for all 30 of their colleagues once a week? etc.

Please let me know of anyone doing a 'normal' job from home -that in addition to planning 6 hours of meetings led by them -so a 10 hour day before you even get on to everything else & does all the above with their own phone and internet etc and printers and postage (yes really!) -really teachers having it easy are they?

Dear Lord.

As a parent of a stroppy yr 10 girl currently fighting with me every day over non compliance with homelearning, I lurk outside her bedroom door to check if she is in lessons and all her teachers sound like they have had the stuffing knocked out of them.

They sound well organised and are desperately trying to cover lots of topics, make the lesson interesting and get some feedback from students. It appears pretty souless for them - rather like actors playing to an empty theatre - really difficult to get a 2-way physical connection going - bloody awful - I feel sorry for the teachers and the students.

I work in Health & Social Care through Covid outbreaks and all sorts of drama and was quite critical of teachers when some initially expressed concern about Covid transmission in schools - I now 100% understand the need for online learning but feel desperately sorry for all involved.

Thank you teachers 🤗🤗

My kids teachers are conducting live lessons from their homes. I listened to part of my dd’s lesson yesterday while I was cooking dinner as she was working from the kitchen. Between kids struggling with internet, some not being able to see the screen and most not download the documents as they are apparently asked before each lesson it seemed an absolute nightmare tbh. And these are relatively well-off, tech savvy kids. Dd seems to think that some were taking advantage of the situation.

Dd also recounted a story today about her head teacher’s kids coming into the room he was teaching from. I obviously explained that he is in probably the same boat as us and to make allowances. Apparently his wife is also a teacher which must make things so difficult. I don’t envy them at all at the minute.

I am spending 2 hours of every day I'm supposed to be off chasing work from kids who haven't done it, their parents are so very unhelpful!! So no I'm not enjoying it. I'm only supposed to work 2 days one week and 3 the next so obviously I'm homeschooling as well on my non work days.

I need to reply to kids who've submitted work, I need to contact then if they haven't done it, then contact parents the next day, then log on the system the next. I need to mark the work that is submitted and I need to prepare and record lessons. It takes an hour to covert recorded lesson to video and upload to you tube at my house. I can't record at school as the sound quality is shit! My Remote Desktop is properly shit, it's a gamble if I get into the system or not so I end up saving way too much work to do in school on my work days

I know lots of people are finding work difficult atm but this isn't easy either!

Oh also I started on 4th January.... I have never met any of the kids I'm teaching which is great lol

Your words hurt real people.

OP I think you are misguided.

However can I remind posters that lots of children are working home alone.

I cannot wfh, I cannot afford not to work, I've slipped thorough every net and am entitled to no financial help whatsoever.

So DS is home alone all day every day, I can't offer any support.

Pros: the lie in

It's fucking shit being a teacher at the moment. I'm a science teacher, teaching science without a lab. All my lessons are live and I try to do as many demos as I can but it's not the same. I am also limited by the fact I can only use what I have at home. I try to find engaging videos of the practicals but it's just not the same. We have a student no camera policy so I cannot read their faces, I have no idea if someone is getting left behind and needs support. We'll pretty much have to reteach it all next year.

Oh and also my kids primary school decided that both parents must be critical workers. I am also trying to do that too. He dad isn't classed as a key worker but still needs to visit sites and can't be here for all the times I am teaching. One of my kids is 5 and contraception is not an age appropriate topic for them to be around.

My daughter is in P2. Her teacher uploads some shit in the morning then “likes” the incoming seesaw posts. She must be averaging about an hour a day.

Secondary.
It's better than before Xmas, in the Covid Soup world. That was becoming untenable and I've got a pretty thick skin!

Remote Learning is much less relentless, and less physically exhausting. Just mentally!
But it's awful compared to Pre Covid old world!
I loved my Pre Covid job, practical subject, lots of hours doing extra curricular and very intense.
The amazing feeling when you watch an audience give a kids performance a standing ovation and it moves you to tears!
Watching the choir harmonise a beautiful Xmas Carol.
Sitting on a school trip coach and the kids happily belting out songs!
Watching the school talent show.
Charity bake offs when the kids proudly being in their produce.
Miss the old school life so much

I think it must be harder for the teachers of older primary and secondary kids.