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?

@manicinsomniac that makes sense but again is a needs must thing I guess. I’ve got kids in my class with 2 or 3 siblings all trying to home school. Bedrooms are often the only choice for some peace and quiet.

ComefromAway Oh no! Sounds like even the naziesque rules at my school might have made an exception for you guys!

I remember the morning lockdown was announced (the Monday after the schools closed) the builder working on our kitchen conversion hastily boarding up the door into the rest of the house (there was no back door and we’d had holes for two new windows put in the walls.

Our cooking facilities were a microwave, two ring electric hob, a griddle and a slow cooker!

‘Despite the fact teachers are at risk over the general population (finally dfe released this yesterday to confirm)’

Can you link to those stats please? I can’t locate them but possibly looming in the wrong place!!

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-nearly-20k-teachers-due-covid-mid-december

@Doublefaced that’s what I found but not sure it proves PP’s point.

It's horrendous. I'm in school full time teaching key worker kids because there are so many of them. Then I'm having to do all the remote learning for those at home in my own time on top. Planning all the home learning, making videos or narrating PowerPoint etc all takes bloody ages. That's not even to mention all the feedback and dealing with emails, queries, comments and all the usual stuff. So no there is no silver- lining. The workload is utterly horrendous and not sustainable. Add to this the risks from covid- 5 cases in my school this week and 6 in my kids school - where I have to send them because I am in. Every single teacher I know is at breaking point. I don't think people have any idea how long it takes to prepare and upload the leaning. People are working very late every evening and most of their weekends to do all of this and something has to give. Quite frankly I'm sick of the DFE treating teachers like utter shit.

[quote TheRuleofStix]@Doublefaced that’s what I found but not sure it proves PP’s point.[/quote]
‘Covid related reasons’?
That also relates to those self isolating because they have been contacts. It’s not a measure of infection rates.
Still struggling to find the ‘1.9 times greater’ stats but hopefully someone can link to them soon.

@MamaTookMyEyebrows

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.

"Uploading the shit" as you call it takes bloody hours.

@LyndaLaHughes

It's horrendous. I'm in school full time teaching key worker kids because there are so many of them. Then I'm having to do all the remote learning for those at home in my own time on top. Planning all the home learning, making videos or narrating PowerPoint etc all takes bloody ages. That's not even to mention all the feedback and dealing with emails, queries, comments and all the usual stuff. So no there is no silver- lining. The workload is utterly horrendous and not sustainable. Add to this the risks from covid- 5 cases in my school this week and 6 in my kids school - where I have to send them because I am in. Every single teacher I know is at breaking point. I don't think people have any idea how long it takes to prepare and upload the leaning. People are working very late every evening and most of their weekends to do all of this and something has to give. Quite frankly I'm sick of the DFE treating teachers like utter shit.

That sounds horrendous

My DC's secondary did literally nothing in lockdown one. This time is so different and although I'm not wfh I can still see the huge amount of work going into providing a mixture of live and non live lessons.

They are being provided with a full timetable, but despite Sterling efforts from teachers the lessons are a hard slog for DC (and for teachers of course), dry, quite dull and slow. IMO this is no reflection on the teachers- it's just not possible to provide engaging lessons in this way- and there's only so many non engaging lessons that anyone can take.

Our school has a no camera policy, for both teachers and pupils which again doesn't help with engagement. But I'm sure they feel it's the best way.

I wish DofE would stop pretending that this is an adequate substitute for in person learning. Let's just admit there no adequate substitute. Let's just admit that it's not possible to deliver the curriculum in this way, and work towards a more workable, sustainable solution.

Maybe less lessons, with some reading and watching of bite size videos, educational films or documentaries in their place. David Attenborough can teach all of us more about the animal kingdom than most biology lessons- it might be off curriculum but it's valuable learning.

Maybe less lessons, with some reading and watching of bite size videos, educational films or documentaries in their place. David Attenborough can teach all of us more about the animal kingdom than most biology lessons- it might be off curriculum but it's valuable learning.

Teachers aren't allowed to do that. The govt hasn't suspended the National Curriculum this time round, and OFSTED is expecting the same coverage, and the same assessment and standards as if none of this was happening.

@Chaotic45 the reason why there was nothing last time was because that was the clear instruction from the DFE: the curriculum was suspended by them and schools were literally just childcare for key workers (of which there were far fewer). This time we have the opposite instruction. Pretty much full steam ahead and in our school on three platforms - classroom for the (much larger volume of - 5x at my school) key workers, online for the rest AND paper packs for those we don’t feel are accessing the online stuff. It’s not sustainable...

[quote Lifeisabeach09]@Mumofsend, but not disciplining or telling the kids to be quiet as now that's the parents remit!
Do you see the parents?[/quote]
Discipline and telling people to be quiet is less than 1% of the job. Makes no difference at all to my job that I have to do that less now. YABVU. I'd much rather things be normal. No silver linings to this at all.

I can't see many silver linings to this current way of working, but if I could, you can rest assured that everyone would leap on it as a way of proving in their minds that teachers are lazy fuckers who brought this 3rd lockdown on just because they fancied some more time off.

YABU.

I'm not convinced you understand the pressure this current remote setup adds. It's significantly harder and every teacher I know would kill to be back in school.

@saraclara and @LookingforBakedAlaska I'm sorry, I should have made clear that I realise current teaching is following government set criteria.

It's that criteria that I feel needs to change to something more realistic and sustainable.

I'm really not blaming the teachers.

2 positive cases in school this week. One was in a year group I was supervising but they weren't in that day. I'm aware they may have caught it from someone asymptomatic in the group though so looking out for symptoms. The ta has now tested positive too.

There's not even the silver lining of being safe.

Every teacher I know is working even longer hours to make this thing work - more marking, more phone calls, more checking on people (harder to do remotely), having to redo planning and create brand new digital-friendly resources and is more worried about the children.
Most are on the WhatsApp group talking about working days starting at 07:00 and finishing 23:00 (with breaks to eat). Also, a lot of parents emailing at all hours and expecting immediate responses. Several have asked for adaptions to timetable (which are organised from a whole school perspective to not clash with siblings, etc.) or private calls - just not possible - and often send angry messages if can't do it.

Plus the anxiety of teaching in school on your days AND having to homeschool your own children/caring responsibilities.

[quote Buddytheelf85]@superram - aren’t teachers entitled to school places for their children even if they’re WFH (as critical workers)?[/quote]
Lots of schools have reached their limit for Key Workers - I know several who've been told there's no space or told they can only have one day.

Plus, teachers are the best placed to know just how unsafe schools are so I know my colleagues with small children are keeping them at home if they at all can.

Still reading, still supporting.

I've mostly been teaching about Elizabeth I, trench warfare and 19th century medicine this term. I'm actually slightly puzzled as to how this is critical work in the midst of a pandemic killing over a thousand people a day in our country currently.

Long term yes education is vital to a society but in the face of current circumstances when vaccines are being rolled out and things will hopefully be safer in the foreseeable future?

Is it really critical?

If what people actually mean is critical is childcare and child protection then there are safer and better ways of doing childcare for genuine critical workers (many of whom don't work 9-3 anyway) that don't involve ramming 1200 kids from a ten mile radius via public transport plus legislating that parents can't be fired for having caring responsibilities.

We also have a social services system and social workers are being prioritised for vaccines.

Is it critical to be learning about poetry and food tech and drama and history and algebra in the middle of the biggest health crisis we've ever seen?