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?

It's way more time consuming at the moment. On average I'm doing 10-12 hours a day, plus more on weekends. Preparation is taking hours, plus delivery of lessons, plus marking and all the admin of uploading work and recording submission. Marking is taking longer as I am marking everything that comes in. In school I would be doing more verbal feedback or self assessment. Plus phone calls to my form, in addition to daily registration time. I hate it. I hate sitting down all day. I have been in tears a few times these last couple of weeks because I feel so overwhelmed. I can't wait until schools are open to all students again.

[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]
My son-in-law has been the subject of a complaint because a parent could not get her child to behave at home and he, son-in-law, is the one working his butt off to get all the on-line learning organised!

YABU

I dont think you need to be a teacher to realise that trying to set work, get feedback on how its being understood, vary it for different abilities, assess it and provide feedback is much harder online or over zoom than in the classroom

It’s horrible. Definitely unreasonable to think this is easy.
I am constantly interrupted by my own kids who I’m home schooling (yes they have a school place, no I can’t send them as one is CEV) mid live lesson (MUM IVE HAD A POO! Mum. MUMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!) so I’m banishing them all to wreck their rooms and it’s just awful. We have pre recorded lots of lessons but doing that takes absolutely ages after school (up until midnight recording this in the quiet then converting videos to the right format and uploading them to the right places takes ages!) then you’re constantly putting out fires in lesson (tech issues/forgotten passwords/stuck on parts). I had three kids today who couldn’t play the mp4 or the mov or the direct link to the video or the YouTube video and I spent the whole lesson trying different things and they still couldn’t access the video or open the documents. This is all before the chasing up of work and putting together data on who is attending and engaging, attending and not engaging, not attending and not engaging - and then collecting data to see how well the kids are achieving. It’s ten times harder than being in work. Nobody can wait until we are back to normality.

@MrsHamlet

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.

@Mrshamlet

Is that your responsibility if they log off? Do you get in trouble?

If my DD logged off, that would be down to me (she's year 7) not the teacher.

No, I don’t prefer online teaching-it’s very very time consuming and really hard. I miss being in with my whole class and would much rather be teaching in person. But I know I can’t, because having schools fully open at the moment would be disastrous, so I will have to wait.

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

Aren’t things hard enough for everyone at the moment, without threads like this?

@FFSAllTheGoodOnesArereadyTaken

YABU

I dont think you need to be a teacher to realise that trying to set work, get feedback on how its being understood, vary it for different abilities, assess it and provide feedback is much harder online or over zoom than in the classroom

No but you don't have there other challenges of trying to get 30 kids to be quiet...do you they counter-balance?

Actually for me yes it is easier. We're doing pre-recorded instead of live lessons so I can do 90% of my work in the evenings apart from phone calls and the mini live catch up/social sessions. We're a two form entry and teaching staff and support are in two days in every two weeks on a rota. Our LA has said only families with two key worker parents can have a place so our bubbles are smaller than some other schools. If I had to teach live lessons it would be a fucking nightmare

Do I get in trouble? No idea yet. I'm keeping a record of everything - which takes longer than in real life. I'd like to see someone try to tell me off when I'm working my arse off.
But if Bob skives every online lesson, it'll be down to me to catch him up later because he'll still be in my class.

no, instead you have the challenge of trying to keep 30 children on mute and stopping them using the chat facility to discuss Fortnite!

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

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

Our school has all teachers in, over one third of pupils. They teach up to 15 each in a bubble and have extra release time to put work online for those at home.

I’ve heard of lots following your model, but lots aren’t. Remember it varies

We still have to chase all the work not done, mark, provide feedback....and spend all the extra time making and setting up the new work and lessons too.

We've been asked not to send our own kids in unless necessary so I'm doing it at home with 2 kids to hone school too.

It's exhausting. I'd far rather be in school!

Much easier to engage children when you are in front of them than online.
Also we adapt all the time as we are constantly checking learning and understanding. This is much harder to do when not physically in the room.

Also we are all still responsible for the learning that takes place in the classroom for our pupils in school.

@spanieleyes

no, instead you have the challenge of trying to keep 30 children on mute and stopping them using the chat facility to discuss Fortnite!

Haha. Fair enough. Not had this issue with DD yet.

@Lifeisabeach09

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

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

My 10yr old DSs teacher is doing a sterling job I think. He is working from home and has his own children at home too. I don't hear as much engagement as I think there would be in school, as he sounds very exasperated sometimes because noone answers when he asks a question. Him and his TA are marking my sons work and returning it promptly so no complaints here at all.

12 yr old DD hasn't had as many live lessons as I would like, perhaps two per day BUT has been getting work marked and returned with detailed feedback so no complaints there either really.

I support teachers fully in being prioritised more highly for vaccination and I hope they return to safer working environments.

However, as a single, non-critical working, wfh single parent, some teeny tiny part of me is resentful that my children aren't in school like many of their peers recieving teacher supported education. When so many other kids are in school (some with parents I KNOW are at home) I feel like my DC are being excluded from education. I cannot effectively support them and work for much longer. I'm their mother, not a teacher and homeschooling is slowly destroying my relationship with them. Whether thats for the greater good, I'm not convinced but I will stick to the rules and suck it up.

I bloody HATE teaching online. When I am at school I can feed off my class' energy and respond to them. I can physically go and squat down next to my SEND students and provide extra support (with masks!). I can look at books and give feedback immediately. I can see what my class are responding well to and what needs editing.

Now, I am talking to essentially a blank screen for multiple hours a day. Noone has their camera on; I have no idea how well students are engaging so i am checking in individually with students i am concerned about outside lessons.

In school, I would probably do 55-60ish hours a week as a secondary HOD of a core subject. Today and yesterday I have done 27 hours.

@Oileo

Our school has all teachers in, over one third of pupils. They teach up to 15 each in a bubble and have extra release time to put work online for those at home.

I’ve heard of lots following your model, but lots aren’t. Remember it varies

I know, Olio. I did note this in my OP.

@Evvyjb

I bloody HATE teaching online. When I am at school I can feed off my class' energy and respond to them. I can physically go and squat down next to my SEND students and provide extra support (with masks!). I can look at books and give feedback immediately. I can see what my class are responding well to and what needs editing.

Now, I am talking to essentially a blank screen for multiple hours a day. Noone has their camera on; I have no idea how well students are engaging so i am checking in individually with students i am concerned about outside lessons.

In school, I would probably do 55-60ish hours a week as a secondary HOD of a core subject. Today and yesterday I have done 27 hours.

That's interesting re camera. At DDs school, they don't use the camera on Teams. She can see the teacher but the teacher doesn't view the students. No mention of turning the camera both ways.

No, it’s not lovelier, it’s way more work and far less fun. Teachers generally like being in the classroom with the kids.

Also having to juggle work and homeschooling.

And before anyone starts I didn’t bloody campaign to close schools, I wanted them open. Government failings have led us here.

@Unanananana

My 10yr old DSs teacher is doing a sterling job I think. He is working from home and has his own children at home too. I don't hear as much engagement as I think there would be in school, as he sounds very exasperated sometimes because noone answers when he asks a question. Him and his TA are marking my sons work and returning it promptly so no complaints here at all.

12 yr old DD hasn't had as many live lessons as I would like, perhaps two per day BUT has been getting work marked and returned with detailed feedback so no complaints there either really.

I support teachers fully in being prioritised more highly for vaccination and I hope they return to safer working environments.

However, as a single, non-critical working, wfh single parent, some teeny tiny part of me is resentful that my children aren't in school like many of their peers recieving teacher supported education. When so many other kids are in school (some with parents I KNOW are at home) I feel like my DC are being excluded from education. I cannot effectively support them and work for much longer. I'm their mother, not a teacher and homeschooling is slowly destroying my relationship with them. Whether thats for the greater good, I'm not convinced but I will stick to the rules and suck it up.

Thankyou , I completely hear you. I am also keeping my own children at home so I totally understand. Thankfully it’s parents like you that means my class is only half full.

There are some upsides to online teaching, OP, one of which definitely is the mute button! No commute, tea and toilet just around the corner are perks, too.
On the other hand planning takes forever, you can’t teach as much as you would normally and have to provide IT support. Chasing attendance and work is extremely time consuming. Worst of all is the lack of feedback and interaction. Secondary school teachers are used to interacting with 150+ students a day. Teaching into the online void, cameras off and a lot of students reluctant to unmute is draining. I am sitting at my dining table for most of the day but I am knackered beyond belief and would much rather be in school!

OP YABVU

Teaching online is so much harder than in person. My home internet is so crap that I have to go into school. It's nice that I see the KW & V from my tutor group. But I still have the commute. My school-missed laptop has refused to play music clips for me 3 times today. That's 3 separate lessons in which I could not cover the work I had prepared properly. The kids can't access it on their devices because YouTube is blocked on them.

If something goes wrong in a normal lesson, there are lots of alternatives. If it goes wrong online, I'm stuffed.

Today I did a registration then taught 5 different classes back to back. I managed to eat one sandwich and run to the toilet once. All the rest of the day, between 8.15 and 3.50 I was online, staring at a screen trying to help, mentor, teach, support, guide, empathise and reassure more than 150 different students. If you or anyone else thinks this is easy, I'll gladly swap with you. You need the patience of a saint, good ICT skills and you need to be an excellent versatile musician. In short, bugger off. I don't tell you how to do your job, how easy or otherwise it is, so don't tell me how to do mine.

• school-missed should be school-issued