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?

[RaelImperialAerosolKid]

Teaching online is a brand new skill - that has to be mastered with an audience of the harshest critics - to the same standards as face to face teaching - most teachers love being in the classroom and would much rather be there

[ItsIgginningtolooklikelockdown]

Well no one swears at me or coughs over me so that's a plus.
Today I feel ready to resign though so it can't be all moonlight and roses 🤷‍♀️

[Comefromaway]

Teachers do actually care whether their students are engaged or confused or not.

Which is why they don’t just think it’s the parents responsibility. (& I’m at work not at home whilst my two are online anyway)

[Cismyfatarse]

Also, the OP's assumption that we normally wrangle badly behaved pupils. Yes, there can be issues but I am have been teaching a long time, most kids want to learn and classes behave well.

[Evvyjb]

Certainly that is something that we would be expected to follow up, yes. I spent 2 hours today calling parents of students who had done this today for my department.

[turtletum]

Secondary teacher here. I enjoy classroom teaching, lively discussions, group work. It's easy to explain something and see if the class get it. I can set a task and walk around the room to see who is working/ struggling/ messing about. Marking work is straightforward as it's all the same format.


Live online lessons require more prep. I need to provide electronic versions of the textbook for those who don't have them with them. I need to provide a pdf of my slides so all students can access my lesson, even if they have limited Internet. Even taking the register is a pain, kids dial in late, log out of lessons, their WiFi cuts out, they're logged in but not at the computer - and I've got to keep track of that and report absences/lack of engagement to pastoral team. I get very little feedback from the students when I talk through something new so have to utilise forms, chat, break out rooms to gauge how well they're understanding, which is slow, stilted. I then set them work and keep my fingers crossed that they'll hand in the work 10/15 minutes later. Marking is a PITA. Students submit work in various formats. I have to open, download, annote, save, upload for each student. Tedious and time consuming. I've got A level mock exam papers to mark this week. Page by page.


My school have a rolling rota for staffing on site. I go into school once a week to supervise. The kids are all in their lessons, I'm in mine, we're just in the same building.

The few things I do like? I can teach in my slippers, I don't have to commute most of the time, I don't have to walk across site just to go to the toilet or get a coffee.

[FrippEnos]

Lifeisabeach09

Imagine your managers taking away the good bits of your job and replacing them with the bits that are not as much fun/don't like, then for good measure throwing some more of the bad stuff at you.

That, for me, is teaching online.

[Cismyfatarse]

Some days I feel like someone who trained at the Globe in Shakespeare's day as an actor who is forced to adapt to social media at the same time as producing a broadcast.

I much prefer the theatre of the classroom to the small screen.

[Letseatgrandma]

@Lifeisabeach09

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

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

Right.

It would have been less open to teacher-bashing accusations if you’d asked a general -interest question about people’s jobs at the moment, ie...

Has lockdown made your job lovelier than normal?

[RaraRachael]

I'm not too badly off as I have no kids of my own at home and we don't do any live lessons. I am fairly busy all day setting and uploading work for the next day, marking what's come through and making sure I send a copy of everything for the following week to the office to be printed for those who can't access online.
I'd still rather be at school though.

[ThorFull]

Most of the drawbacks have been mentioned. Teaching Into to the void is miserable. Lessons take so much longer to plan. My eyes hurt.
Silver linings... no queue for the toilet at break time.
Shorter commute. Although I do have to set up my workspace every morning as we need the kitchen table to eat at. And my back shoulders and neck hate my current “office”.
Hardly “lovelier” than going into work and doing a job I love.

[Bitbusyattheminute]

It's surprisingly draining. I'm not doing the manic child minder drop and commute every day, or break duties or dealing with arsey behaviour every day on corridors.

But it's hard to have a proper chat when you can't see people. You're a bit on edge cos parents might listen and conversations in a level lit can range widely.
I'm not getting my steps in.
It's harder than ever to disengage.
You feel like you should go in when you're ill cos it's not like you're really going anywhere and the kids have missed enough all ready.
Staring hunched over at a screen all day is a killer.

[Caffeineandcarbs]

Plus side for me is that I can pee between lessons and my commute has been cut.

Apart from that I am really, really missing my students, struggling to monitor true progress and trying to deal with pastoral problems remotely.

I left an office job that I hated to train to teach and I’ve definitely been reminded of why I left during the lockdowns. Teaching in the classroom can be exhausting (like most jobs!) but I find staring at a screen all day even worse for fatigue.

[ilikebooksandplants]

OP, do you have badly behaved children or a poor work ethic?
Just wondering why you’re judging all teachers by your own standards thinking we’d rather be sat at home?

I would rather have a full class, in my classroom. If your kids are so unpleasant their teachers don’t want to spend time with them, OR your work ethic is so shit you would rather try and do your job from home (eg you seem to think that’s easy), that’s your problem. The majority of us in school want to go back to normal.

[Lifeisabeach09]

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!

@hansgrueber

I would hope the HT has the sense to back your son in law.

[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.

[alliejay81]

Christ! It seems awful.

I walked into a year 7 art lesson today. One of the kids couldn't do the task because she wasn't allowed to use the scissors and she didn't own a ruler. In an English lesson I listened to seven different students try and email a document. I was in both lessons sorting my own slightly incompetent yr7 out (although compared to his peers it turns out I'm giving him a hard time ).

The kids aren't used to it and neither are the teachers. Teachers need the patience of a saint at the moment.

[clto2021]

I am an LSA in a school. The teachers at my school are teaching full time (10 key worker children in my class - every class has at least this number), recording videos, phoning parents every week, planning and uploading work daily, responding to work and requests online and providing remote learning lessons. They are all in school everyday and are run off their feet. Some are working well into the night in an attempt to keep on top of the online aspects of the job at the moment. The teacher in my class received a barrage of abuse from a parent on the phone last week which left her in tears. Everyone is trying their best - parents, teachers and children. Let's all pull together and support each other.

[Lifeisabeach09]

@ilikebooksandplants

OP, do you have badly behaved children or a poor work ethic?
Just wondering why you’re judging all teachers by your own standards thinking we’d rather be sat at home?

I would rather have a full class, in my classroom. If your kids are so unpleasant their teachers don’t want to spend time with them, OR your work ethic is so shit you would rather try and do your job from home (eg you seem to think that’s easy), that’s your problem. The majority of us in school want to go back to normal.

How am I judging teachers by posing questions? And if you read through the thread--you'll see my responses to what teachers have had to say.

Who's judging whom?

[Amijustagrump]

Its easier in the sense that i can just get out of bed and less behaviour management. But also I challenge you to teach simultaneous equations to a class who probably shouldn't be working at that level using a PowerPoint in 45 minutes.. its making the basics of my job much much harder. I have no idea which students are understanding the work and find that explanations are much tricker. Also you get some who get it and some who don't so its a choice of another example or the questions where in the classroom I could at least have a worksheet ready to go!

[Lifeisabeach09]

@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.

[Subordinateclause]

I like being in a classroom with children, and as an experienced teacher behaviour management isn't a cause of stress for me on a daily basis. I'm working marginally fewer hours than normal (mainly down to no meetings) but I'm not enjoying it - it is so, so dull. It's hard to know how much the children are learning, which is demoralising. I'd much rather be in school. Also don't enjoy that every day I'm essentially observed by parents whilst I teach.

[ShopoholicIn]

YANBU. My Dcs teacher is doing only half an hour live session, no pre recorded sessions.

[Saoirse7]

FYI OP the reason a teacher's job is stressful in order:

Data Collection
Scrutiny from SLT
Planning
Lack of Resources
Parents
Ill-Educated people on social media making jibes
.
.
.
.
.
A long commute to work (if applicable)
Pupils


Everything that makes a teacher's job hard is still in place. Ps Recording a video explaining something isn't teaching. Teaching is 80% interaction with the pupils and adapting the explanations with the ebb and flow of the lesson.

[ilikebooksandplants]

You’re right. I’m judging you if you think this is what we would all prefer. in fact I’m sure teachers arranged this pandemic for longer hols, coz that’s all we care about right?