Why aren't teachers providing lessons by Skype?

[Folicky]

If schools are to close, which they will eventually, why don't they teach the lessons via a video link / Skype? At the moment, as I understand it, if schools close, parents - many of whom will be working from home - will he expected to home school their children. How is that going to work?

Yup they can't be trusted

Safeguarding is for teachers as much as it is for the kids.

Stormy you seem angry. Why is that?

I’ve spoken to the parents of my class all week and they are happy with what is being provided so I’m happy with that. Lots of my children just wouldn’t have the technology to watch live streamed lessons and are sharing small dwellings with multiple family members. Support for their mental health is my priority right now.

Sounds like Stormy’s child’s school is doing very little. That’s my experience with my sons’ “outstanding” grammar too. . Whereas in the school where I work (“requires improvement”, apparently ) teachers are putting stuff on google classroom daily (including links to teaching videos that already exist on learning platforms that we subscribe to, so no point teachers duplicating on their own video), answering multiple kids’ emails, updating the whole school community with multiple daily updates of stuff on Twitter, FB and Instagram (including a daily video from the head to all the students like a sort of mini assembly, giving advice and support). Staff have also been supporting each other to keep up morale and social contact with colleagues when it’s someone’s birthday etc. Daft quizzes. Virtual pub quiz. Don’t forget that teachers are doing a lot to prepare info and data that needs to be given to exam boards for GCSE and A-level.

Not been impressed with my sons’ outstanding grammar at all, their communication has been quite limited, and always seem to arrive after all the other schools have sent stuff out. Not sure if they’re assuming that grammar school kids will self teach or what but still, just shows the disparity between school, which is why Stormy may not actually be in full possession of the facts!

I teach in a state grammar. We are teaching live lessons via Teams for Yr 9 upwards as according to their timetable. Yr 7 and 8 work uploaded via Teams. We are also having twice weekly tutor sessions.

I just admit this is very difficult for me as I have my own young children at home but at least I’m doing my bit!

80% of my salary with no volunteering in hub schools and no driving myself distracted trying to work in Microsoft teams while educating my own dc - sounds like a good offer to me.
But wouldn't you rather your dc still got support from schools?

Some are, I've been teaching via teams all week. They can see me but they're not allowed to have their cameras on. It's been an absolute nighttime trying to juggle it and my 2 1/2 year old!!! My school couldn't care less about staff however, just we must be delivering every single lesson on line in real time. They're terrified about parents not paying fees!

depends on the teacher and school doesn't it? - my son's school is very proactive and have signed up a one-to-one platform for teacher discussions etc.

However I have a couple of teachers as relatives who are seeing this as a good opportunity for an extended break (is it a coincidence their school is rated as "requires improvement"?)

So unfortunately the lockdown will (in my opinion) exacerbate the difference between the great and poor schools

So unfortunately the lockdown will (in my opinion) exacerbate the difference between the great and poor schools

Definitely.

I’ve been teaching live on teams. State secondary school. I’ve switched off the webcam so they can’t see me but have been sharing PowerPoints and other documents and running Quizlet live games etc via the sharing feature. We aren’t putting pressure on kids who can’t log in whilst we get laptops out to those without computer access. Our IT team is rounding up every laptop in school and getting them ready for loaning out. Even after that, bandwidth could be an issue for some. So we make sure resources are there for them to access later. I had 22/26 kids in my year 10 lesson this week, which I was pretty impressed with. They are all so grateful for the lessons that it made me a bit tearful.
Not all staff are comfortable with that though or might have practical reasons why they can’t live teach. I know some colleagues are having IT issues and there are no engineers coming out at the minute. As long as work gets set and kids are getting some feedback I think we’re doing pretty well. I am comfortable with the technology used to live teach and have no kids at home, so I do. I think the kids really like to hear an actual voice for a bit, but none of them expect every lesson to be live. I think it might actually be a bit much if we all did it.

YouTube skit about remote teaching made me smile

This is why OP
The favourite thing I have been sent this week!

Ah beat me to it Barb!

Me too, made me laugh so much.

Just trying to imagine the Early Years version!

Above - Foil Arms and Hogg is inspired. I have seen it 4x now and it gets me every time

Lordy, Barb can you imagine?
I could just film my 6 year old now
Our very lovely primary teachers have done little videos bless them. Very good they are too. But if I filmed my kids' responses as they watched them, they might wonder why the hell they were making such an effort, bless.

Given that 8 days ago, children and teachers were in classrooms having normal lessons, wouldn't it seem reasonable to expect there might be a bit of time needed to establish the new system in its best form?

The thing I find with this whole crisis is how demanding and unreasonable and unwilling people are to understand that change can take a little while.

Rarely have I seen threads started with 'well done supermarkets for increasing the number of deliveries substantially' or 'well done government for getting a massive finance package through in super fast time'. There is an awful lot of moaning about individual inconveniences.

I wonder if when the death really high people will still moan that they paid for a supermarket delivery pass and outrageously now aren't guaranteeing them a weekly slot...or will we get a bit of perspective.

Give people a bit of time. Cut people and schools a bit of slack. Accept that huge change cannot happen within the space of about 3 days. Accept that we are all inconvenienced. Children at home learning will need input from parents and it will be an inconvenience. Working as well as helping children will be hard. Give schools and other organisations a chance to sort things out and if there are serious issues (not minor niggles, which we just have to live with) then politely and kindly tell them about them, whilst also expressing gratitude for what they are doing and trying to do. I do think we all need a bit less 'me,me,me'.

Our primary school (so far - appreciate it's early days) hasn't been great. They've posted loads of links to learning sites, but no structure to anything and no filter by age. So you have to trawl through and find your way, and put together a timetable of sorts and hope it's ok. They've also added a link to another schools website saying "this is good" but again, no guidance or structure. No emails, nothing specific from each teacher. It does feel like they've clocked off. I appreciate teachers may have children themselves, but many of us are also working, looking after elderly parents and attempting to educate with zero experience. I fear the children who are not cared for at home will suffer the most.

I fear the children who are not cared for at home will suffer the most

Yes. Which is why it’s more important schools focus attention on those children - especially initially whilst everything settles into a routine of sorts - rather than killing them selves producing bourse of structured work for those who do have support at home.

We’ve never had to do this before - I’ve seen a range of threads on here from “the school are so UR! There’s too much work” through to “why aren’t the school scheduling properly”.

This is a crisis the like of which none of us have seen.

Pretty much any content “taught” during this period will need reteaching because the uptake will understandably be very patchy. The best you can expect, I think, is solid reliable revision type tasks, with answers/models made available for kids to self asses. Plus some availability of teachers to answer questions and reassure.

Many are using the excuse that numbers if their pupils don't have the Internet /equipment.

The truth I believe is that they fear being judged by parents for the quality of their lessons.

Solomummy, unless their parents happen to be OFSTED inspectors I sincerely doubt they are in a position to critique a lesson. Believe it or not, teachers are professionals and tend to know what they are doing. The least of my worries would be a parent judging my lesson-they could always just homeschool their child if they think they could do a better job.

Solomummy
I defy you to go into almost any school and be able to fault a lesson. Unless you're a qualified teacher yourself I think you would be shocked and amazed at how skilled a person has to be to control a class of children at the same time as delivering information that is relevant, useful, interesting - not to mention differentiated to cater for the vast range of abilities. At any age.
Teachers have to be absolutely tip top and on form at all times. I doubt many would be giving a single give a shit to what parents think at this time. Not when they are scrambling to rewrite schemes of work and plans for the fallout to this whilst trying to provide work for kids at home that neither alienates parents who can't or don't know how to help their kids but still enables more confident parent to keep things going.

*Many are using the excuse that numbers if their pupils don't have the Internet /equipment.

The truth I believe is that they fear being judged by parents for the quality of their lessons.*

What is this based on Solomummy? FWIW I highly doubt that teachers are worried about what parents think at this time. Classic teacher bashing crap.

Many are using the excuse that numbers if their pupils don't have the Internet /equipment

The truth I believe is that they fear being judged by parents for the quality of their lessons

Interesting viewpoint Solo. Judged in what way - can you expand on what you mean?

Sorry that's "what parents think of their lessons"