Shitty message from teacher on Google Classroom.

[Tibola]

Congratulating the 10 kids who completed the assignment and giving their names. And then in block caps:

FOR ALL THOSE WHO DID NOT COMPLETE THIS I WILL NOT BE GOING BACK OVER THIS IN CLASS 👍

Rude much?!! And no, their school isn’t open for key workers before anyone jumps on me and says how busy she must be

Re laptops etc. We have one MacBook and the kids have iPads. A lot of the work they are having to do on paper and then photograph and send to the teacher as they can’t get word to work properly on an Apple device + google docs. I take the MacBook to work with me. And we are a family with quite a bit of techy knowledge

My similarly aged older DC are in similar position and I thank my lucky stars every day that we are in a house big enough for everyone to work at an individual desk in a room with a door that shuts, their own computers/iPads and two parents who have flexible work and aren’t stressed about getting sick/losing jobs

THIS

We have food on the table. A warm house. He has 2 loving parents. We both have jobs that are unaffected (hopefully)
He has a PC with fast broadband.

And parents who value education.

We also have the space for him to work.

I despair of the posters saying 'it's fine', 'take responsibility for your child's education' etc. etc. this just shows the most incredible lack of understanding of how other families and the challenges they face.

We are one of those families, chronic illness (that is managed by resting while the children are at school so the parent can function when the children are at home), a child with SEN who will refuse to do any work and is clearly very anxious... the other parent is WFH bringing in an income and in a key role... and there are a lot of parents in much worse circumstances than us...

Yes, let's make those parents who are struggling feel bad and their children (who would be better off in school) feel even worse than they already do.

Can we all be kind, can we all think of others. I work with over 450 schools - for an LA - it is so stressful out there in our schools. New work patterns, worrying about transmission of the virus, shopping for and delivering food parcels to vulnerable families; worrying about what is going on in children's homes, working in new schools, with new colleagues, planning and delivering with new IT; happy to work through weekends and holidays.
Teachers are human, they have their own worries, they, like all of us don't get it right all of the time.
A message in capital letters is 'nothing' compared with what some people are going through or the scale of what we are all living with.

The teacher has no idea of children’s situations or ability to get work done in these difficult times. I’ve had trouble working from home for instance - as have most of my colleagues - due to IT issues. I’m just glad my boss didn’t respond like that when our productivity was lower than it usually is
You know - the very same goes for teaching/school staff, you have no idea of their home life, their ill family members, their work difficulties - but I know the vast majority are trying their very best to support key workers, to allow these people the ability to continue to go to work to help us all.
Please be kind, please cut everyone ( in and out of education) some slack.

I think that is fair.

She has to give them a little bit of a warning for their own learning.

That if they do not do it now - they will miss out on this learning.

What is the problem ? The children have been set work to complete, if they cant be bothered to do it, they need to be told that the teacher wont be running after them when they get back to school. If the "adults" of the house cant be arsed to be bothered about their childs education by making ( yes, making. You adult, them children) their child/ren sit down and work they need to have a serious word with themselves, get their heads out of their arses and realise they whole world is not fair or pink and bloody fluffy.

She's just saying if you don't do this work now you won't get another opportunity. Surely as a MMetter you know the tone of things is difficult online

I have no idea who has a device at home, why would school ever ask this?

Slight tangent to the thread, but our school asked exactly this before they closed. In order to make sure all children were able to access the work.

Fair enough. Although as a teacher myself I'd be a bit mindful if anyone was ill.

Exactly! It's not a normal day. We don't know who has been affected. It's a Pandemic not a an average week.

DD’s school posted enormous amount of work since the very first day of closing. She’s in year 10 too. I do appreciate that they highly likely won’t have time to go through these in class but this is unusual circumstances and we all need time to adapt. Some teenagers are upset and nervous, some of them don’t have instant access to laptops, some might need a bit of support. So yes, I do think the tone of the message’s inappropriate.
DH’s colleague called to discuss joint project and said that he’s really behind with everything as he struggles to concentrate on stuff and we’re talking about grown up in his 50s with good steady job, paid mortgage and without any additional health issues so what we expect from 15-16 years old?

Do you think there might be issues with having an entire family at home trying to share the family PC to do work, school work, a job etc

In that case, you email, explain the situation and ask for either a work extension or for a hard copy to be mailed to you.

I would not have worded it the way she did and I do think the caps are unnecessary, but I think it’s fair enough to let them know that the content will not be covered again in class. I will not be teaching the content that I am setting now for year 10 when schools reopen. With the new GCSEs it is a real challenge to cover all of the content in time for the exams even without schools being closed for potentially months on end. I am understanding of the fact that some have better home-learning circumstances than others but the reality is that they are probably going to have exams as normal next summer and that means they are going to need to cover a significant chunk of the course at home.
I’m trying to help as much as possible, using group audio calls for Q&A, setting narrated PowerPoints so that they still get teacher explanation and trying to be flexible about how they submit work, but those that aren’t doing the work will be at a disadvantage and we won’t be able to mitigate that disadvantage as much as we would under normal circumstances. My year 10s have been amazing. I only had 4 essays not handed in for the last lesson I set. I’m hoping the others will catch up and have stuck to positive messages about how pleased I am with the ones who handed it in. I can’t lie though, I am worried about those not logging in. It may not be their fault but they are going to fall behind.

I thought most schools checked with their pupils what access they would have at home. I know DS's school checked and also made sure the pupils could log in correctly.

I am assuming the teacher knows how her pupils would react to that.

Schools may be returning in September, but my understanding is that lock downs like this will be happening on and off for the next year to 18 months. I can't see how teachers will be able to go over all this work again before GCSEs. All pupils Y10 and above need to be doing as much as they can

They are going to have to come up with something to support next years GCSE and A’ Level students. It would be monumentally unfair to expect all students to keep up with the curriculum and for this time to be counted as study time. All this will do is widen the gap between the haves and the have nots, with the students who have the privilege of a calm, ordered home with supportive parents and access to study materials getting further and further ahead while the rest fall behind. A national crisis is not the time to expect disengaged, struggling students to suddenly be able to organise themselves and study independently. What about the children with some level of educational needs who will do very well with the appropriate support, but will flounder if left to their own devices.
Are teachers really saying that this is the students’ only chance to access certain aspects of the curriculum, and if they didn’t manage for whatever reason then tough, you’re on your own, not my problem mate?

I am understanding of the fact that some have better home-learning circumstances than others but the reality is that they are probably going to have exams as normal next summer and that means they are going to need to cover a significant chunk of the course at home

I suspect that next year's exams will be affected massively by this - and the curriculum / expectations etc will have to be adjusted.

These are not normal times. And an online classroom cannot replace a real classroom and a real teacher.

All this will do is widen the gap between the haves and the have nots, with the students who have the privilege of a calm, ordered home with supportive parents and access to study materials getting further and further ahead while the rest fall behin

THIS

Massively rubbish message from teacher. I would be up for a disciplinary if I was stupid enough or nasty enough to write this.

As a teacher we don't know:
Who is ill or dealing with loss, anxiety, mental health issues.

Who has support/no support, encouragement to complete work.

Who has access, my Internet and phone keep going down just now.

We also don't see the damage we have done. This techers may also be stressed but how dare she take it out on kids who have bo control at the moment 😠

It's ridiculous. It's a stressful and upsetting time for everyone. People are having their grandparents and relatives die. A lot of students will be struggling to focus on ANYTHING, and worrying about a lot of things (as am I!) a lot of students will be on the other end of their parents frustration and aggression. It's a really difficult time at home - she should understand that!

All I can think is she's struggling also and it's (hopefully) out of character.

Teachers know which kids have access and don't. We have reams of info on which kids have computers, chaotic home lives, pupil premium etc. She will know the ids extremely well by y10

This - absolutely. We have been setting work but most of our energy has been around working to get IT to students who don’t have it, checking those who are vulnerable are getting food and ensuring families feel supported. If students haven’t logged on to online platforms we call to find out if they’re ok, not to chide them.

Year 10? The whole world’s gone bananas? We’re all told to give ourselves some slack because - fuck me - this is unprecedented? A few comments on here saying we should give her some slack because it’s a really difficult time and she might have had some COVID-related difficulties? Stuff all over the media about how to support kids and teens through this because 🤯?

It’s the first week of this new ‘normal’.

They’re 15.

And a load of you on here, and that teacher think they should just suck it up the first week in and knuckle down and get on with it, with no difficulties, and no allowances for adjustments or home circumstances or anything?!

Fuck that.

Yes, she was out of line.

If my line manager sent me an email like that, I would have been having a conversation to say that they may have felt the message was warranted (and I’d take that on board), but the tone and style of delivery was inappropriate.

As teens, I’d absolutely expect her delivery to be better, especially now. She should be leading by example because she’s the adult. If she received email like that she’d be fuming. So she should do the kids the same courtesy frankly.

its definitely rude. I cant seem to navigate ds schools website properly to find wtf it is he is supposed to do, let alone motivate him to do it. I end up shouting or in tears, ds is all over the place (SEN, EHCP) I honestly cant manage it and will be finding my own way to educate him

I WAS a teacher so I know how hard her job is. I have to agree with her on this one! Awful parents was one of the reasons I left.

Year 10 so gcse, seems fair to me as there will be no time to go over it.

It's definitely rude and bloody unnecessary.

A lot of families are struggling to adjust the current situation and are struggling to hold things together right now - financially and emotionally.

Not all of us are sitting on our arses waiting for the time to pass. A lot of parents are juggling working from home with looking after children and/or vulnerable relatives; or are key workers working long and stressful hours. Missing some schoolwork in the very first of lockdown is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Give people a chance.

The teacher has no bloody idea what her pupils are going through in their home environment. Someone in their family could be ill or self isolating, dying or dead. The teacher needs to find some fucking perspective. Shitty emails are not going to help anybody right now.

Some teenagers are upset and nervous, some of them don’t have instant access to laptops, some might need a bit of support.

and some are lazy little buggers that can't be arsed.

The online work can be done on paper and a photo sent by phone - all the kids have phones.