Why not masks for all in secondary schools ?

[countryroses]

Why not ?

This is the standard model in universities where typically no editing happens.

Typically lecture theatres are laid out differently to classrooms. I'm still waiting for how I record me, and the board but no students....

So therefore schools should prioritise the needs of the parents over the needs of the students and teachers?

You have set up a strange dichotomy. The interests of the general population shouldn't be at odds with the interests of children. But yes, one of the purposes of compulsory education is to let people, and in particular women, go to work. This is one of the greatest contributions to the feminist cause.

In countries with less progress on women's rights it is common for schools to finish at midday on some days or for children to go home for lunch. Both make it impossible for women to work full time.

I could list more accurate negative stereotypes of teachers but I am not sure it would be constructive

Yet the rest of what you are saying is so constructive

I'm still waiting for how I record me, and the board but no students....

If you mean with video and without changing anything you do that is not going to be trivial. Some change will be needed or just audio plus the boards.

@notevenat20
@Hercwasonaroll has answered exactly as I would have! When I was teaching online from home, I was in front of my laptop, sharing my screen and talking to the camera. Recording that is easy. In my classroom, that's not how I teach. I'll be using my whiteboard, which is not in front of my desk. The laptop mic will struggle with that.
We don't have the equipment to set up cameras in every room.
We don't have money to buy any.
We also have students for whom that would be dangerous - a glimpse of someone turning round to the camera could put their life in danger.
I don't have an issue with my teaching being recorded, but many students of all abilities would have an issue with their learning being recorded. Not a "behaviour management" issue necessarily, but what teenager is going to take a punt on an answer if there's a chance they could get it wrong and it be in the ether for all time? A classroom is a safe space for making mistakes - but not when it's being recorded.
Plus we'd need permission from every parent of every child in every class.

@ineedaholidaynow

How does live marking work, is that when you get students to mark their own work in lessons?

My understanding was that some schools were instigating the 72 hour quarantine thing with exercise books, so assume you wouldn’t be encouraged to touch books whilst walking round the class.

Live marking is moving around the classroom and marking children's work as they are doing it. It picks up misconceptions quickly and allows you to extend those children who are showing strong levels of understanding. It's also the only way to make a marking workload manageable as, on any given day, I could have 90 to 150 books to mark. Without living marking, it's not manageable.

Some schools are isolating books but many aren't.

Some change will be needed or just audio plus the boards.

Impossible to record the board without students being on screen.

@notevenat20 doesn’t Finland have shorter school hours, they finish after lunch, but about 80% of parents work. Children are more independent there though and walk to and from school on their own from a much earlier age.

However, I think we are getting slightly sidetracked from the original OP which was all about masks!

@MrsHamlet

It's a horrific situation you describe. Just to pin it down, the risk you describe is from any photo of a child that associates them with the school? So a video might contain a picture of a child and even with a password system someone might take a screenshot and post it online saying which school it's from. Then some murderous man (father?) might track the child down and kill them. Do I have that right?

Impossible to record the board without students being on screen.

Why is that? I am just visualising my own classroom but yours must have a totally different set up.

@ineedaholidaynow

In all honesty I don't know about the length of the Finnish school day :)

6m by 8m room, camera at back cannot be angled to show the board and not students. Physically impossible.

@notevenat20
You have set up a strange dichotomy.

Not at all. I said that there is no evidence that live lessons is better educationally and that there are potential drawbacks for both students and teachers. I said the main advantage is that it is more convenient for parents as it takes the children 'away' for a set amount of time and removes any need for them to be involved in their child's learning that day. You suggested that that alone was enough of a reason to do live lessons. This does, however, ignore the fact that in some families, the child using tech for live lessons would actually prevent the parent from working from home.

Again, I have to say that students controlling their own timetable through online learning platforms and videos/audio/instructions actually allows the same thing whilst not having the drawbacks of live lessons.

The laptop mic will struggle with that.
We don't have the equipment to set up cameras in every room.
We don't have money to buy any.

We are talking 50 quid at most per classroom. There must surely be budget for that.

😂 Budget for £50 per room!!!! Now I know you're joking.

@notevenat20 yes.

Thanks everyone for engaging so fully with the conversation. I really hope the school opening goes smoothly.

And no to the £50 question. There is no spare money in school. Any money "saved" by us not being fully open was spent buying laptops for the students the government let down with their promise.

Do you use an interactive white board @Hercwasonaroll?

I totally get the comment about school budgets, another way the Government have let Education down.

Nope, projector onto whiteboard.

www.doublerobotics.com/

This 😅 is the answer! Teachers sit at home and the robot is in the classroom.

I'm joking for now but this is the future...

We are talking 50 quid at most per classroom. There must surely be budget for that.

Proper LOL (retro!) Are you having a laugh?

It's already hard to adapt teaching for special needs children, making students who are deaf/hard of hearing and/or other students such as those with autism deal with others or themselves wearing masks would be very, very challenging.

@mrshoho

www.doublerobotics.com/

This 😅 is the answer! Teachers sit at home and the robot is in the classroom.

I'm joking for now but this is the future...

TBBT for the win

I love Sheldon! Just not sure how the robots will manage behaviour. I'm sure someone somewhere is working on it!