Google Classroom schedule - a bit much?

[NiceandCalm]

Not sure if there's a more specific place to post this.

My DS should have been back at school but was informed after Xmas that it's closed til 18/1 (possibly longer having seen the news). I've just received his schedule and it's a full on day, just like a school day, even down to the 40min lunch. Some lessons will be live. All work to be completed etc.
My DS is Year 7 and I think he's going to struggle keeping his attention at home. Do I sit with him to keep him focused?
Last year at Junior school they had work packs and had to submit the occasional piece of work online. After leaving him to it initially, I realised he was skipping through a lot of it so ended up spending 2 hrs a day with him and acting like his personal TA.
What is it looking like for everyone else? Do you trust your kids to get on with it? Poke your head round the door to check they are OK?

This is what people demanded in the last lockdown!
He would have a full day if he was in, and he doesn't have a commute to get there.

I think a lot of year 7 will struggle to be honest.

It's all very well saying what they SHOULD be able to do, but that doesn't mean they all will be able to do it. Your DS has ASD, so I'd be on to the school this week to see what additional support they or you can put in place and what the expectations will be.

My DS is on the SEN cos he has issues with motor skills, therefore he fatigues quicker than normal. I'll be on the phone this week with school to see what advice they have.

So, logged on to google classrooms first thing and the info was all over the place. He had so many tabs open. He hadn't a clue where to start. I emailed school and told them we were struggling. Eventually, around 10.30 we'd worked out what was going on and he was able to join the 2nd live lesson. We'd also managed to submit some work.
THEN I get a call from school and first off I thought wow, that's quick but oh no. She'd called to let me know that my son had written something silly in the class chat. I asked her why she didn't contact him through google classroom at the time. No explanation. I said I'd have a word but also said I was disappointed that she'd bothered to call us for something so trivial when we'd struggled so hard to get going this morning (our 1st day) without any help. I hung up.
I went and spoke to my DS and as that particular live lesson had ended, all the chat had gone. He actually denied he made the specific comment 'I want to go home'. He said 'why would I write that as I am at home?'. With ASD, he tends to think literally. He thinks the teacher is confused. Anyway, I reminded him that any talk was to be kept strictly to lesson issues etc. The next live lesson came up and I saw that other pupils were making all sorts of silly comments. I just thought to myself that the teacher who called is going to have a hell of a busy day!!
Surely a simple message during the live chat would have sufficed if they are monitoring it that closely. So annoyed that they are wasting time ringing parents with petty complaints on day 1.

Who else is going to discipline those pupils, other than their parent?
If pupils abuse the chat facility it will be removed, and they will have no way to check their understanding, or make sure they know what they're doing.
My DS' class had the chat disabled in summer term because children were idiots. Only their parents can remedy that when they're at home.

What a waste of time to call you. The teacher should have spoken to your child directly. It the the responsibility of the students to maintain their behaviour even whilst online and the responsibility of the teacher to create a learning environment that the children respect.

It is so interesting reading this and other threads. It is clear that whatever we offer, it won't fit everyone's circumstance.

I had to ring a parent by the way about their child making silly comments, because other parents rang me to complain.

Our secondary is giving live lessons, as per timetable, through Google Classroom. 30 minutes live tutor time, 2 live lessons (1hr each), ½hr break, 2 live lessons (1hr each), ½hr break, 1 live lesson (1hr).

They ask all students to have their camera and microphone off. No silly comments and the teachers are managing the classes well.

You hung up on the teacher?! Very rude.
I completely understand your son has ASD and I also completely understand that your son’s teachers don’t deserve to have their live lessons disrupted by pupils.
Very silly to say the teacher should not have phoned. The children are not physically in school for the normal sanctions and the teacher is dealing with it by phoning.

Parents would moan they hadn’t been informed otherwise

This thread shows those on a Mumsnet who have been bashing teachers since March for not doing live lessons, exactly why they have been unreasonable to do so.

OP, I hope it gets easier for you and your son.

We’re loving having the full timetable - keeps focus throughout the day as opposed to last lockdown when they were sent work, spent 5 mins doing the bare minimum then the rest of the day arguing. Only thing is that some kids knowing that most are using headphones have taken to unmuting themselves and then screaming loudly - I really feel for the teacher.

Year 4 ASD here and we have the same. I'm not sure he will keep the pace. I've already flagged it to the SENco that he may need more breaks and if he does then I will send an email ducking out of art or whatever. We will make sure to focus on the maths and English.

Fuck sake can't win. Parents were complaining when online learning was rather shit last lockdown, when teachers were completely unprepared for a brand new learning environment. Oh and also adapting their lives to the pandemic, oftentimes having their own children at home to home school.

Teachers have adapted, planned and planned and fucking planned to be able to bend to the parental demand of better education provision.. And now it's too much? Because you, as a parent, might have to ensure your own child does the work? What do you think teachers are doing when in class? Let's hope you are not one to complain if your child receives less than perfect reports.

I'm currently sitting with Y7 DS to keep him focused. I'll leave him to it soon enough but he does need help at the beginning of each lesson to make sure he knows what he's meant to be doing.

His school are expecting them to follow the timetable but so far it's pretty dry. None of the lessons are live, they have pre-recorded videos, slides and worksheets.

I know people who work in elearningfor for schools and I know how much better this could be, it's a real missed opportunity IMO.

But to get to that level the teachers would have needed time and resources they simply don't have, and the government is unwilling to provide. Dropping this on schools with little notice and without extra support is unforgivable IMO.

@decisionsincisions

Fuck sake can't win. Parents were complaining when online learning was rather shit last lockdown, when teachers were completely unprepared for a brand new learning environment. Oh and also adapting their lives to the pandemic, oftentimes having their own children at home to home school.

Teachers have adapted, planned and planned and fucking planned to be able to bend to the parental demand of better education provision.. And now it's too much? Because you, as a parent, might have to ensure your own child does the work? What do you think teachers are doing when in class? Let's hope you are not one to complain if your child receives less than perfect reports.

Yes, sitting at a screen all day doing worksheets is too much.

Yes the teachers are doing their best in trying times with fuck all government support.

That doesn't mean it's the best for kids though. Sitting in front of a computer without the stimulation of a class environment is a poor substitute.

E-learning comes in lots of different forms, this could be a lot better, but the government would need to understand and support this, and we're light years away from this.

My daughter year 8 has to be in uniform and ready to learn, registration, live lessons, work set, home work, breaks as normal, assemblies etc. It’s brilliant. Work has to be submitted by a certain time as well

Youngest year 5 they have done theirs a different way this time because last time it was awful, had no work for a month. Have a proper timetable, work set each day that has to be uploaded by at certain time

Uniform?! I made DS put clothes on (he wanted to do homeschool in his dressing gown) but uniform is too much IMO.

Lots of people seem enjoy complaining without offering up any better ideas.

The reason students are being asked to wear suitable clothing is to safeguard both parties from silly stories going all over social media saying "miss saw me in my pyjamas"
The policy at my school is that we are on Meet, but we are in class. I don't walk into my classroom in pyjamas.

OP- bolting the stable door, but it would have been useful for him to check how to get into the Meet before the lesson. Presuming they have a Classroom specifically for that class with that teacher it shouldn't be difficult once they get used to it.

Hopefully he won't abuse the chat system in future. Ours also had a disciplinary note if they did. Since March (full live lesson timetable since then really, lessons are just shortened to 45-50 minutes instead of an hour to give them a break) I've only had one issue like that because the expectations were made clear from the start.

We had full timetable in the spring/summer term. Everything the same, just online. It's effectiveness was below normal, obviously.
for secondary - Here are a few points for teachers - from min extra work, to a bit more:

Ground zero: set clear rules of engagements, rules around being late (eg: no need to say hello, just join), how to behave when late, where and how to upload stuff, how they will get feedback. Set expectations

Ground zero+: talk them through what is expected when we talk about self directed learning. What and where to look for materials, how the materials are organized*

1. utliize the calendar. Whatever tool you use. Put all classes in as scheduled meetings. Have the link to the Gclass/teams within the meeting as well as the link to the zoom/meet/....

Benefit: kids are prompted, have all resources at mouse point.

1. Differentiate between HW and classwork. Set due dates accordingly.**

1. Re-organize lessons. Some ideas

A) first lesson of the week is new material, second is practice B) 20 mins of talk/explanation, 10-20 mins of practice C) use breakout rooms for small group work This will be diff for every subject I guess

1. Create projects/tasks that need the kids to self organize and do something in small groups. Make it transparent: Record groups (name and participants) - project title - description - due date - presentation date (if applicable)

*It would help if all teachers would use the same folder structure, and other organizational methods.
This point actually my biggest pain with schools. In my line of work I am used to being super organized, setting up structures for teams/full companies. And the lack of consistency is appalling.

**I am a huge fan of asynchronous learning, so in my eyes if classwork is individual work could be done at a different pace. But I do get why this might not work with many low motivation students. I would say that it should be the teacher who decides if his/her class is ready for shifted work or not.

I can't see that it matters what the kids wear if they have their cameras off. As long as they are dressed in clothing (as opposed to pjs), that should be enough.

Yes my two at high school are the same. It works much better than the first lockdown where they were sent work. The teacher is there to teach and ask questions and make sure they are engaging, they’ll listen to teacher more than me.

We have a full timetable to keep to for DC in year 9 and 7, online lessons using zoom, teams and classroom.

The DC in year 3 also has a full timetable using classroom, live teaching for five hours per day 9-3 with an hour for lunch, and 80% of it is spent asking 7 year olds to mute/unmute. Add in me, WAH on calls and constant live messenger, and we are spending our days battling devices, battery life, headphones, internet connection and worksheets. We can’t even stretch our legs at lunchtime because all the DC have differently timed lunch breaks on their schedules. In fact we can’t even have lunch together.

Thankfully no uniforms though.

@Lougle

I can't see that it matters what the kids wear if they have their cameras off. As long as they are dressed in clothing (as opposed to pjs), that should be enough.

Ours have to have their cameras on. We found in the spring how easy it was to "register" for the meeting using the class's entrance code, (which then for the downloadable attendance lists has them "in" the meeting, but with a blacked out screen with their name on it) but until they click through to the "join with video" stage, they actually aren't in the meeting, only their icon is. This wasn't, and isn't, to police attendance or anything like that. It's to make sure kids aren't slipping through the net, and that kids whose parents didn't know they weren't attending could be made aware. Because now the curriculum is effectively a normal annual curriculum complete with tests etc, all cameras have to be on.

My dd is year 6 and has been homeschooling all year. They follow the same bell schedule they would in the school. They move from class to class. Sometimes the teacher teaches actively the full period, sometimes they work on camera, sometimes they turn cameras off and work independently. They have 4 minute passing periods and an official lunch period. It seemed daunting when we for the schedule, but it’s absolutely fine. We set up a device to ring the bells to log into each classroom and dd was doing school completely independently by the third day. The first couple there were some tech support issues to work out. This is what you want. School, but some at home. She has gotten an excellent education this year and I’m not remotely worried about her falling behind.

Teachers won’t necessarily be assigning days upon days of worksheets . Dd has had fantastic projects. She has written papers, built dioramas, read books and broken out into discussion groups, designed paper airplanes and documented the experimental process, and on and on. Her teachers have been really great about trying to give a good balance of rote work and project based work, just like they would at school.