Anyone else struggling with online teaching

[Sofabitch]

Morning everyone.

I am a secondary Science teacher and finding online teaching pretty strange. I've basically been left to it with my own classes, and just told to set the same amount of work as for a normal timetable.

The setting work etc that is fine,

But is anyone else's school just insisting that you plough ahead with the scheme of work at the same pace. For some of my year groups i'm getting good engagement. Year 9 maybe 90% year 10 about 75% But for year 7 i'm barely getting 25% engagement.

I fully understand why. I'm at home with my 4 children and my own daughter in year 6 is doing the least work, she needs the most support and can only go online when i'm not using the laptop to work. But her school have sent out engaging work packs. There isn't a constant need to log engagement and check in with students that aren't engaging.

I can't help feeling this insistence to plough ahead regardless is going to widen the gap between the engaged and the unengaged.

How are other secondary school teachers finding this?

What form is your online teaching taking?

I am also secondary science. Our school is setting work for all subjects but we are not ploughing on with the scheme of learning. For most year groups we are simply setting work. Some are engaging, some are not. There is little we can do if they won't engage but we are trying.

I am doing live teams sessions with my Y12 group and we are continuing with the spec. However, that is my choice because they have exams next year and we don't yet know what allowances will be made for lost time. Plus, the topic I am teaching them now underpins a future topic. They are a small group though and they are engaging which is good.

I don't know how it would go with Y7 - around 30 to a class and such a huge ability range would make teaching online very tricky.

I agree with you that going ahead with content as your school is doing will widen the gaps even more.

I'm secondary science too.
We're planning as a dept, so every class does the same (no setting in my place).
We're continuing the SoW but at half the speed, adding research etc to slow things down. No 'homework'. Also switching topics to leave harder ones until we return.
By keeping all classes in line with each other, I'm hoping it should be easier to pick up the pace when we return.
It's easier to do a good job when I'm only preparing work for 2 yr groups instead of the whole lot.

It's a worry. We're not doing any online teaching and are setting weekly work as a department with teachers just adapting it as needed for their groups. We're not obliged as a school to mark work, but we're going to start that as a department over the next week or so. We'll just set one piece per half-term per class to be marked. My worry is that we have no real way of knowing who's engaging and who's not. Some students are messaging us but that doesn't mean the others aren't at all engaging. We can see how many students are viewing the files and that's it - not who they are and not whether those who view are actually doing the work.

It's a worry and I wish there was more leadership on this on a national level and on a school level.

I am secondary but not science. I am teaching my normal timetable with live lessons for all. It each is shorter than usual.Some lessons I'm carrying on with the SoW, some is revision. I work in an independent school where every students has a device and so we are expecting full engagement. To be fair, I'm mostly getting it. I am exhausted as the lessons take much longer to prepare and I am bombarded with workto Mark. I am prioritising my GCSE groups and KS3 get general feedback or a pointer or two.

I also have 2 children of my own, the younger of whom needs help to sort their work. The older one has been swamped with work and is perpetually stressed.

Sorry, that was venting my own frustrations! It shows though, that we're never going to get it right! Too much, too little. Not knowing how each household might be coping.

I'm History, and setting work for all Year groups. I'm following the SoW and for Y10/12 just ploughing ahead at the same rate I would be doing, although adapting slightly.

I have concerns that some are clearly not engaging and uploading the work they should be doing. And it's taking me hours to do everything.

Yeah in primary it's pointless. 50% of kids watch the lesson links at most. More like 20% for some. I reckon maybe 5% are doing decent work based on it.

It all comes down to what parents are able to support, and considering most of the children in my school are EAL or PP, chances of support are low.

They'll all be doing the stuff set by tutors anyway, since that's what the EAL contingent is obsessed with. The others will be parked in front of the telly and being left to get on with it.

I'm still producing stuff, but I've dialed it back a lot - now it's just one lesson followed by some suggested activities. It's not 'teaching' it's 'activities to keep you from going mad'. It's rubbish. Any slagging off that goes on around it by the public (and this site) is ridiculous, it's beyond stressful.

It's only been 17 days of school closure. Meh.

My own child is also only doing very small bits of work. I'd rather she was out in the garden or we were out on walks. Or frankly in front of the telly. It's all fine.

Thats good, I'm having to keep a mark book for every piece of work i'm setting which is 5 hours at KS4 and 3 for KS3 a week!

I can't realistically mark photos etc, I am trying to give constructive feedback and comprehensive mark schemes for students to assess there own work.

Some students have missed whole topics now.

I'm having to set 3 types of work, those with internet/computer access, those without, and those who are in school! I'm working harder than ever!

Also my .2 that I don't work normally seems to have evaporated as It's just been assumed i'll take over my whole classes for consistency, which does make sense. As they each had a different teacher 1 lesson a week.

I also wish there was more consistency both nationally and even just school wide.

Secondary Science also. last two years, and I put all my lessons on there. What I am doing now is not that far away from my normal way of working, apart from no practicalsl.

We subscribe to Pearson Active Learn/Teach and so have plenty of resources for the students. Add in BBC Bitesize, Free Science Lessons and Scientific Eye/Science in Action, and I have plenty for any lesson. Twig Science is also free at the moment and fantastic.

Weird editing. I missed out that we have been using Google Classroom for the last two years.

My lessons are via Google Hangouts and we get pretty close to 100% attendance. Parents are emailed if their child does not log in.