The Teachers’s Republic Refuge - solidarity comrades!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

So continuing on from our boycott/flowers we need to continue to defend our profession. This is teacher/school staff chat - if you do not fall into that category please start you own thread elsewhere.

#solidarity

My stress comes almost entirely from having to show DH how to scroll up or down on a chromebook (horrible thing!) 8 times a day....

He does know how to access then BBC Sport app on his phone.

I was ridiculed on fb for not knowing how to put content on a website - ‘surely every teacher knows how to this in 2020’. I know who to send a document to upload for me, but since putting stuff on a website has never been part of my job why would I know how to do it myself? Doesn’t stop me being good at the actual part of my job I’m trained for, you know, the teaching 😡

Conversely, I am great with technology and data but am under no illusions about my teaching - I am an "okay" teacher. I do not produce all-singing, all-dancing lessons most of the time and sometimes I get behind in my marking.

I don't think posters would be happy if schools were filled with lots of me teachers either. Balance is good, as with most things.

Balance? In schools? Never going to happen!

I'm the same sort of teacher as you @SallyLovesCheese. I do a decent job all the time, with moments of brilliance and moments of "wtf was that?!" I too get behind in my marking (are there people who never do that?) And I'm brilliant at technology stuff, but have been told a definite no to live online lessons because so many of our pupils would be unable to access it. So all my technological brilliance has gone to waste at the one time I thought I could show off a bit.

@Piggywaspushed I can imagine that would be incredibly stressful. I have thought several times a day about my colleague and how very glad I am that I don't live with her, and she doesn't have my phone number, lol. I'm sure her son (year 11, nothing better to do right now) is ably assisting in "how the hell do I send an email to the whole class?" And if she needs any more help she has the IT techs on speed dial and they can remote access her laptop to take over her screen if needs be (set up at their insistence a few weeks before the closure announcements)

Bloody hell, I agree with the previous call to
bring back Clavi compared to the boot sticking from one of our own.

I know teachers like your DH piggy can be amazing because I’m lucky enough to work with one.

Our deputy head has only a whiteboard (the one you can you know “just” write on) in his room. He gets some of the highest GCSE results in the country out of our very, very mixed ability cohorts. He’s an inspirational leader and the kids LOVE him not that I’m giving up my tech, thanks

I should not have listened to LBC one of the tweets read out wound me right up!

Can I join in please.

I hate WFH, I want to be back in my classroom with my students. I miss it so much.
Have spent three days ringing students to see why "they haven't accessed the work from home. It's awful because I know it's because they don't have internet access, but we go through this pretence where the parents says yes they will get their child to do the work, they can't do please they only have a mobile phone.

• because

My people, I have found you! Secondary teacher here. Too knackered to speak/type right now, so commenting so I can find my way in tomorrow!

Piggy - when I started teaching I had a roll up board with a black bit, a white bit and a squared bit and we had to book out the OHP projector.

I do use all the whizz bang stuff and today uploaded video and 12 lessons to google classroom, so I can use all the ICT but some of my best lessons are still on my whiteboard and big bits of sugar paper.

One of the most dreadful things about the profession now is the thinking that young equals better and i've seen many very good older teachers pushed out. But all the jazzy lessons in the world can't replace the older teacher who can raise an eyebrow and shut them up and change tack to suit a pupil mid-sentence.

@Everytimeref @SarahJessicaFarter - welcome, welcome!

Toffee vodka is just behind the biscuits

#solidarity

I had blackboard too! My allergies are all the better for their departure, mind.

I feel guilty because I know a number of my colleagues struggle with tech and I could really help them with Teams - setting up notifications, organising channels better, using announcements - but I just don't have the headspace to do it.

Oh my word - what about this?
www.tes.com/news/schools-face-legionnaires-risk-if-no-opening-notice

#onemorethingtoworryabout

I also had the roll up blackboard... I was so glad to say goodbye to chalk - it was really bad for my eczema!

I saw that before staff. It's never ending.

Do they flush taps after the summer hols?

I had a blackboard in my teaching practice school.
We've been through whiteboards, smart boards and now my department have a roller whiteboard in each room and a static whiteboard that the projector projects onto (I can write over the top of whatever in protecting without having to recalibrate every time the door opens or the wind blows)

I know in our science block taps are flushed during holidays and after holidays

I loved the wow factor of rolling up the board to reveal a chalked diagram. Clicking a slide forward isn't the same!

And then you'd sometimes roll the board to find a big knob or the like. You soon learned to check before the lesson!

I agree about chalk though - made me wheezy!

Strange day here. Had to follow up on some pretty poor behaviour in a live online lesson. I feel as if my sensitivity is really heightened. I feel as if I am bending over backwards to make sure that all students can access the work (giving them multiple ways of accessing or submitting work) and yet when it doesn't get handed in, there's always a reason why it was because of something I did or didn't do.

On the plus side, my own dc were pretty great today, which hasn't always been the case!

Had to follow up on some pretty poor behaviour in a live online lesson.

That’s rubbish . I really don’t think live online lessons are suitable for all classes.

I don't mind doing the lesson, it's usually 15-20 min of method and the kids can ask specific questions with me inking or speaking immediately. We're just so reliant on the students behaving themselves (the vast majority do, I must say).

I just hate getting in touch with parents who are already stressed. Thinking of asking if I can remove a student from a live class if they are being disruptive but I suspect the answer will be no!

Chalk was awful if you went to the supermarket on the way home with a chalky bum where you’d lent against the board or wiped your hands. Whiteboard hand too where you’ve wiped the board with the outside edge of your hand.

There is a huge assumption that ‘young’ = best in schools - never has been true, we (and more importantly the kids) need a range of ages and styles teaching

I think the problem it that schools have mothballed buildings so they will have to at least run taps and flush loos a few times. During most holidays things do happen in most school buildings but we have all been closed since before the Easter break.

Plus I have reported that thread by reporting the Mumsnet comment. Posters have lost their tempers and are using ‘naughty’ words. It is showing no one in good light at all - not even Mumsnet for letting it degenerate so far