The Ninth Republic - stand by for the return of Year 10

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff. Baiters and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here only if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the toffee vodka is hidden.

If you are fed up with cakes and biscuits there is now a cheeseboard on offer

If you come with a stick to beat us with then please do so elsewhere and not in the staffroom.

user, Nihil something, duck something, weeping willow something.. all posters who just write the same stuff over and over, not worth reading or engaging with.

@worstofbothworlds
Yerp, just a thought. I figure nurseries stick with the new school year this coming year - no EY ch into school until Xmas. Universities would lose money is the problem. But they could do much of it distance learning - 18 year olds have already got A-levels sorted.

@ohthegoats

Does anyone know anyone who would be able to give me some training on using MSTeams properly for teaching? I'd pay for it at this stage. I dont want a course to do myself, I want someone to share screen and talk me through it 1-1.

I’d also be super keen for some tips on using Teams! I’m live teaching tomorrow using it for first time! I particularly want to know about using the class notebook and how to make quizzes. Plus if there is anything else I don’t even know exists 🤣

We use teams but skype for lessons. You make quizzes in forms - it's a bit basic but it does the marking for you if you can get away with multiple choice answers. There is scope for a mix of answers - one word, paragraph etc. My school did a survey and it was low down on the list of 'we like this' - what they actually like is being spoken to through the interweb.

I am so pissed off this afternoon. My lovely year 10 class who try so hard normally en masse used google translate to do some written work I had set. I could swing for them. They think they can beat me - they can't! They'll be doing it again if they want a decent report!

@MrsHerculePoirot do you use teams for assignments already? (Trying to gauge where you're at before giving some waffle about Teams!

@MrsHerculePoirot @ohthegoats

• set up the meeting, then click on options and choose 'Only me' for the question 'Who can present?' - this stops children muting each other & kicking each other out
• start off with cameras off and everyone except you muted
• tell pupils to use the hands up function to attract your attention
• tell them that chat is only to be used when you explicitly say so or to let you know that their mic isn't working
• for quick feedback, put 2-3 statements in chat and ask pupils to thumbs up the one which applies (multiple-choice questions, statements about level of understanding)
• when sharing your screen, choose to share the relevant application, rather than the desktop (minimises chance of showing the wrong thing!)

The Microsoft tutorials on class notebook are excellent and very helpful.

Do set up the teacher section.

Use the class notebook as a whiteboard, then everything is available for later reference for pupils.

Ooh will need to look at those. I can now do about four things, well, on Teams but may need to expand repertoire in future!

I've found someone in my village who is going to come and sit in my front garden with a mask on and show me how to do this. Hahaha.

I can do the basics, I just want to know about quizes etc for assessment.

I found quizzes are best through Microsoft Forms. Simply copy link into the teams chat. Very basic quizzes but once you have created one you can just copy it and modify it saving time

I did some looking at data - this might be useful:

I've just had a look at the ONS data on deaths up to 20th April by occupation. This was a report updated on 11th May.

At that point, 66 women who were carers, had died of COVID. 32 men who were carers had died of COVID.

They are not the largest occupation group by deaths, but they are comparable for school staff - particularlt LSAs/TAs or nursery staff, or special school staff.

Anyway, that's 66 women. 12.7 deaths per 100,000.
At that point, there had been 43 deaths of woman who worked in schools - 11.6 deaths per 100,000.

For men with those 32 deaths, 32 deaths per 100,000.
For men in schools 17.9 deaths per 100,000

You can't blame teaching unions, or school staff unions for trying to protect their members with those numbers in mind.

Not sure if any of you follow Mrs Smith on Facebook but ah so apt especially the last paragraph. Been quiet for a while, I think I tend to withdraw when things get busy so focus completely on school and forget everything else!

What have school staff done to become so vilified?

Let me tell you a few things.

They have kept schools open, schools (or local hubs in some areas) have been open for Key Worker children and those most vulnerable since lockdown happened.
They have moved learning online or provided paper packs of work, almost overnight.
They have worked from home if they can't go into schools.
They have attended virtual meetings.
They have become IT experts, supporting colleagues, parents and children and the wider school community when the digital platform all become a little tricky to navigate.
They have held the virtual hand of the parent who needs support with their own learning too.
They have provided meals to families when the voucher scheme wasn't up and running well.
They have continued to feed families who might not qualify for free school meals but who are now in need of food and support.
They have safeguarded children and adults who have disclosed they are at risk or have been harmed.
They have lain awake at night worrying about families who need support but can't be reached.
They have opened up their homes via Zoom or Meet or Teams to provide lessons and vital contact with their classes.
They have had to manage the needs of their own families whilst teaching.
They have answered emails from parents way outside normal school hours because time moves differently in lockdown.
They have been into school on a rota to provide care.
They have returned to school to teach bubbles of children they may not really know well but who they ensure have a good day, everyday.
They have planned whole new schemes of work in light of the changes in schools.
They have uploaded work, downloaded work and marked work online.
They have found new ways to engage children at a distance.
They have phoned homes and simply chatted to parents who are in need of adult conversation.
They have listened.
They have cried.

What they haven't done is stop teaching, caring or missing their classes so badly it hurts.

I know there will be people out there who feel that the school their child attends might not have done enough. Schools have had little support from Government with what to provide, so sudden was the Lockdown. If this is you, call your school and have a conversation. In the future, why not consider becoming a volunteer in school or perhaps a school governor?

@Mistressiggi first lesson tomorrow! I’ve used it for staff meetings and had a play. I’m maths so not sure the notebook works so well - I wasn’t able to copy stuff across and don’t want to make it from scratch in notebook. I printed some bits to pdf and then inserted them.

I’ve had a play with forms - pasting link into chat is good idea thanks! I kept pinning it to the top but then it was editable 🤦‍♀️

@SineOfTheTimes amazing thank you! I’ve only got tiny number of Y12 tomorrow but as we start to use lower down the school I have noted all your tips down!!!

@ohthegoats sounds perfect! If you pick up any tips please share 😂

I've just done a quiz on Forms (v exciting) - where is it saved? Somewhere on my office thingy?

goats - if you go to forms there should be a list of past quizzes.

Clicking on the results section will allow you to easily and quickly go through any misconceptions.

They're great and one thing I'll definitely keep post-covid!

I'm less keen on class notebook, it seems really clunky and the kids hated it. It's really slow for me but that might be because I'm rural and my broadbands rubbish.

Yes. If you go to set an assignment and say you want it to be a quiz, a list of the quizzes you've made will appear and you select it.
I don't do anything live on teams, and we've haven't done much with class notebook (OneNote) mainly assignments and uploading files.

I've done a few quizzes on forms. I find it very frustrating trying to get decent maths questions on there, as I can't use any notation and can't easily insert diagrams. I'm thinking I might put the questions onto a pdf and then have the forms quiz as "what did you get for question 1?" It's a pain, but maybe I'll figure out a better way of doing it this week. It's great for really basic questions though! Bottom set year 9 love it, and it's nice and easy to set up for them.

What about using the clip tool to clip the section you need, save it as a jpg and insert it as a picture? Can you do that on all the questions, or just on the title?

I clip tool the frick out of everything.

@MsAwesomeDragon there is a maths function. Click the three dots on the quiz and you get some choices. I use it for Chemistry subscripts.

Thanks @mumsneedwine. That should make my life easier. I hadn't done a huge amount of investigating what it can do. I have, however, watched 4 webinars on using Teams, and nobody mentioned that there was a maths function on forms. I will try that out tomorrow 😁

I use clip tool a lot too goats. I'll be trying that as well. Year 10 need to be prepared for my new and amazing forms quizzes!!

@MsAwesomeDragon if can't find it let me know and I'll send you the screenshots. To upload diagrams save them using the snipping tool in word doc and then upload it. Can also send you how to write a rubric - best things ever invented for quick and easy marking !

Hi, I have been lurking for the past few weeks and thought I would join in. I am a primary school teacher. If all the schools go back part time in September what am I going to do with my primary aged children that are in a different school and will no doubt be on a different rota? It’s starting to really stress me out.

It's very stressful Elvis. I know mine could go in as keyworker dc (only if both parents are) but then when would they do the actual blended learning stuff - weekends?

I would love to do a fill-in-the-blanks type quiz on forms, but I don't think that's possible.

Pointless speculation but do we think keyworker provision will still be a thing in Sep if kids aren't in full time?

I hope so or I will be in a complete pickle, with. O family nearby to help out.