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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

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Original poster

Anyone else starting 'as normal'?

35 replies

PumpkinPie2016 · 16/08/2020 08:42

I teach a core secondary subject in a fairly average comprehensive (just for context) and was talking to a friend who is also a core secondary teacher but in a different school.

We were discussing the first week back and she was horrified to hear that I am planning to start 'as normal'. Usually, at the beginning of the year, I give the books out, organise the seating plan, introduce myself and tell the class I expect them to try their best and work without disturbing others. All this takes probably 10 minutes in total and then I crack on with teaching whatever is first. I have found this to work well for me and intend to do it this year. I am teaching Y9-13 so no new Y7s who haven't been in school yet.

Friend thinks the children will need a week of introductory activities to settle back. I appreciate this may be the case for Y7 and for some individuals e.g. some children who have additional needs. However,at our school, they are having 2 hours in forms on the first day to settle back in so my thinking is that the senior years just need some normality and to get on with learning. Not to mention the fact that I am slightly panicking about fitting all the content in post lockdown and potentially dealing with local lockdowns as well.

Is anyone else starting roughly as normal or am I being a grinch

OP posts:

Hercwasonaroll · 16/08/2020 08:51

I'll be 100% normal. The kids have had months of abnormal. They'll appreciate normal.

What activities will she be doing?

MrsHamlet · 16/08/2020 09:15

No introductory activities here. Get on and do it my way. The only abnormal thing will be that I normally set them something in lesson one which I take in and mark before lesson 2. Quarantining marking for 72 hours makes that problematic.

Original poster

PumpkinPie2016 · 16/08/2020 09:17

@Hercwasonaroll glad it's not just me

She teaches maths but is going to be doing things like games/ice breakers. I personally think she is setting herself up for a fall because the kids will be bored by the end of the week. Plus the time lost which could have been used to teach them the spec!

OP posts:

Hercwasonaroll · 16/08/2020 09:19

Fellow maths teacher here.

What she is doing sounds bonkers. Has this come from leadership or just her decision?

I'm literally going with 'hi I'm Mrs herc, here's a book and here's what my lessons are like...'.

Hercwasonaroll · 16/08/2020 09:20

I'm waiting to hear our quarantine marking policy officially. It seems a bit bonkers to quarantine books when you've been in a room breathing the same air for at least an hour. (I will break that rule because it seems so futile).

Iamnotthe1 · 16/08/2020 09:21

I teach Year Six at primary and we shall be jumping straight in like we do every year. There'll be a short introduction back to the year and then straight into Maths by 9:10.

MrsHamlet · 16/08/2020 09:22

72 hours from them handing it in to me touching it. 72 from me touching it to them getting it back.
Except in order to give it back I have to touch it... so that's a nonsense.

Iamnotthe1 · 16/08/2020 09:22

@Hercwasonaroll

We've been told it's a return to live marking within the lesson and circulating around the classroom. There's no quarantining of books at all.

Hercwasonaroll · 16/08/2020 09:23

Our SLT were wanting that policy in July, hopefully they've seen sense. Pointless with maths to do that. I need to know what they don't know before the next lesson, not a week later.

MrsHamlet · 16/08/2020 09:28

Pretty pointless in English too. In most subjects, I expect.

Frlrlrubert · 16/08/2020 10:43

We're doing all homework and marking online to start. No collecting books at all. I've got some stamps so I can do a bit of live marking but I can barely walk between my rows so it will be minimal.

We normally do 20-30 mins of introduction and expectations in the first lesson including giving out books and sticking in trackers, etc. before trying to squeeze the first lesson into the second half.

I'm considering sacking off the entire first lesson for an enhanced introduction and expectations and some introduction to the topic type activities and then starting properly with the first lesson the next time I see them instead of trying to rush it. I'm still undecided though (and may vary depending on year group and what I'm teaching, year 9 normally start with a fairly unstructured skills topic so I can crack on with that, year 10 need a recap of what they were half way through anyway. Year 7 and 11 I think will benefit from having more information and a chat about what this year might look like, so more likely to wait until the second class to start their proper topics)

StaffAssociationRepresentative · 16/08/2020 11:17

Online homework marking for us. We can mark in class assessments given out as papers. We do not have to mark books.

Original poster

PumpkinPie2016 · 16/08/2020 11:47

We are not collecting books in so it's live marking in lesson for us. We were trying to get into that anyway and I really like it so I think it will be a good incentive to get really good at it
Work that we want/need to mark outside of lessons is to be submitted online so that will mainly be my Y11 and 6th form classes.

@Hercwasonaroll it's her decision apparently

OP posts:

Cracklefraggle · 16/08/2020 11:52

Interested in comments about live marking - we have been told no walking the room during lessons as we need to SD from kids???
Don't actually know what the policy will end up being though. Guess we'll find out first day back

Iamnotthe1 · 16/08/2020 11:56

@Cracklefraggle

Interested in comments about live marking - we have been told no walking the room during lessons as we need to SD from kids??? Don't actually know what the policy will end up being though. Guess we'll find out first day back

The comments in the guidance about social distancing say it's impossible/not expected for the youngest children and the social distancing is just "where possible" in general. Some primary schools are taking this to mean that it just can't/shouldn't exist in their class bubbles. I can understand that for those working with the very youngest children but Year Five and Six children shouldn't fall into that bracket.

Cracklefraggle · 16/08/2020 12:03

Right, I'm secondary so I assume the no live marking will stand for us.

Iamnotthe1 · 16/08/2020 12:05

That's actually my biggest concern at the moment: there is a push for some changes to be made around the safety measures but I can see them being applied to secondary only and ignoring the fact that some Year Fives and all Year Sixes will fall into that same "10 and above" transmission group.

Frlrlrubert · 16/08/2020 12:14

When I say 'live marking' I'm just considering (if allowed - I guess we'll find out on inset day) a quick lap of the room to check they're actually doing something, and stamps for reminders on book expectation, like 'underline date and title' and 'pencil and ruler for diagrams'. Not really anything I need to spend more than 30 seconds within a metre of them to assess.

Iamnotthe1 · 16/08/2020 12:18

@Frlrlrubert

Ah. For us, it's detailed written feedback and verbal reviews. In an hour-long lesson, I'd be spending 45 minutes within 25 to 50cm of the children.

Mistressiggi · 16/08/2020 12:30

@MrsHamlet

72 hours from them handing it in to me touching it. 72 from me touching it to them getting it back. Except in order to give it back I have to touch it... so that's a nonsense.

My plan - put them in a box when you've marked them. Turn box upside down onto a table when they arrive. They collect their own book. They might briefly touch each other's book but that isn't a problem if they don't have to SD.

MadameMinimes · 16/08/2020 13:33

In my secondary anything that needs marking has to be handed in online. We’ve spent thousands upgrading our WiFi network so that it can cope with the kids using OneDrive to hand in handwritten work in lessons on their phones. They will be asked to make sure they have the app on their phone so that they can use it to take photos of the work. The app converts the pictures to pdfs and adjusts them to make them more like a scan and will save them to the kid’s school OneDrive. It’s then really simple for them to submit on Teams. Once they get the hang of it it should work fine, especially with the older ones.

MadameMinimes · 16/08/2020 13:36

I meant to say, apart from changes to how we hand in the work, we are planning to be as normal. We don’t have all the kids back immediately though. The number in school each day will gradually increase to 100% over the first few weeks with blended learning until then. The method of delivery will be different but it will be normal curriculum.

Hercwasonaroll · 16/08/2020 14:26

That teams stuff sounds great.

I worry trying to mark maths online. Single quick recall answers is fine. The longer stuff is hard. Lots of multiple choice with misconceptions I guess.

MrsHamlet · 16/08/2020 15:51

I actually came to appreciate teams and all the clever things I can do. Good job as I'm leading the INSET on it!!!

Rosieposy4 · 16/08/2020 15:56

We will be marking work online. I am not spending hours doing intro stuff, it’s as boring as fuck for the kids and they will be pulling their hair out by the 3rd lesson or so. 7s are in a day early anyway, no lessons. 8-10s have 3 hours with tutors to start. All my lessons will be “Hi, I’m Rosyposy. I expect you to work hard, ask questions blah blah 2 mins max. Today’s lesson is on “

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