Anyone else starting 'as normal'?

[PumpkinPie2016]

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

It can do.
Obviously I can do lots of clever things too though.

I’m not sure. As far as I’m aware, it’s going to be largely normal but due to bank hol and insets we’re only in two days of the first week back, so it wouldn’t surprise me if those days were a bit low key and then full throttle the next week.

I’ll find out more in our phase meeting next week.

Like Y5teacher, we're in for a couple of days the first week, so they will be a mixture of proper work and 'getting back into school' things.

The following week it is pretty much back to what will be 'normal' in terms of lesson content, though obviously anything but in terms of timetable and arrangements.

Let's face it, nobody knows how long we will be in school for, so wasting precious face to face lessons on non-value add material seems a terrible waste.

I am also secondary and will be cracking on as usual! I did have the advantage of seeing all my groups apart from new year 7 before the holidays for a few weeks and taught online throughout lockdown. I will have taught everyone before which helps.

@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.

What?! I’d like to know how long that will last. How can you give children feedback before the next lesson? How’s the the moment passed 72 hours later! We are still going to mark a pile of books. Wash hands before and after and don’t touch your face in the meantime.

Invented by SLT who do very little teaching. I try to mark every book every week but this is going to make it a nightmare.

I guess it’s also different in secondary. I’m primary and we always make sure the books are marked daily so the kids get feedback the next day.

Personally I would seize the opportunity to do less marking!
If the school has a rule about quarantining stuff like jotters you can't actually go against it - it's part of the risk assessment and there could be problems if you were found to breach it no matter how silly you think it is

We've been told to circulate and mark everything every evening as normal, but the kids can't choose their own books from the book corner- I have to do it. It's a massive fucking nonsense and it means i'll be handling 34 x3 books every evening plus the bloody reading books of year 6! I am doing as much self marking as possible!

Otherwise I am going in as normal. Same routine, same introduction to my expectations. I might chunk up tasks to be smaller and work on building concentration but that's it. My DH wants a focus on pshe but frankly, they are going to need structure and strict guidelines.

I'm Year 2 and we'll spend most of Thursday doing PSHE, routine stuff but want to get a little bit of writing and some maths on Friday so I can assess and plan. It's a new school, old teacher left and don't have any assessment data so I have no idea what level the kids are at. I'm doing place value the next week so need to have some vague idea of their level.