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

Thread for primary teachers about remote learning - figuring out what works!

92 replies

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 08/01/2021 08:19

Hi,

Just what the title says really. This is ideally for primary teachers to chat about remote learning - what works, what isn't working and so on. I'm thinking about trying to teach 7 year olds who spend 20 minutes trying to find the hands up icon, or those who just like to moo down the mic.

What are you providing? How does it work? What is feedback from parents like? Is it sustainable?

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Lancrelady80 · 09/01/2021 15:20

I was highlighting on the work uploaded by children and writing comments in speech bubble comments linked to them. (Google Classroom.) Then discovered that when you return their work for them to act on, they can't see those, only what you type in private comments stream. So if I type Spelling? in a box, expecting them to type underneath to correct and resolve it, they don't know it's there.

Have worked out a way round that now, if anyone else didn't realise. When you return the work, they have to open it from Drive and then click three dots and select Show comments column.

starrynight19 · 09/01/2021 17:13

We are doing a live zoom English and maths lesson in the morning with time to follow up the activity.
Then a topic grid that they can choose from over the week in the afternoon. They link to oak / bite size etc.
Teaching to the children in class as well as online so they all get the same. We have stayed in our own class bubbles.
Then the grid and work is printed out for the children in school so they pick their topic for the afternoon to. Helped by the ta id necessary.
We are being very careful to do the same for both children at home and online.
Like the idea of a zoom social as they are all so desperate to talk and have to keep them muted to get through the lesson Input.

SquashedFlyBiscuits · 09/01/2021 17:23

@fredred we did mug cakes. Loads of recipes online. You measure everything into a mug mixing as you go. Microwave for a couple of minutes to cook then we normally eat them together in cubs whilst having a chat. The cubs love it so hopefully my class will too.

fredred · 09/01/2021 17:34

[quote SquashedFlyBiscuits]@fredred we did mug cakes. Loads of recipes online. You measure everything into a mug mixing as you go. Microwave for a couple of minutes to cook then we normally eat them together in cubs whilst having a chat. The cubs love it so hopefully my class will too.[/quote]
Will have a look online, thank you.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 09/01/2021 18:00

I'm wondering whether to try a change around this week just to see which works best. I just can't get my head settled on this at all. Can't stop thinking about possibilities.

I'm going to use my morning session to talk through the reading activity, then send them off to do it. Then maybe I need to give them half am hour to do the task. Then do my 2 different maths lessons (mixed year group) in the mornings. Same - half hour input/do the work. Anyone who can't do live can watch the videos. Everyone does the writing from a video I think - or maybe again I do a half hour in the afternoon that they can all join if they can. Aagh. Head fuck.

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starrynight19 · 09/01/2021 18:05

We do half hour input and then time for the task.

We have had to split the day up so that only two classes max are doing a live lesson at the same time so that we don’t have clashes with families with more than one child. That was a challenge in itself.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 09/01/2021 18:22

We've staggered story time and register sessions for that reason.

Ks1 not doing any live subject teaching - register/feedback sessions and story telling only
I'm lks2 mixed age group class. Ideally we'd split maths - we did that last time.
Uks2 are doing lots more independent stuff.

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RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 09/01/2021 18:23

This all sucks for kids who aren't working in their age group, right?

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starrynight19 · 09/01/2021 18:56

Yes it really does. I have organised a separate paper pack for the ones with an EHCP in my class. They just wouldn’t be able to access the work set on zoom.
It’s just impossible to differentiate when teaching online and having restricted times we can do zooms.
Anyone else worked a better way to do this ?
That’s why I like the idea of a social zoom so everyone can come access it.

SquashedFlyBiscuits · 09/01/2021 19:08

The social zooms really are lovely. My own son is finding this lockdown harder as he feels the separation from his friends a lot. Parental feedback I'm getting is that the children are much happier after the socials. All the full on learning is important but school is normally so social and collaborative.

starrynight19 · 09/01/2021 19:09

How do you stop it just becoming everyone talking over each other ?

SquashedFlyBiscuits · 09/01/2021 19:41

I plan something that will work if a bit chaotic plus use the mute all and don't allow to umute button sometimes. We have done eye spy "I spy with my little eye something in Katie's background that begins with..." etc plus a scavenger hunt "something that you'd wear to go outside, something purple etc', a bit of introduce your pet to everyone, a bit of show us something you have made and tell us about it. You have to ride the chaos wave a bit really. Think of it as a replacement for playtime.

starrynight19 · 09/01/2021 20:20

Love it , I am definitely doing this next week.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 09/01/2021 20:22

Our cameras are disabled. The chat function- typed - is open though, so they are going for it on there - gazillions of emoji conversations for me to delete every night.

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OnehorseopenBobsleigh · 09/01/2021 20:54

I love the idea of a ' cook along'
We're doing a full timetable- 4 lessons a day w warm up activities.
Currently 2 of those lessons are live. They are slightly chaotic. Only about 3 on there with the wherewithal to mute and unmute themselves to join discussion, 2 more good on chat function. So if I want pupils to contribute it's a small pool. I liked the idea of multiple choice or true / false in chat function with everyone hitting return to send their answer simultaneously.
I'd welcome any other tips.
Am finding it frustrating because I have a high proportion of my class working below expected. I'd hoped to be able to use pre prepared material to upload quickly and essentially run 2 streams. If some of my Y5s could come out of this being able to tell the time that would be a good result!
But we can't do that, have to be seen to do the Y5 curriculum and involvement is already falling.
Many turn up to the lesson but still don't do the work.

AFallingStar · 09/01/2021 21:21

This is all making me quite relieved we're not doing anything live (yet)!

We might start doing two live social/assembly type things per week though, so saving some ideas for that!

Definitely get the struggle to differentiate! At least my children who are not working at year 5 at all are in school. Although that doesn't particularly help when I'm not!

SquashedFlyBiscuits · 09/01/2021 21:38

The eye spy is fun we all spied a bottle in one of the backgrounds. Yes parents, if you get a nosy in my house then I get to use your wine bottle as an eye spy item! And freak you out because I am obviously looking closely at what is in your house. Ha ha!

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 09/01/2021 21:43

I liked the idea of multiple choice or true / false in chat function with everyone hitting return to send their answer simultaneously.

Meeting chat is disabled for us too - I've asked for that to be abled again. So useful. In Teams, apparently if you type @Forms in the general chat, it enables you to write an immediate 'quiz' form - might be useful for self assessment? Haven't tried it out yet.

I'm thinking that live stuff reduces the amount of time I have to spend looking at bad photos of maths work/having to do the same feedback on some crappy noun phrases - I'd rather have the chat with them there and then. Even without being able to see them or their work, I can tell by tone of voice whether they get it or not. I can also focus heavily on the fluency stuff in maths and leave any problem solving for the confident/higher ability ones to do independently.

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southchinasea · 10/01/2021 13:39

Our Year 2- 6 classes are live streaming normal lessons all morning and part of the afternoon - same provision for the key worker/ vulnerable children in school who are in the classroom while the teacher streams via Zoom to all the rest at home. Teacher takes groups to Zoom breakout room to differentiate/ support/ extend and TA stays in main room.

For Year R and 1 we are giving each group of 5-6 children 3 live 15 minute Zooms a day - English, Maths, Phonics/ handwriting. Because the groups are small the children can unmute and join in as they would in the classroom. This is going really well. Parents listen in (if they want to) and can then support with practical follow up activities later in the day.

We email a weekly grid for these - reading/ writing/ phonics/ maths/ physical/ wider curriculum (pshe, topic or art etc). Parents send photos and work samples in via Tapestry. We also emphasise that the children would be playing and being active for large amounts of the usual school day. Parental feedback so far has been extremely positive, though I do worry it is rather intense. We are rather an intense school though, with high expectations, so they are probably used to it!! V supportive parents with high levels of tech and education. Seems to be working well in our particular context.

We repeat each lesson 5 times. Children have been grouped by reading ability. They all read/ chat in pairs daily to the TA as well. Then we have the whole class back for a Zoom storytime/ show and tell at the end of the day. They love seeing their friends.

So far, a week in, it is all going really well and I can see the children making progress and feeling connected to their teachers and peers ( as best we can in this difficult situation). It is intense as a teacher, but I'm hoping this improves this week as I get much more confident with Zoom! In the last lockdown we made recorded teaching videos on Loom and Tapestry and sent detailed plans. I was sceptical about live lessons for little children, but in small groups I'm finding it very positive so far.

southchinasea · 10/01/2021 13:43

Just to add that YR and 1 have separate key worker bubbles in another classroom with some TAs. We are not looking after and teaching them while Zoom teaching at the same time - that really would finish me off!

GetTheGoodLookingGuy · 10/01/2021 16:27

Our kids are clamoring for something live. Looking at one of the other Y6 class streams, the Deputy Head was experimenting with Google Meet with the children who are in school last week, so maybe that'll start at some point.

At the moment we have 5 pieces of work set daily on Google Classrooms: Spelling (a RWI spelling activity online, which seems to take about 5-10 minutes, going by how long the children in school take on it), Reading (link to online version of the book we're reading this term, powerpoint with either words to find definitions for, or comprehension to do after the day's reading), Writing (this week they've been researching Greek city states and making a poster - everything was on a power point with links for research), Maths (using White Rose videos, powerpoints and worksheets) and then a "topic" lesson - last week it was 2x History and 2x Art, next week it's 1x Geography, 1x finishing off time, 1x Science, 1x French and 1x Art. For my maths set, I've made a couple of little videos explaining how to do a specific thing.

We're down to only a handful of children who aren't accessing online learning in my class - we either spoke to those on Friday or left messages. I'm finding lots of the children are sharing a computer with a secondary aged sibling who needs it at set times for live things, but actually the way we have things set up in Google Classroom, it's easier if they're on a phone (and this is Y6 so lots of them have their own phones with internet), as they can see the task, complete it on paper then upload a photo. I think I'm going to make a couple of videos showing them how to upload work on different devices next week, as there are some who still haven't managed it after I talked them through it on the phone.

We also have children from our own classes in the classroom (5 or 6 in my class this week, up to 8 next week I think) and they are all uploading their own work onto Google Classroom too. Sometimes they are doing the whole lesson themselves on their ipads (especially Maths which is differentiated), but we often put the same powerpoints up on the whiteboard and go through it together (especially reading, as it's good to read aloud).

The teacher and I are logged into Google Classroom all day (her on the computer, me on an ipad) providing feedback (mostly just "well done" comments as we try and give them as many answers as possible so they can self-mark) whenever we get a minute. I'm also in charge of making up paper packs for anyone in the year group who can't access online learning. So far we only have 7 to do, which isn't too bad for a Year group of 90. Reading is differentiated two ways, Writing two ways, and Maths three, so it's been a bit of a pain getting all the right things into the right packs!

OnehorseopenBobsleigh · 10/01/2021 16:51

Right, I've accepted it - in for a penny, in for a pound!!
We did a lot in the first lockdown - GC, available all day, bespoke lessons prepared etc but it has taken me a while to get my head round the new requirements.
The fact that school didn't supply a laptop didn't help, so we bought a new one last week.
I've just committed to buying an arm for my mobile so I can use it to make vids while I write (or read).
I've heard other experienced MNers talking about a pen to help the marking. I was ignoring them as I didn't want to spend the money. Can anyone tell me what it is and what it's good for?

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 10/01/2021 16:56

Christ. I can't wait to get back to normal teaching.

I've done my timetable for this week.

8.50 - 9.30 - register/chat/go through work, then do either input for reading or writing (depends on lesson content - carefully planned so can do one or the other)

10.00 - 10.45 - input for maths year 3, check they get it, send them off to do the work, stay on the meeting so they can come and ask questions

11.00 - 11.45 - input for maths year 4 - as above

3.15 - 3.30 - end of the day story

I think that's plenty of useful input for them and for me.

I need the afternoons to respond to parent questions, look at kids work, do the odds and sods - ie, significantly higher ability children and SEND children. I can't timetable it regularly because I need to teach my own kid!

Decided they are going to hand in one reading skills response a week, and one writing response a week, and that's it. Parents were getting stressed about taking pics and sending them in, whereas I really don't need to see all that stuff and have no time to mark it.

We're aiming for all work for week 3 to be proper online and straight into exercise books - no paper packs. Let's see...

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RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 10/01/2021 16:58

Can anyone tell me what it is and what it's good for?

XP Pen - www.amazon.co.uk/XP-Pen-G430S-Graphics-Tablet-Drawing/dp/B01BEWVOX4/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=xp+pen&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1610297843&sr=8-5

Worth it - share screen, talk over powerpoint, same as normal class input. Great for modelling. I'm not very good at writing with it, but it's ace for maths.

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OnehorseopenBobsleigh · 10/01/2021 17:12

Thanks Rule.
Do you think it will work with a Mac (according to bumph - yes)
And does it just write over whichever application I'm in - ppt, Google Classroom, ActiveInspire/Promethean?
(sorry - not tech savvy!)