AIBU to not Like remote teaching, but to not want to go back to teaching at school!

[Quarks69]

We all know this remote teaching is total pants, but I am really dreading going back to school even more (secondary).

Last term was horrible..as a science teacher I couldn’t do any practicals and had to teach in a classroom which felt like teaching with one hand behind my back. Plus As you know the one way systems, no office, no desk, no staff room, plus ‘mask on, mask off’, No looking over their shoulder to catch them playing computer games in lessons, 20,000 steps a day, no fun trips, fun clubs ..etc etc

Being at home cursing Teams, and spending too long in front of a laptop seems the best of two evils.

Caveat..I know it’s better for the kids and society to go back...this is a purely teacher focussed query..what do you think guys?

I miss the daily interaction with people with faces but I'm not missing the freezing cold classrooms and the constant anxiety about all sorts of things.

Oh god, I'd forgot about the dreaded cold!

I nearly cried when I saw a TAs kid in person during assembly on Friday. The kid accounts have cameras disabled, but they were obviously signed in via her account. I miss the kids. But I totally get your opinion OP. The anxiety reduction has been very marked.

Teaching from home has made me realise how much I dislike the majority of my colleagues. A few of them are great; they are supportive and I can have a laugh and a moan with them. Most, however, would repeat any vaguely negative comment to management as soon as look at me, because they are so busy brown-nosing. I find it much less stressful now I don't have to make banal small talk with them whilst watching my words as though I am speaking to the Thought Police.

@StationView you need a new job! Teaching is just crap without the right colleagues.

@Quarks69 yes, totally agree. This TEAMS palaver is hard going but definitely the better of two evils. As I weave in and out of the kids’ live word documents on TEAMS I can’t help thinking how much better that is than standing 2 metres away from them in a marked box. At least I can do my job, see their progress up close and write stuff on their work to help/prompt/critique.
And YES to the 20,000 steps - not a terrible thing in itself but our Covid set up made it almost impossible for teachers to go to the loo or eat between 8.30 and 3.15pm. Obvs not all healthy in the long run.
As for it being best for the kids to go back, not utterly convinced. Ours were in form groups for KS3, largely in the same room all day and lessons taught in long-ass 2 hour chucks. So not a great learning environment. I honestly think that a lot of the studious ones would choose remote learning until restrictions can be lifted.
But of course the non-studious are basically missing out on their education, so that weighs heavily.

I’ve just been thinking the same. I’ve been tidying up my email inbox and getting horrifying memories of cold classrooms, burst bubbles, endless changes to timetable/rooms/duties and some really poor behaviour. All gone now. I really don’t want to go back until it can be normal. By that I mean settled classes in maths lessons too.

I feel a lot safer at home. I'm not constantly battling with the 10-15% of kids who just will not follow the rules on mask wearing and so on. I'm not doing 4 duties a week because of the bubble system. So from that point of view, online learning is much better.

But I agree - it's not why I became a teacher and I definitely miss the interaction with the kids!

I miss the normal job. I hated the covid classroom and bubble situation. I prefer online to the covid classroom but I miss normal school.

I hate everything about teaching online and can't wait to be back. I bought fingerless gloves to help keep warm at the end of the day, have a small heater in my room for after school.

I hate marking work on teams, chasing students for work, constant emails with parents moaning about something, kids moaning they can't do the work but not coming to live lessons for help and doing nothing to help themselves.

Give me live and in school as soon as possible.