The Forty Sixth Republic - online learning has killed the 'snow day'

[Staffdontblowitnow]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders, 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 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

Do not give the staffroom password just in case it attracts the wrong sort

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 booze is stashed - Thirsty Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays now in operation.

If you come with a stick to goad us then that is not allowed in the staffroom and you will receive a detention

Monkey woop woop!!! Brilliant. So that'll be ongoing and hopefully never go backwards. That must feel wonderful!

Thanks people.

And I pray that the pills will help ease the synapses of all who partake!

Half term!
for everyone. Somehow we have made it. Had a lovely card from our governors for all we've done which is lovely.

@Monkeytennis97 that is amazing news! So happy for all of you.

@JanFebAnyMonth Hope the situation is able to be resolved easily.

Hooray monkey
And well done to us all!

What a weird thing it has been. I'm really proud of my team for what we've done. I think we've done the absolute best we could with our kids, they've had a really good deal. Now I just need to do something for my own child.

Happy half term everyone! 🥂

Fab news, Monkey, you must be so relieved and excited. So pleased for you!

Well done Guy, big step, really hope it helps.

Fingers crossed for piggy, hope it goes well!

Excellent news, those who have been jabbed, hope side effects are minor and invincibility conferred.

Sorry, Jan to hear you've been dropped in it. Hope it can be sorted

Happy half term everyone! Got one of my “nice wines” from my Laithwaites box. Excuse the gun, my son is going through a James Bond phase and the whole house is littered with guns/Nerf guns/Lego guns and so on.

Happy half term. Enjoy it and make sure you get some well deserved rest.

@Monkeytennis97 fab news!! Really pleased for you

Happy half term to everyone!

Yesterday felt like a Saturday as I wasn't working but it was nice. Made a lava lamp with DS and he wrote about it in his school journal - he liked it.

His handwriting has really come on this half term. He is Y2 and has never liked writing. He can use capital letters/full stops and is fairly good with spellings but his actual writing wasn't great. Still large/uneven and no where near joining before Christmas.

Suddenly it's clicked and he can now join and his writing is pretty good. So that made my day!

Not sure what we are doing today- maybe lego building or baking

Happy half term everyone. Thanks for helping me through another 6 weeks. I can't always keep up with the threads but when I drop in and out it is always good to hear your sane and informed voices. Dh now asks me 'so what are your mn lot saying?' and finds it reassuring to hear your secondary chat too. I'm sure this half term will end up being one long stress fest with the media whipping things up prior to the announcement on 22nd or thereabouts. Hey ho!

Really pleased that you will get to see your son @Monkeytennis97

Hope everyone gets decent enough weather for the inevitable walks. Haven't really managed to read all the last bits properly so just a general for everyone- you're all great.

@GravityFalls

Happy half term everyone! Got one of my “nice wines” from my Laithwaites box. Excuse the gun, my son is going through a James Bond phase and the whole house is littered with guns/Nerf guns/Lego guns and so on.

This brings back happy memories at my undergraduate uni when we used to sneak into the massive library with nerf guns and have these huge battles. The basement barely ever had anyone in it but you were allowed down there to browse so we would run around there. I'm sure the librarians knew about it but they let us have fun.

@PumpkinPie2016 I'm in Y2 and have noticed the same from a lot of ours: huge writing improvement this half term. I think it is hard to notice the improvement as it happens because we work at it every day, but when I think back to December and September and where some kids were I am amazed. It seems like such a short time to have gone from basically illiterate (some of them) to full on writing stories independently, but that's what some of them have done.

Happy half term everyone! Good news monkeytennis that you will be seeing your ds soon.

janfab, I hope you can get things sorted soon and smoothly , and hope that the ads work for you, guyfawkes. And good luck piggy!

It's -2 and blowing a gale outside here . Took youngest ds out to feed the ducks yesterday and we had a lovely chat and walk, once he'd stopped moaning about me not letting him play Pokemon Go. Reports (effort grades) were excellent for eldest and not so good for middle child. Feel as if I am constantly chasing my tail with work and family so very very glad to have a week where we can just chill a bit.

Thanks for keeping me sane this past half term.

Great news monkeytennis

We are planning to hide indoors over the weekend as the weather looks appalling. Will venture outside when the weather warms up a bit on Monday.

Happy half-term everyone! Thanks for helping to keep me sane over the past few weeks.

Happy half term everyone 😃🎉

I stopped work at 1 yesterday, with my hod's full permission, he was doing the same. I went for a long walk, listening to an audiobook, then did crafts and played games with dd. It was really like starting half term early. I did reply to 3 sixth formers, but nobody else. I'll look at the work they submit at some point, but not right now. Dd even came for a "sleepover" in my bed last night as an end of term treat. She just told dh he would have to find somewhere else to sleep 😂😂😂 I've got my geometric art course in half an hour and I'm generally feeling really relaxed this morning.

Also, yay monkey!! That's such good news that you can see ds. Enjoy it when it happens!!!

I hope the pills work gravity. They've really helped dd1, and dsis is taking them now as well. Dsis reckons they take the edge off enough for her to engage properly with the CBT she's doing.

I busted a gut yesterday to get planned for the first day back and to finish all marking (online takes such an age with all the faffing opening submitted work and returning etc). Managed to get it all done by 6pm, in time for a large glass of wine.
I had forgotten we were attending a Zoom quiz last night though, and we needed to present a round. In came DH and said, "can you just" whip up a Ppt for it?"

Did you husband survive angelina or should I pop round with a spade to help with the burying?

Happy half term All!

Lots of happy news on here today, monkey I'm so pleased.

to all struggling and of luck to those who need it.

Looking at a few reports to write, first days lessons to plan but that's about it. 4 hours will do it all. Planning my weekly shop and choosing recipes that take time to prep, feels luxurious.

Awww thanks everyone can't wait to see him!

Lovely news Monkey
Happy half term everyone !!

I dreamt last night that I was teaching a class that wasn't paying attention to me, were up and running around and it was chaos....and it was a private school which made it even worse.

Teaching anxiety dreams are supposed to be at the end of the holidays, what's that all about?

I wonder if in the US where they've been teaching online for a year they have remote teaching anxiety dreams. Someone posting shit in chat you can't delete? Screen not sharing?

@CallmeAngelina

I busted a gut yesterday to get planned for the first day back and to finish all marking (online takes such an age with all the faffing opening submitted work and returning etc). Managed to get it all done by 6pm, in time for a large glass of wine. I had forgotten we were attending a Zoom quiz last night though, and we needed to present a round. In came DH and said, "can you just" whip up a Ppt for it?"

I reckon that we could adapt online learning resources for an online quiz quite easily if anyone needs to do this in the future. Just search a random topic on kahoot, quizizz or blooket (the gold stealing one or race would work well) and present that...

I have to boast say that (after a short period of recovery from work with my head inside a large glass of wine) I was able to rustle one up with remarkable speed. Remote teaching pluses!

Happy half term everyone. I hope you don't mind me dropping in to join your thread. I'm lucky enough to teach science in a lovely dept so I'm missing the staffroom and chatting/moaning/catching up with other teaching staff. I'm finding remote teaching with my DDs at home really tough and this half term has had me on my knees! Expectations from SLT seem to have shot up, we are being asked to do more and more despite everyone being exhausted - its easy to sit at home thinking I am the only one struggling. Can I save myself a seat and a mug here?

I'm so glad its half term! Hoping I can recharge and have some lovely family time while pretending Teams, Streams and PowerPoint don't even exist.

Welcome @Tailrunner