How are your schools supporting your children?

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blackjack17

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#269931 15-Apr-2020 15:08

Just wondering how individual schools are doing with supporting students and providing resources. I know it is really hard for primary aged students as you don't want them in front of a screen all the time yet at the same time parents need the support and assistance.

What are some of the things that the schools are doing that are working well? not working?

My daughter's (6) school are running things through seesaw and while they haven't been very active they have posted a couple of activities. We will see how it goes but my wife and I have been pretty proactive with keeping a routine going.

My own school taught all the way through to Thursday so I still have two weeks term break. One thing that quickly became apparent was how important face to face time was with students (all of mine are 15-18 years old) and that face to face time gave them structure. The number of times I had to tell students to get out out of bed and get dressed was frightening.

It is going to be a tough couple of weeks for all, students, parents and teachers.

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esawers

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#2461976 15-Apr-2020 15:16

Primary school age (Year 3, and Year 6) both have access to Studyladder, Khan Academy (both maths), and Epic books (reading)

They get sent a writing prompt each morning, and a list of ideas if we need something else to do such as playing a game or building lego.

We were also given a learning pack before the lockdown as we indicated we didn't have access to a printer (I would normally use the work printer), this has journals they can read and a pile of photocopied activities.

A neighbours child at a different local primary school has face to face Zoom meetings with the whole class at 9am, 11am and 1pm, with tasks to be completed after each meeting.

I would prefer this approach - the kids were really excited to see their friends and teachers online this morning which didn't happen.

Is it working well? Both us parents are working from home so we don't have time to sit and give encouragement all day, this morning I had one child lying on the floor complaining he didn't know what to do, and the other child who said he was reading on the Epic website was secretly watching Youtube. I told them no movies or video games until after 3pm so they have been counting down.

They watched Mythbusters on the Home schooling channel at lunchtime, and this afternoon I resorted to National Geographic on Disney+

Handle9

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#2461980 15-Apr-2020 15:23

We are in week 4 of distance learning in Dubai.

The biggest issue we (me, kids and primary teacher wife) have is work load. My wife runs 3 online teaching sessions a day, with specialist teachers also doing sessions. With a 5 year old and a dyslexic 8 year old there is a very limited amount that they can or will do independently. I am working full time and my wife is doing massive days just to try and stay on top of the marking, planning and spending time working with our kids.

It's impossible to get through the amount of work expected and we don't care anymore. We just do our best and then tell the kids to go play. We can't do more so Que Sara.

networkn

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#2462071 15-Apr-2020 17:19

blackjack17:

Just wondering how individual schools are doing with supporting students and providing resources. I know it is really hard for primary aged students as you don't want them in front of a screen all the time yet at the same time parents need the support and assistance.

What are some of the things that the schools are doing that are working well? not working?

My daughter's (6) school are running things through seesaw and while they haven't been very active they have posted a couple of activities. We will see how it goes but my wife and I have been pretty proactive with keeping a routine going.

My own school taught all the way through to Thursday so I still have two weeks term break. One thing that quickly became apparent was how important face to face time was with students (all of mine are 15-18 years old) and that face to face time gave them structure. The number of times I had to tell students to get out out of bed and get dressed was frightening.

It is going to be a tough couple of weeks for all, students, parents and teachers.

My son is a pretty decent learner, self motivated and performs at a high level, but today when questioned about how his "school" day went, he felt the biggest thing missing was direction provided in the face to face time with his teacher which as you have noted, is how the kids get thier "structure" and direction from. Even hearing a teacher give another kid direction can help. I have the greatest respect for teachers, but don't have a great deal of confidence based on what I have seen in the past few weeks, that remote learning is going to be that effective unless it's very structured.

By structured, I mean "learn these 15 spelling words this week", "complete these math questions". Things like writing etc, are as much about the interaction kids have with their teachers and peers, even if that contact is minimal, than anything else. My son has been writing with a friend of his, which has been cool to watch, though I am not sure how much "learning" he is doing. The workpaper type learning, spelling, math equations, etc are easy to measure, and if they show working, a teacher can "mark" these after hours and the kid will know where they went wrong. A second worksheet will show measurable progress.

One thing that has been quite cool, is the language used by teachers during all of this. Stuff like "don't worry about being your kids teachers, leave it to us, if they fall behind, we will pick up the slack etc". It's reassuring to know that everyone is aware there may be issues and will work together to get it sorted.

networkn

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#2462075 15-Apr-2020 17:24

Handle9:

We are in week 4 of distance learning in Dubai.

The biggest issue we (me, kids and primary teacher wife) have is work load. My wife runs 3 online teaching sessions a day, with specialist teachers also doing sessions. With a 5 year old and a dyslexic 8 year old there is a very limited amount that they can or will do independently. I am working full time and my wife is doing massive days just to try and stay on top of the marking, planning and spending time working with our kids.

It's impossible to get through the amount of work expected and we don't care anymore. We just do our best and then tell the kids to go play. We can't do more so Que Sara.

The letter from our principal was repeatedly making the point that the teachers understand how hard it is for parents right now:

Stuff like:

Parents likely have enough to cope with currently without worrying about being home teachers. Some families have experienced loss of employment and having the whole family at home. Do what you can, whatever is manageable. We do not want you or the child to get anxious about this learning during the lockdown.

The children are at home not school, so keep things simple, try not to overcomplicate it. Don’t try to exactly copy a school day or timetable, and allow heaps of flexibility during the day. Start with a few tasks or activities a day to build routines and that everyone can manage. Encourage children to do projects, to read and play games, to bake, bike, walk, dance, play music, and if possible to chat (safely) with their friends online or on the phone. All of this is learning.

I think you have a good approach, you are only human, do what's manageable. A calm household will be of a much higher value than a stressed out one where the kids might have learned a bit more academically in my opinion.

Handle9

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#2462094 15-Apr-2020 18:20

networkn:

Handle9:

We are in week 4 of distance learning in Dubai.

The biggest issue we (me, kids and primary teacher wife) have is work load. My wife runs 3 online teaching sessions a day, with specialist teachers also doing sessions. With a 5 year old and a dyslexic 8 year old there is a very limited amount that they can or will do independently. I am working full time and my wife is doing massive days just to try and stay on top of the marking, planning and spending time working with our kids.

It's impossible to get through the amount of work expected and we don't care anymore. We just do our best and then tell the kids to go play. We can't do more so Que Sara.

The letter from our principal was repeatedly making the point that the teachers understand how hard it is for parents right now:

Stuff like:

Parents likely have enough to cope with currently without worrying about being home teachers. Some families have experienced loss of employment and having the whole family at home. Do what you can, whatever is manageable. We do not want you or the child to get anxious about this learning during the lockdown.

The children are at home not school, so keep things simple, try not to overcomplicate it. Don’t try to exactly copy a school day or timetable, and allow heaps of flexibility during the day. Start with a few tasks or activities a day to build routines and that everyone can manage. Encourage children to do projects, to read and play games, to bake, bike, walk, dance, play music, and if possible to chat (safely) with their friends online or on the phone. All of this is learning.

I think you have a good approach, you are only human, do what's manageable. A calm household will be of a much higher value than a stressed out one where the kids might have learned a bit more academically in my opinion.

Yeah it is what it is. Don't underestimate how hard this is on teachers. I found your comment about teacher marking work after hours interesting as for a teacher to do that means that a normal 8-10 hour day becomes 12-15 very quickly. We have another 12 weeks in the school term here and the schools will not return physically until September.

Parents need to have realistic expectations about what can be delivered and what progress (or not) their kids will make. The one really positive thing is all the kids will be in the same boat and once schools are back they can cater to everyone being a bit behind.

networkn

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#2462104 15-Apr-2020 18:50

Handle9:

Yeah it is what it is. Don't underestimate how hard this is on teachers. I found your comment about teacher marking work after hours interesting as for a teacher to do that means that a normal 8-10 hour day becomes 12-15 very quickly. We have another 12 weeks in the school term here and the schools will not return physically until September.

Parents need to have realistic expectations about what can be delivered and what progress (or not) their kids will make. The one really positive thing is all the kids will be in the same boat and once schools are back they can cater to everyone being a bit behind.

I think you are being a little sensitive. I wasn't "having a go" at teachers. I was discussing the parts of learning that lend themselves more easily to remote learning, in line with the topic.

When I said after hours, I more meant after school hours, but honestly, I don't mind if they do it during school hours, I just didn't think it practical.

I think most parents are being pretty realistic, and probably the only ones worried are the same ones that would be worried even if it wasn't a lockdown.

Handle9

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#2462111 15-Apr-2020 19:07

networkn:
Handle9:

Yeah it is what it is. Don't underestimate how hard this is on teachers. I found your comment about teacher marking work after hours interesting as for a teacher to do that means that a normal 8-10 hour day becomes 12-15 very quickly. We have another 12 weeks in the school term here and the schools will not return physically until September.

Parents need to have realistic expectations about what can be delivered and what progress (or not) their kids will make. The one really positive thing is all the kids will be in the same boat and once schools are back they can cater to everyone being a bit behind.

I think you are being a little sensitive. I wasn't "having a go" at teachers. I was discussing the parts of learning that lend themselves more easily to remote learning, in line with the topic.

When I said after hours, I more meant after school hours, but honestly, I don't mind if they do it during school hours, I just didn't think it practical.

I think most parents are being pretty realistic, and probably the only ones worried are the same ones that would be worried even if it wasn't a lockdown.

I'm not being sensitive. I know from experience that most parents have very little concept of teachers workloads. This was true before COVID and it is even more so now. Many of the parents here think that distance learning has reduced teachers workloads when it is completely the opposite.

Teachers won't mark as much as they did previously, it's not physically possible.

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blackjack17

1705 posts

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#2462116 15-Apr-2020 19:24

Handle9:

I'm not being sensitive. I know from experience that most parents have very little concept of teachers workloads. This was true before COVID and it is even more so now. Many of the parents here think that distance learning has reduced teachers workloads when it is completely the opposite.

Teachers won't mark as much as they did previously, it's not physically possible.

As a teacher at a school that has a fair number of helicopter parents I was actually quite relieved at how understanding parents were. Our lessons did not go smoothly at first and it was very difficult to get the balance right between contact time and hands off time but we got there. One of our biggest fears was parents trying to involve themselves into lessons which for the most part didn't happen.

I found that 2 to 3 video chats with another 2 non-video chats were more than enough contact time. Initially our senior management wanted us to stick to the timetable with every lesson being a full video lesson but that didn't work out (funnily enough none of our senior management team had young kids of their own).

I did have a couple of lessons where I could feel the students were so stressed that I told them that today there task was to go for a walk or to make something and post a photo in the team chat.

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