Posted: May 18, 2020 11:47 am
apologies for my tardiness...
theropod's got a lot of it bang on, certainly the way the uk's seeing it at the moment...
a system that was never designed to work remotely, with the majority of schools not having the technology or vle access to enable any sort of quality long-term online provision
plans change day after day based on short term and long term need, government expectation (and ofsted, for that matter) - as i'm in 12 weeks isolation, my main remit at the moment is the organisation of online provision for the whole school and i've had to draft, redraft, submit, tweak, tear down, build from the floor up again, something that will support the continuation of 'learning' when we don't know from one week to the next how long it may be for...
a lot of this, as with much of my experience of the virus in this country, is a complete lack of foresight and emergency planning - so another aspect of the work i've been doing is to build something robust enough to be as future proof as we can be in this profession, while being simple enough to roll out for pupils & parents to engage with with only remote support (as well as train staff in)
i think the essence is, a lot of teachers just don't know what the expectation might be of them when not working 'on-site' (the majority of schools here are work on a hub basis, with provision for keyworker and vulnerable children - this comes down to the strategic planning of the school's eaderhip as to how effectively this time is spent (if you wanted to question an area, this is the one i'd suggest, rather than the teacher themselves as they may well be feeling exactly as theropod describes...
it's just not a 'rigid' enough profession to be able to transfer a template easily from one form of delivery to another - and those gaps are starkly obvious at the moment and all we can do is the best we can to provide for the children & support the families...
so, going back to your situation - the decisions made are likely to be guided by the policy adopted by the school or local govt/council as interpreted by the senior leaders - they would be the ones to go to if you have concerns, or the school's governing body
from a teacher's point of view - you're doing the right thing with your kid....i'd want pupils coming back that had been kept to some sort of structure in their day, who had been encouraged to think for themselves, had engaged with elements of the home learning provision and had had a broad and balanced curriculum experience at home, not just being crammed
fuck knows what the future will hold after all this for these kids, but you've done the best you can for yours...which is likely what the teacher & school are trying to do as well...whether or not that's happening in all households, well i'll keep my own counsel on that one
oh, and you're right about the marking....now if you consider a minimum of 3x that on an average day when marking falls outside teachers' directed (paid) time - their evenings, weekends, holidays...it's easy to see why so many leave the profession....
theropod's got a lot of it bang on, certainly the way the uk's seeing it at the moment...
a system that was never designed to work remotely, with the majority of schools not having the technology or vle access to enable any sort of quality long-term online provision
plans change day after day based on short term and long term need, government expectation (and ofsted, for that matter) - as i'm in 12 weeks isolation, my main remit at the moment is the organisation of online provision for the whole school and i've had to draft, redraft, submit, tweak, tear down, build from the floor up again, something that will support the continuation of 'learning' when we don't know from one week to the next how long it may be for...
a lot of this, as with much of my experience of the virus in this country, is a complete lack of foresight and emergency planning - so another aspect of the work i've been doing is to build something robust enough to be as future proof as we can be in this profession, while being simple enough to roll out for pupils & parents to engage with with only remote support (as well as train staff in)
i think the essence is, a lot of teachers just don't know what the expectation might be of them when not working 'on-site' (the majority of schools here are work on a hub basis, with provision for keyworker and vulnerable children - this comes down to the strategic planning of the school's eaderhip as to how effectively this time is spent (if you wanted to question an area, this is the one i'd suggest, rather than the teacher themselves as they may well be feeling exactly as theropod describes...
it's just not a 'rigid' enough profession to be able to transfer a template easily from one form of delivery to another - and those gaps are starkly obvious at the moment and all we can do is the best we can to provide for the children & support the families...
so, going back to your situation - the decisions made are likely to be guided by the policy adopted by the school or local govt/council as interpreted by the senior leaders - they would be the ones to go to if you have concerns, or the school's governing body
from a teacher's point of view - you're doing the right thing with your kid....i'd want pupils coming back that had been kept to some sort of structure in their day, who had been encouraged to think for themselves, had engaged with elements of the home learning provision and had had a broad and balanced curriculum experience at home, not just being crammed
fuck knows what the future will hold after all this for these kids, but you've done the best you can for yours...which is likely what the teacher & school are trying to do as well...whether or not that's happening in all households, well i'll keep my own counsel on that one
oh, and you're right about the marking....now if you consider a minimum of 3x that on an average day when marking falls outside teachers' directed (paid) time - their evenings, weekends, holidays...it's easy to see why so many leave the profession....