Coronavirus- All schools to close? [MOD NOTE POST 346

NIMAN

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I can't see it happening in most places to be honest, closed means closed. I work in the only school in my town. I reckon if it was open for teachers to come to work after a few days we would start seeing parents dropping off their kids to be rid of them out of the house.

Surely as a teacher you know that couldn't happen, you aren't a baby sitter, they wouldn't be covered by insurance, etc.

lucy2010

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

And there will.be those who ignore the practicalities and expertise of an experienced group because they can't be arsed contemplating the reality.

What's YOUR practical experience with large numbers of said age group...?

I'm a parent who will ensure we do all in our power to ensure we follow whatever the schools requires of us should it close. I've a LC this year and another next year so naturally it wouldn't be ideal time for school closure . However I'm also facing the reality of this head on . I'm concerned for teachers being nearly expected to stay in schools so certain parents have a childminder . I'm also well aware of that chunk of society that are not arsed and will treat a closure as a month off to hang around mc Donalds.

rainbowtrout

NIMAN wrote: »

Surely as a teacher you know that couldn't happen, you aren't a baby sitter, they wouldn't be covered by insurance, etc.

You would be surprised at what parents try.

S.G.M.

rainbowtrout wrote:

You would be surprised at what parents try.

I definitely second this.

Firblog

I think that teachers on here putting down any suggestions with 'have you ever tried that with 30+ 9 year olds' kinda answer needn't worry, I don't think that you'll have to upload videos of advanced colouring between the lines classes for your students.



I think that the main focus of effort should be the LC students, and the JC students to a lesser extent; what is that 40% of secondary hours? less? I would suggest (again) that in the event that schools are deemed to be too risky to allow normal operation, the teachers who do not have the tech/broadband at home to deliver their syllabus online should come into the schools to utilize the IT infrastructure there.



I have to say I'm well shocked at the number of - I assume - teachers on here with huge can't do attitudes, some really are coming across like they think that if the school closes they shouldn't have to do a dam thing; kinda "hey its tough on the kids but why should I be arsed, not my fault the school is closed, so lets bring on the netflix binge"

wirelessdude01

rainbowtrout wrote: »

You would be surprised at what parents try.

A school where I worked previously that was being used as a poling station had a child dropped off at 8am by his mam and told to wait at the gate and that teacher would be along shortly to.vote and would look after him then. Child had to be brought to the local Garda station. Mother was some wagon.

S.G.M.

Firblog wrote:

I have to say I'm well shocked at the number of - I assume - teachers on here with huge can't do attitudes, some really are coming across like they think that if the school closes they shouldn't have to do a dam thing; kinda "hey its tough on the kids but why should I be arsed, not my fault the school is closed, so lets bring on the netflix binge"

Nobody is saying that at all.

Corca Baiscinn

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I can't see it happening in most places to be honest, closed means closed. I work in the only school in my town. I reckon if it was open for teachers to come to work after a few days we would start seeing parents dropping off their kids to be rid of them out of the house.

Happens in Germany! If school closes for snow or such, teachers are still obliged to come in and some children with working parents with no other arrangements will drop off children who will be supervised rather than taught.

rainbowtrout

Corca Baiscinn wrote: »

Happens in Germany! If school closes for snow or such, teachers are still obliged to come in and some children with working parents with no other arrangements will drop off children who will be supervised rather than taught.

But this isn't snow. This is to curb the spread of coronavirus. So the school is either open or it's not. If it's known to be open in any capacity in the community, then students will come in, whether that be the parent who dumps their kids to be rid of them, or the student who is being opportunistic and sees it as a way of getting private grinds from teachers. If the government orders the schools to close, then we will shut down. You can't have half in, half out, half arsed solutions.

Bobtheman

Uncharted territory folks. Let's be civil. Irish teacher's do above the EU avg in teaching hours and there is a huge amount of poor parenting out there.
If we had invested in Teacher IT rather than give Connaught rugby club 20 million we might be in a better position to deal with this crisis.
As noted what employer says to it's employees to bring it's own laptop to staff training?!
Let's not panic. Let's do our best.
Today I spent an hour talking to a student about family issues after my work day. A work day in which I controlled 300 teenagers. Most parents struggle with one.

TheValeyard

We've been instructed to bring books home and prepare for closure.

Corca Baiscinn

rainbowtrout wrote: »

But this isn't snow. This is to curb the spread of coronavirus. So the school is either open or it's not. If it's known to be open in any capacity in the community, then students will come in, whether that be the parent who dumps their kids to be rid of them, or the student who is being opportunistic and sees it as a way of getting private grinds from teachers. If the government orders the schools to close, then we will shut down. You can't have half in, half out, half arsed solutions.

Not arguing with any of that at all, just was gobsmacked first time I heard staff are expected to be in school when students aren't. Wouldn't be surprised if principals, secretarial staff and maintenance did go in to catch up on work in peace but as you say if there was a whiff of a teacher being around it could be a problem. Wonder too if students without decent BB or own laptop would ask to go in to use school IT facilities but probably an insurance issue

Treppen

iguana wrote: »

On average it has very close to doubled every two days since the first confirmed case on Feb 29th. That's actually terrible as exponential growth every two days is disastrous if it isn't slowed dramatically.

Doubled in Ireland?

I don't think every country has the same rate. Italy and Germany are very different.

mirrorwall14

To be clear here I absolutely intend to set and correct work and continue preparing students to the best of my ability. There is no way in hell I would ever leave them unprepared. I will identify the students without internet access and work with them. I will target the students I know will ‘avoid’ work and speak to them in advance. I will use my online classroom and assignments in the same way I always do. I have already sat down with multiple staff members this week and given up my planning time to help them with technology. I will do my damndest to make this work- as I always do!

But equally I have massive issues with the ‘you are just being awkward and should live stream’, the ‘you have to come to school’ and ‘the day needs to be completely structured’. ‘We need to deliver to the exact timetable’. ‘You need to be at your laptop for each of your classes at the correct time’. Exactly why? Because you don’t trust me to be professional? Because you think I might just feck off and not bother to do anything? Because you resent that because schools are closed i get ‘holidays’? Hell no. I resent that yet again valid concerns and discussions are being dismissed in favour of ‘bash the teachers’

Exam classes will be told to bring their papers and books home. I will set work accordingly and in appropriate amount for a normal week. I will restructure my course to make sure I make the absolute most of every teaching day left before what appears now to be an inevitable shut down. I will correct all work students are capable of uploading and I will deal with the work that students cannot get up online due to internet access when we get back. I will answer queries by students within a reasonable timeframe. I will, as always, support teaching and learning to the best of my ability

TheValeyard

dhaughton99 wrote: »

Could teachers be asked to come into school without the students?

Yes, it has been suggested by management in some schools.

jimmytwotimes 2013

Poland has closed all schools, theatres and cinemas for 2 weeks. 26 cases. Hope we know what we're doing

byhookorbycrook

For primary children , the resource site twinkl has offered parents free access for a month. Lots of lovely different things to interest any child.

wonski

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

Poland has closed all schools, theatres and cinemas for 2 weeks. 26 cases. Hope we know what we're doing

From Monday.

They will be still open until Friday for those who can't stay at home yet.

But they are advised not to come.

jimmytwotimes 2013

wonski wrote: »

From Monday.

They will be still open until Friday for those who can't stay at home yet.

But they are advised not to come.

Some indication of intent wud be great here. Do kids start bringing books home? They won't bring them all home in one day

Firblog

S.G.M. wrote: »

Nobody is saying that at all.

I have never posted in the teaching & lecturing thread before, I came across this particular thread through the 'latest posts' page in boards, I have no axe to grind with teachers, I think they have a job to do that I wouldn't like to do myself - however my post that you quoted is exactly the vibe I'm getting from many of the people posting here.

jimmytwotimes 2013

Firblog wrote: »

I have never posted in the teaching & lecturing thread before, I came across this particular thread through the 'latest posts' page in boards, I have no axe to grind with teachers, I think they have a job to do that I wouldn't like to do myself - however my post that you quoted is exactly the vibe I'm getting from many of the people posting here.

Vibes you get on a forum of anonymous posters prob shouldn't be given much weight

KildareP

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

GDPR wud be an issue with personal details of students on your own laptop?

You shouldn't need to have it on the laptop.

Office365 and GSuite are entirely browser based and no data stored locally unless you go and set up the various applications locally, which is not necessary for them to function.

Likewise with ePortal and VSware, you are only seeing the data displayed in your browser, it never gets stored on the laptop itself.

micks_address

Seems likely schools will close from Friday. I don't know how feasible it will be to home school. Ours have iPads and Schoology etc but there will be only so much the kids can do on their own. On the plus side it's almost Easter break. So closing Friday for a month probably isn't the worst timing in terms of missing school term. I don't think it's fair to have kids without access to good broadband disadvantaged..I suppose shouldn't stop kids with good access using it. We are facing into uncharted waters on a lot of front's.. for instance what happens if schools have to close for 3 months? Is it fair to expect leaving cert students to have the same level as prep as other years? What about points and colleges for September.. do kids loose a year? A bit like the 'blip' in the latest Spiderman movie..

jimmytwotimes 2013

KildareP wrote: »

You shouldn't need to have it on the laptop.

Office365 and GSuite are entirely browser based and no data stored locally unless you go and set up the various applications locally, which is not necessary for them to function.

Likewise with ePortal and VSware, you are only seeing the data displayed in your browser, it never gets stored on the laptop itself.

Most wud save login details for these.

Some wud have spreadsheets/ word docs etc for results backup.

CBA PowerPoints emailed and downloaded etc

deiseindublin

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

For primary children , the resource site twinkl has offered parents free access for a month. Lots of lovely different things to interest any child.

www.twinkl.ie/offer

Code needed is IRLTWINKLHELPS

S.G.M.

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote:

Some indication of intent wud be great here. Do kids start bringing books home? They won't bring them all home in one day

Our school is gonna tell the kids to bring all books home on Friday.

S.G.M.

Firblog wrote:

I have never posted in the teaching & lecturing thread before, I came across this particular thread through the 'latest posts' page in boards, I have no axe to grind with teachers, I think they have a job to do that I wouldn't like to do myself - however my post that you quoted is exactly the vibe I'm getting from many of the people posting here.

Well then you're wrong, they don't agree with the live streaming with 30 kids.
They all plan to work with the students in some way. It certainly won't be holidays used for a 'Netflix binge'.

Cupatae

You d think we d learn from other countries and shut **** down way faster and skip ahead to the crazy containment, instead of following along like donkeys...

Watch now we LL be shocked when it's spread all over the place

The lack of action and void in information is ridiculous at this point , we know exactly what's gonna happen yet we plod along the same as every other country

Princess Calla

micks_address wrote: »

Seems likely schools will close from Friday. I don't know how feasible it will be to home school. Ours have iPads and Schoology etc but there will be only so much the kids can do on their own. On the plus side it's almost Easter break. So closing Friday for a month probably isn't the worst timing in terms of missing school term. I don't think it's fair to have kids without access to good broadband disadvantaged..I suppose shouldn't stop kids with good access using it. We are facing into uncharted waters on a lot of front's.. for instance what happens if schools have to close for 3 months? Is it fair to expect leaving cert students to have the same level as prep as other years? What about points and colleges for September.. do kids loose a year? A bit like the 'blip' in the latest Spiderman movie..

Regarding the points, every student will be in the same boat, they may be lower than usual but won't affect college acceptance, as the needed points for each course will also drop.

However, it will really depend where you are in the curriculum. Half our teachers had course covered by Easter, the other half still didn't have everything covered by May.

I would expect teachers to prepare some type of study pack.

I would wonder how disciplined for study teenagers will be, it's a long time to be self motivated.

KildareP

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

Most wud save login details for these.

Some wud have spreadsheets/ word docs etc for results backup.

CBA PowerPoints emailed and downloaded etc

Spreadsheets and word docs don't need to be downloaded, they can be created, opened, edited and saved entirely through Office online or Google Docs.

Likewise CBAs can be emailed but do not need to be downloaded to be viewed because they can be viewed online, as above.

Unlike paper corrections, for example, which by their very nature must be brought home to correct, if not corrected in the school building.