Schools closed until undetermined date - was March 29th

rainbowtrout

Shn99 wrote: »

With more stringent restrictions in place until the 12th, is it increasingly unlikely we will be heading back on the 20th?

I personally don't think we were ever heading back on the 20th, but given that the extension was running into the Easter holidays, it was as easy to say 20th as any other date.

Also as the country hadn't gone on full lockdown at that stage when the announcement was made a few days ago, it would have panicked people if Leo had said schools will be closed until, say, May 1st. It would have rendered any other announcements meaningless.

It wouldn't be very prudent either to suggest a two month lockdown and then find that it is working and have to row back on it. That's why they are not going to cancel/postpone exams until they actually have to. You can't take it back once it's out there.

It's easier for people to cope mentally with the idea of a two week lockdown, with the potential for longer than just announcing a straight two month lockdown. It might be smoke and mirrors but it keeps society calm.

Speak Now

How are people managing with their broadband not being up to scratch. All this working and teaching from home sounds great on the news but have they all forgotten that the national broadband plan hasn't been rolled out. Must be some teachers out there is black spots, sure the country is full of them.

happywithlife

Speak Now wrote: »

How are people managing with their broadband not being up to scratch. All this working and teaching from home sounds great on the news but have they all forgotten that the national broadband plan hasn't been rolled out. Must be some teachers out there is black spots, sure the country is full of them.

Up in the morning before my own kids sort through thed overnight stuff get ready to upload that days stuff, Hollar to the kids who are up by that stage to get off their screens and I upload. Then we do their stuff, daughter does her online stuff and I download/correct again in the evening.

Tried contacting provider but couldn't get through.

On a side note it confirms my concern around whether I'd cope with online SEC marking and at the current state of play not a hope with my speed and laptop - fairly bog standard not that old but low end spec

ShamoBuc

Speak Now wrote: »

How are people managing with their broadband not being up to scratch. All this working and teaching from home sounds great on the news but have they all forgotten that the national broadband plan hasn't been rolled out. Must be some teachers out there is black spots, sure the country is full of them.

I'm lucky mine is fairing very well. Young fella on ps4, girls on phones, wife on Netflix and laptop working away fine.
It is of course not the same for everyone, both teachers and students. I've told mine upload what they can when they can. What else can you do!
After tonight's announcement, I reckon it might be June bank holiday at the very earliest before we see classes going back

khalessi

Speak Now wrote: »

How are people managing with their broadband not being up to scratch. All this working and teaching from home sounds great on the news but have they all forgotten that the national broadband plan hasn't been rolled out. Must be some teachers out there is black spots, sure the country is full of them.

Had to go out buy new laptop and router, then speeds pings of 682, was in bits at beginning of week getting up at 330 to get stuff organised then finishing uploading by 930ish, just to sit and teach at computer till 330 then collapse for hour and get up make dinner for kids.

Got better by Thursday, ping improved so getting up at 6am, not too bad.
Enjoying the online teaching.

KildareP

khalessi wrote: »

Had to go out buy new laptop and router, then speeds pings of 682, was in bits at beginning of week getting up at 330 to get stuff organised then finishing uploading by 930ish, just to sit and teach at computer till 330 then collapse for hour and get up make dinner for kids.

Got better by Thursday, ping improved so getting up at 6am, not too bad.
Enjoying the online teaching.

That's ridiculous! No way should you be expected to do that!

Does your school have Office365 or GSuite? Download the OneDrive or Google Drive sync client on to your laptop.

Record the audio or video in your own time during the day or evening.

Drop the completed audio or video file in to your OneDrive or Google Drive folder that evening and leave it sync to the cloud overnight.

Then share the file out to your students from OneDrive or Google Drive and let them download it their end in their own time.

Postgrad10

My cousin who is a teacher had to the same. It’s ridiculous that he had to spend his own money to do this. Most schools loaned out laptops to teachers.

khalessi

KildareP wrote: »

That's ridiculous! No way should you be expected to do that!

Does your school have Office365 or GSuite? Download the OneDrive or Google Drive sync client on to your laptop.

Record the audio or video in your own time during the day or evening.

Drop the completed audio or video file in to your OneDrive or Google Drive folder that evening and leave it sync to the cloud overnight.

Then share the file out to your students from OneDrive or Google Drive and let them download it their end in their own time.

We have Gsuite but i just put it all on myself as school closed and all that stuff would be expected to done outside class anyhow as prep

Teach30

Is voice recording and videoing a new norm? I’m giving each year a few pages to read and then a few questions to answer.

Haven’t the facilities to record videos.

Has anyone a solution to avoiding receiving a huge amount of emails. They send me their answers via email and I currently have over 100 to go through. Internet very slow takes ages to open each one.

Puts me off replying tbh. Eyes get v strained from looking at screen.

khalessi

Split them into groups each group upload a different day?

Teach30

khalessi wrote: »

Split them into groups each group upload a different day?

They dont all send the work the same day.. 6 class groups, 30 in a class.
They’re not all even sending the work in but it still a lot of emails to face into opening. I’d spend a lot of my day doing that.

KildareP

Teach30 wrote: »

Is voice recording and videoing a new norm? I’m giving each year a few pages to read and then a few questions to answer.

Haven’t the facilities to record videos.

Has anyone a solution to avoiding receiving a huge amount of emails. They send me their answers via email and I currently have over 100 to go through. Internet very slow takes ages to open each one.

Puts me off replying tbh. Eyes get v strained from looking at screen.

If you are a Microsoft Office365 school then use Teams assignments. That way your inbox does not get clogged, students can still turn work in as and when they complete it but you don't need to deal with it until you are ready to.

Email alone will get very unmanageable very quickly.

Teach30

KildareP wrote: »

If you are a Microsoft Office365 school then use Teams assignments. That way your inbox does not get clogged, students can still turn work in as and when they complete it but you don't need to deal with it until you are ready to.

Email alone will get very unmanageable very quickly.

Pity I’m using google classroom. I think there’s a way for students to do something similar on it but they dont know how to and I don’t know how to explain to them how to!

acequion

Teach30, you are putting yourself under huge pressure trying to correct everything they send in.

Correcting every piece of work is unnecessary and counter productive at the best of times. Obviously in class we can correct and give feedback in easier and more creative ways, but the point is we're not in class and we can only do what we can. There is absolutely no point in exhausting ourselves or our students in a situation which is beyond our control.

I'd suggest asking them to send you photos of homework so that you can see if it's getting done [and accept that not everyone will comply] and then assign the hand up for corrections homework on selected material only. That's a lot more manageable for you.

I also agree that your inbox will get clogged up very quickly with emails. There are good tutorials on Google classroom and it's worth investing time into figuring out how best to make it work. It will make your life easier.Best of luck!

jimmytwotimes 2013

Where possible post the answers and let them correct it themselves. This would be advisable as they learn little from you correcting it and rarely look at it when you do.

Emailed work if more a way to ensure they're doing the work.

rainbowtrout

I would agree with the above posts. I'm posting solutions to maths questions, and have asked them to take a photo of their work and send it on to me. I can take a quick look over it, if it's correct that's all I need to say, and if a student is having problems I can then address than.

I appreciate that you might have a subject that requires more comments on their work such as English or languages, but even at that, I've found posting solutions is far more efficient and students can then contact me if they have something specific they have a problem with. It's working quite well over all.

acequion

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

Where possible post the answers and let them correct it themselves. This would be advisable as they learn little from you correcting it and rarely look at it when you do.

Emailed work if more a way to ensure they're doing the work.

Yes, this is what I'm doing as well. We just have to trust that they'll do it and nothing we can do about the ones who don't. We just can't make them cooperate if they don't want to or are unable to. Some may be slower than others at adapting to this whole new world we've all been plunged into and need time to adjust.

As for me, I'm getting much more into the online teaching and am happy enough. Thanks to several helpful posters here and helpful collegues I got on top of good platforms like Screencastify and Google hangouts. I prefer to pre record my lessons so mainly use Screencastify and find it great. I would shy away from the more direct Google hangouts preferring to pre record. But I've set up Google hangouts for small groups of 5th year French oral practice next week so will see how it goes.

At the end of the day we can only do what we can but I do find learning all these new online techniques very interesting.

Random sample

I have used voicenotes, and uploaded them, but I haven't, and won't be uploading videos. I think it's too big of a risk.

I'm using edmodo, and where possible I've been giving them multiple choice quizzes as their assignments, because they are self correcting then. Using quizzes rather than assignments makes it easier to jump between questions and mark them too.

thegreatescape

For my 6th years only I've been downloading my PowerPoint I would have gone through in class to my phone, screen recorded and voiced over the PowerPoint. Then emailed to OneDrive and circulated to students. Feedback so far has been very positive and one student said it was similar to a real classroom environment. This obviously isn't sustainable for each year group and I've only down it for two chapters so far, but it's actually fast enough and eliminates a lot of questions that would normally be emailed to me as I've explained everything in the PowerPoint.

randylonghorn

It sounds as if by the end of this you will all be very well prepped to undertake a masters in ICT in teaching and learning!

Gotta keep an eye out for the silver linings these days ...

History Queen

thegreatescape wrote: »

For my 6th years only I've been downloading my PowerPoint I would have gone through in class to my phone, screen recorded and voiced over the PowerPoint. Then emailed to OneDrive and circulated to students. Feedback so far has been very positive and one student said it was similar to a real classroom environment. This obviously isn't sustainable for each year group and I've only down it for two chapters so far, but it's actually fast enough and eliminates a lot of questions that would normally be emailed to me as I've explained everything in the PowerPoint.

Just so you know you can voice record through the PowerPoint programme without having to download it to your phone. Just click slideshow and record (option for both video and audio only). Also allows you to draw on slides as ypu speak/annote etc. Also if you save it as an mp4 it'll play on most devices (some of my students relying on their phones to access content and had issues with prerecorded ppts not playing).

mirrorwall14

We use google classroom

Music
-collecting images of their backing chords and melodies (individually corrected). Depending on year group I upload video solutions of backing chords and get them to correct their own. Also writing and recording samples writing of every melody/bass line set and creating a big set of resources for my teaching in the future
-listening work, do in copy and correct themselves with supplied marking scheme
-revision work learning/writing then a self correcting (where possible) google form once a week to check they did it
-non exam classes getting assigned practise time too and they will be submitting their summer practicals by audio/video this year even if we are back in school to save time

Maths
Far more time consuming to prep but runs smoothly once done. I only view the work to see if it’s been done, not individually correct. Basically I create two videos for each class every day. The first is a full working out of all work from the previous day (they watch this as needed and correct anything necessary). The second is the demonstration video and examples for that day. I’ve also slowed the pace as they were struggling so for example first years are generally getting 2-3 days an exercise not 1. I’m supplementing extra practise with mangahigh and auto correcting quizzes for them in particular. We also ran their probability test via a self correcting google form. I’m using google forms for 3rd year exam questions once a week too. I generally have to manually check some of this. I have found no matter what resources are available online that because I know my class best nothing is ever quite the fit or pace that I need for them.

I’ve everything planned for next week now after working last night and this morning but I’m not finished preparing resources. I’m finding it incredibly time consuming and I’m exhausted but I’ve two kids at home with me so I have limited time during the day. I’m working every evening from 7-930 plus whatever I can manage during the younger ones nap for example

And in our case I have to write the post and schedule all 32 classes for the appropriate day and deadline. Then take all of those posts and put them in the separate spreadsheets for parents. While doing that I make a list of all the resources to be created that I didn’t have already. This week that’s 14 videos to make, 2 melodies to write and record, 3 backing chord videos to write and record and 2 google forms. Then create this and go back and link them to the posts.

I will say that once it is done it means that during the week all I’m doing is fielding queries (and I’m not getting too many due to the time put into set up) and correcting. I’d be swamped if I was planning too.

I’m going to have a LOT more video resources than I did by the time this is over lol

Bobtheman

You think at this stage the Department would have issued clear guidelines. Given the amount of well being effluent they have dumped on schools and bull**** circulars-yet nada in terms of dos and donts. Im communicating mainly through goggle classroom. Very slow to use video because of potential risks.
All the wannabee secondment junkies must be finding it hard at the moment! They cant go around schools getting in the way of real education or those who want to join their ranks-with their latest FLOSS YOUR TEETH week or whatever new whezz they have thought up to promote themselves!

thegreatescape

History Queen wrote: »

Just so you know you can voice record through the PowerPoint programme without having to download it to your phone. Just click slideshow and record (option for both video and audio only). Also allows you to draw on slides as ypu speak/annote etc. Also if you save it as an mp4 it'll play on most devices (some of my students relying on their phones to access content and had issues with prerecorded ppts not playing).

Thanks so much for sharing this! I didn't know. Will try this on Monday

History Queen

thegreatescape wrote: »

Thanks so much for sharing this! I didn't know. Will try this on Monday

No problem, I only found out about it myself a week ago and I have to say it has been a game changer for me. I feel I'm giving my studrnts pretty close to the normal classroom experience as I'm still using my own slides/referring them to relevant passages in their text/asking them to take down notes/print relevant slides. So I'm just enhancing a resource I already have rather than starting from scratch if you see what I mean? I can then use my planning time to create a combination of online assessments and self correcting quizzes using teams. I try give every class one substantial piece of work to dk in the week and one smaller "homework" type exercise like a key words quiz. Sometimes I just do something simple like ask them to comment one fact they learned with the caveat that if someone else has used the one you were thinking of, you must share something else. Easy to correct (thumbs up if valid, quick reply to add more detail/correct a fact if needs be) and also helps to measure engagement as well as understanding of the material. (Our JCT colleagues would probably do this exercise using post-its 🙄😂😂).

It has really helped me manage my workload while also being able to teach, as well as assess my students. I'm a lot happier this weekend than I was last weekend in terms of feeling I'm doing something productive for my students that actually works, without being a complete slave to my laptop. I have a toddler to mind at home too so I have to be realistic in terms of what I can achieve.

km79

Bobtheman wrote: »

You think at this stage the Department would have issued clear guidelines. Given the amount of well being effluent they have dumped on schools and bull**** circulars-yet nada in terms of dos and donts. Im communicating mainly through goggle classroom. Very slow to use video because of potential risks.
All the wannabee secondment junkies must be finding it hard at the moment! They cant go around schools getting in the way of real education or those who want to join their ranks-with their latest FLOSS YOUR TEETH week or whatever new whezz they have thought up to promote themselves!

I have to say their communication has been PATHETIC
My wife’s work and sons university are constantly updating AND giving info on mental health wellbeing etc

acequion

km79 wrote: »

I have to say their communication has been PATHETIC
My wife’s work and sons university are constantly updating AND giving info on mental health wellbeing etc

They were always bloody irrelevant anyway :rolleyes: It's down to individual schools and the competence and leadership skills of their management.

Mine,I have to say [as I'd be a vocal critic of all things management in general] have responded very well. Kudos to them.:)

As for the shower in the DES,:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Bobtheman

I just would be very cautious with video. There has been questiions raised about the security of ZOOM. Im not a nanny state person-I think statements about data protection and whats app groups are bull**** but until I get gurantees about the security of these devices Im not using them. Can zoom conferences be uploaded? Etc
I really cant see schools opening until May at the earliest. There wont be an LC in June-later this summer perhaps.

Article on Problems with ZOOM below:

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-03-27-holding-class-on-zoom-beware-of-these-hacks-hijinks-and-hazards

Jim Gazebo

Hi all, I have to make a big decision tomorrow regarding work and college, I think I know deep down that there is no hope of colleges or schools returning on the 20th? I assume that is still the general consensus amongst the teachers and lecturers here or has anything changed?

I'll be talking to my own lecturers tomorrow, but I'd like to gauge your opinion here as well. Thanks

km79

Jim Gazebo wrote: »

Hi all, I have to make a big decision tomorrow regarding work and college, I think I know deep down that there is no hope of colleges or schools returning on the 20th? I assume that is still the general consensus amongst the teachers and lecturers here or has anything changed?

I'll be talking to my own lecturers tomorrow, but I'd like to gauge your opinion here as well. Thanks

Zero chance
Unless you mean the 20th of May
In which case
20%