Schools closed until February? (part 3)

JDD

Any senior infants teachers on here? Any tips on teaching a totally disinterested six year old for about an hour a day?

I swore I wouldn't do seesaw with my six year old again after our experience last year. She can't sit still for five minutes and I found it really hard teaching her last year with seesaw crashing and taking ages to load things and being unable to print from the app. I thought this time around we would just concentrate exclusively on reading, which she is a little behind on. She hated the handwriting book and practicing on a white board last year, and to be honest her writing still looks like hieroglyphics to me. But unless I can find something I can really engage her with, I think I'm just going to skip that. I'd like to do some maths with her too - but practical stuff rather than sums. Gaelige we can just start trying to speak around the house.

Any tips? Apps? Books for me to read? Even a pointer towards the SI curriculum somewhere online would be appreciated.

Doctor Jimbob

khalessi wrote: »

Saw this earlier on twitter was waiting for another source
https://twitter.com/theAliceRoberts/status/1346175108419825665

They're lucky in fairness. It could have been spontaneously generating in homes like it was here.

khalessi

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

They're lucky in fairness. It could have been spontaneously generating in homes like it was here.

That made me laugh and splutter out tea

You owe me a cup of tea:D kettle on the counter

Anyone else want a tea or coffee on Doctor Jimbob?

micks_address

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

They're lucky in fairness. It could have been spontaneously generating in homes like it was here.

Tony and co said at the presser earlier Sage were a bunch of clowns with no evidence to back up their claims

mirrorwall14

JDD wrote: »

Any senior infants teachers on here? Any tips on teaching a totally disinterested six year old for about an hour a day?

I swore I wouldn't do seesaw with my six year old again after our experience last year. She can't sit still for five minutes and I found it really hard teaching her last year with seesaw crashing and taking ages to load things and being unable to print from the app. I thought this time around we would just concentrate exclusively on reading, which she is a little behind on. She hated the handwriting book and practicing on a white board last year, and to be honest her writing still looks like hieroglyphics to me. But unless I can find something I can really engage her with, I think I'm just going to skip that. I'd like to do some maths with her too - but practical stuff rather than sums. Gaelige we can just start trying to speak around the house.

Any tips? Apps? Books for me to read? Even a pointer towards the SI curriculum somewhere online would be appreciated.

I’m not a primary teacher but I have a senior infant kid in a gaelscoil and had very similar problems with him. Also had some red flags re balance etc so we spent a ton of time outside balancing and playing floor is lava which has paid off this year. See what the teacher comes out with, I know we’ve learnt a lot now at second level now we’ve had the students back and figured out what work.

On a personal level I did a lot of sticking and glueing and cutting with different papers and cardboards to strengthen fingers. I still do loads of this with him. He hates writing letters but his writing is appalling so the deal was one page a day. Try getting outline clip art of things he likes and print in light grayscale and get him tracing those, we had and have good fun with this as additional work.

Sight words are all over my walls since lockdown 1 and we play lots of games with them. How many can you do in a minute, find the pairs etc. I’m now getting him sounding out words for searches on Netflix as hes then spelling without thinking and I refuse to read titles of things for him now without him attempting to sound out first.

Homeschool with him was honestly a disaster until June because we were so stressed working from home ourselves but doing it at our own pace over the summer meant he had caught up on a lot by the end. His concentration is still appalling though. His uncle (a primary teacher) bought him a timer for Christmas lol.

BonsaiKitten

JDD wrote: »

Any senior infants teachers on here? Any tips on teaching a totally disinterested six year old for about an hour a day?

I swore I wouldn't do seesaw with my six year old again after our experience last year. She can't sit still for five minutes and I found it really hard teaching her last year with seesaw crashing and taking ages to load things and being unable to print from the app. I thought this time around we would just concentrate exclusively on reading, which she is a little behind on. She hated the handwriting book and practicing on a white board last year, and to be honest her writing still looks like hieroglyphics to me. But unless I can find something I can really engage her with, I think I'm just going to skip that. I'd like to do some maths with her too - but practical stuff rather than sums. Gaelige we can just start trying to speak around the house.

Any tips? Apps? Books for me to read? Even a pointer towards the SI curriculum somewhere online would be appreciated.

One of the best things you could do for her handwriting is work on her fine motor skills - loads of ideas for this online but basically it's strengthening hand muscles. Play dough, cutting and sticking, threading beads etc.

Buy some fancy stationery too and let her make cards to send to grandparents etc. Lots of reading and work with sight words/phonics is great as well.

You can access all curriculum documents online for free but it's not the most accessible thing to read.

Sammy2012

JDD wrote: »

Any senior infants teachers on here? Any tips on teaching a totally disinterested six year old for about an hour a day?

I swore I wouldn't do seesaw with my six year old again after our experience last year. She can't sit still for five minutes and I found it really hard teaching her last year with seesaw crashing and taking ages to load things and being unable to print from the app. I thought this time around we would just concentrate exclusively on reading, which she is a little behind on. She hated the handwriting book and practicing on a white board last year, and to be honest her writing still looks like hieroglyphics to me. But unless I can find something I can really engage her with, I think I'm just going to skip that. I'd like to do some maths with her too - but practical stuff rather than sums. Gaelige we can just start trying to speak around the house.

Any tips? Apps? Books for me to read? Even a pointer towards the SI curriculum somewhere online would be appreciated.

I currently teach 1st and 2nd but have taught senior infants for years and my daughter was in it last year. If you'd like to DM I will attempt to answer any questions you might have.

Just as an aside I now have a 1st class and a junior infant child. I will not be partaking in any of the online learning with either of them. We will do our own thing. I do think the closure won't be long term and I will be doing somethings with them but I am not a fan of the online learning for younger children so not bothered even trying this time.

This is obv for my own children. I will do all I can for my own class.

Tippex

And so it begins. now I'm off to chat with my son to see how he's feeling about the leaving now.
Not a chance of him getting his DCG project complete I don't think.
Realistically now they need to announce the predictive grades for them and allow the kids to relax and get their heads down.

Bananaleaf

Artane2002 wrote: »

that could actually in theory work. there's an app/software called Kast which allows people to watch films together, I use it regularly to watch films with my friends. I don't know how practical it would be for school purposes though.

I'd feel fierce lazy doing it to be honest.

Tippex wrote: »

And so it begins. now I'm off to chat with my son to see how he's feeling about the leaving now.
Not a chance of him getting his DCG project complete I don't think.
Realistically now they need to announce the predictive grades for them and allow the kids to relax and get their heads down.

Personally, I think it is very early for Britain to be writing off the exams. And now, in a complete contradiction to that I am also going to say that I think I would actually find it harder to arrive at a predicted grade for the class of 2021 than I did for the class of 2020, given that the former have missed so much

micks_address

Tippex wrote: »

And so it begins. now I'm off to chat with my son to see how he's feeling about the leaving now.
Not a chance of him getting his DCG project complete I don't think.
Realistically now they need to announce the predictive grades for them and allow the kids to relax and get their heads down.

If they announced predicted grades now what would the leaving certs work towards? Our son is doing the leaving and has good results so far. He wants predictive grades. They were being assessed every 5 minutes since September but the teachers told them they wouldn’t be used for predictive grades. I’d be fairly confident that by June they could safely sit the exams. The question is how much did they miss out on during last spring home school and how much will they miss out on now. I suppose if they did it last year it’s probably fair to also do this year. Next years leaving cohort shouldn’t be as impacted hopefully

KerryConnor

Would she like audio books? lots of free one on Youtube , few good ones below... I find even if you stick it on and give them some colouring or lego they get hooked before they know it... i think listening to audiobooks each day would be plenty .. Teaches them so much language, comprehension , concentration... Then maybe 10 mins actual reading each day before bed..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Rl-UspWdY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2M2CeZ0-XU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uugzY9WCN90
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSLCZSkU6qk

Here's a few of Gaeilge songs that are brill. ..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vl50te17vtmonz/09%20An%20Feirmeoir.m4a?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/szyzx2pndc6gwi4/15%20D%C3%A9an%20Deifir.m4a?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zczkcm7tkbno8gj/07%20Splish%20Splash%20Splosh.m4a?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pskrjz5t304ejr6/13%20Fear%20An%20Phoist.m4a?dl=0

JDD wrote: »

Any senior infants teachers on here? Any tips on teaching a totally disinterested six year old for about an hour a day?

I swore I wouldn't do seesaw with my six year old again after our experience last year. She can't sit still for five minutes and I found it really hard teaching her last year with seesaw crashing and taking ages to load things and being unable to print from the app. I thought this time around we would just concentrate exclusively on reading, which she is a little behind on. She hated the handwriting book and practicing on a white board last year, and to be honest her writing still looks like hieroglyphics to me. But unless I can find something I can really engage her with, I think I'm just going to skip that. I'd like to do some maths with her too - but practical stuff rather than sums. Gaelige we can just start trying to speak around the house.

Any tips? Apps? Books for me to read? Even a pointer towards the SI curriculum somewhere online would be appreciated.

wirelessdude01

micks_address wrote: »

Tony and co said at the presser earlier Sage were a bunch of clowns with no evidence to back up their claims

Evidence that they used the word clowns because they didn't.

In response to a question with regards to the effect the closure of schools would have on the R0 nu ber and how SAGE had said it was minimum 0.4 they did say that they(NPHET) hadn't seen any of the research.

Interestingly when asked had they done themselves done any research they said no.

alroley

micks_address wrote: »

If they announced predicted grades now what would the leaving certs work towards? Our son is doing the leaving and has good results so far. He wants predictive grades. They were being assessed every 5 minutes since September but the teachers told them they wouldn’t be used for predictive grades. I’d be fairly confident that by June they could safely sit the exams. The question is how much did they miss out on during last spring home school and how much will they miss out on now. I suppose if they did it last year it’s probably fair to also do this year. Next years leaving cohort shouldn’t be as impacted hopefully

They'd work as they'd be getting calculated grades based on the work they complete?

micks_address

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Evidence that they used the word clowns because they didn't.

In response to a question with regards to the effect the closure of schools would have on the R0 nu ber and how SAGE had said it was minimum 0.4 they did say that they(NPHET) hadn't seen any of the research.

Interestingly when asked had they done themselves done any research they said no.

You really thought they’d say clowns? They implied their statements were not backed up by published evidence.

History Queen

alroley wrote: »

They'd work as they'd be getting calculated grades based on the work they complete?

So it'd be calculated based on work going forward? Can't see it working and to be honest I don't want to attempt to facilitate it. Predicted grades are a cop out, teachers and students were treated awfully throughout. Work towards exams. They could have happened in 2020 but for the whinging of the ill-informed and the spineless politicians.

wirelessdude01

[

micks_address wrote: »

You really thought they’d say clowns? They implied their statements were not backed up by published evidence.

Well you were the one said that they called them a bunch of clowns.

Tippex

micks_address wrote: »

If they announced predicted grades now what would the leaving certs work towards? Our son is doing the leaving and has good results so far. He wants predictive grades. They were being assessed every 5 minutes since September but the teachers told them they wouldn’t be used for predictive grades. I’d be fairly confident that by June they could safely sit the exams. The question is how much did they miss out on during last spring home school and how much will they miss out on now. I suppose if they did it last year it’s probably fair to also do this year. Next years leaving cohort shouldn’t be as impacted hopefully

From chatting to my son he feels they are miles behind on where they should be (he effectively lost an additional month on biology due to his teacher being out on top of all the covid stuff). He was worried about the mocks and now feels there will be no hope in getting a decent mark in the mocks due to how much tome he lost last year. (He can only do what he can do) and he has sort of come to terms with what he can and cannot control.

I think its only fair to make the decision early about the predictive grades.

Bananaleaf

Tippex wrote: »

From chatting to my son he feels they are miles behind on where they should be (he effectively lost an additional month on biology due to his teacher being out on top of all the covid stuff). He was worried about the mocks and now feels there will be no hope in getting a decent mark in the mocks due to how much tome he lost last year. (He can only do what he can do) and he has sort of come to terms with what he can and cannot control.

I think its only fair to make the decision early about the predictive grades.

the predicted grades will be based on how he has been doing though, won't they?

I think the exams would be a better way for him to show off his abilities, but it would have to be in a seriously pared back format I will agree

Tippex

History Queen wrote: »

So it'd be calculated based on work going forward? Can't see it working and to be honest I don't want to attempt to facilitate it. Predicted grades are a cop out, teachers and students were treated awfully throughout. Work towards exams. They could have happened in 2020 but for the whinging of the ill-informed and the spineless politicians.

This years LC have lost so much time I know they have not completed the curriculum nowhere near it. I believe different teachers will teach different elements of the syllabus at different times so there is no way to know if its a level playing field compared to normal years.

micks_address

Bananaleaf wrote: »

the predicted grades will be based on how he has been doing though, won't they?

I think the exams would be a better way for him to show off his abilities, but it would have to be in a seriously pared back format I will agree

One of the biggest problems with last summers system was many schools over inflated the kids grades. Hurt schools who were more realistic. I’d have though graders would naturally be a little more lenient this summer but it’s just impossible to come up with a system that’s fair to everyone

the kelt

It’s funny seeing comments about teachers now getting vaccinated quicker to enable schools to possibly get back etc cos when it was mentioned how far down the teachers etc were on the vaccination list it prompted a response from many as to who do they think they are asking to be further up the list, entitled so and so etc.

These are the said same, posters who raged at any suggestion of schools closing earlier for a few days citing teachers getting days off but now want them all vaccinated to get the schools back.

Although curiously many of these posters who raged against extra days off seem to have disappeared these days.

History Queen

Tippex wrote: »

This years LC have lost so much time I know they have not completed the curriculum nowhere near it. I believe different teachers will teach different elements of the syllabus at different times so there is no way to know if its a level playing field compared to normal years.

Agreed re level playing field. Predicted grades will not fix that. Adjusting the exam papers will.

History Queen

micks_address wrote: »

One of the biggest problems with last summers system was many schools over inflated the kids grades. Hurt schools who were more realistic. I’d have though graders would naturally be a little more lenient this summer but it’s just impossible to come up with a system that’s fair to everyone

There isn't room for leniency in the marking schemes, thats part of what makes our system fair. Papers have been adjusted already, further adjustment should happen if necessary.

thomasdylan

the kelt wrote: »

It’s funny seeing comments about teachers now getting vaccinated quicker to enable schools to possibly get back etc cos when it was mentioned how far down the teachers etc were on the vaccination list it prompted a response from many as to who do they think they are asking to be further up the list, entitled so and so e.

Teachers aren't that far down the list as far as numbers go.

Public health should be the only ones deciding vaccination order anyway.

History Queen

thomasdylan wrote: »

Teachers aren't that far down the list as far as numbers go.

Public health should be the only ones deciding vaccination order anyway.

Teachers are 11 on a list of 14 I think?

khalessi

the kelt wrote: »

Although curiously many of these posters who raged against extra days off seem to have disappeared these days.

Oh they are still there, they pop in to thank a post thats obviously anti teacher or pop up a post to rage every now and then, but I suppose everyone has their stresses and that seems to be how they deal with theirs.

khalessi

History Queen wrote: »

Teachers are 11 on a list of 14 I think?

Yup Scheduled for Sept or October all going well, so that is a full school year without a vaccine

Bananaleaf

Tippex wrote: »

This years LC have lost so much time I know they have not completed the curriculum nowhere near it. I believe different teachers will teach different elements of the syllabus at different times so there is no way to know if its a level playing field compared to normal years.

You are so right and it really has been awful for them. A lot of us said it back in June, when the focus was on the poor 3rds and 6ths, that the real losers were the 2nds and 5ths. Nothing will ever convince me otherwise.

However, I really do think that with the 2021 6th years in particular, they need an exam. A really short one, but they need some kind of exam. I'm talking something along the lines of, say for English, they have only a paper 2 and within that paper 2 they do one poetry essay and one other, of their choice and that is it.

They need it for themselves. If I had your son in 5th year, I'd have had him from September to end of Feb you may as well say. Then online only from March, with an online assessment (which is worth nothing lets be honest) in June. That would have been it until Sep, where I'd have taught him from Sep - Dec from a distance, behind a mask, not taking up any work from him in class, just uploads to Teams, no Christmas test, losing class time due to sanitising, moving around base rooms etc. Now online again. I would hardly know your son.

Compare that to the class of 2020 who had a full year and a half of undisturbed teaching. They had a 5th year summer and Christmas exam, they had a mock exam.

I don't have 6th years this year. So I can't say any of this for sure, but I do not believe that predicted grades would be the best option for the class of 2021

Mrsmum

History Queen wrote: »

Agreed re level playing field. Predicted grades will not fix that. Adjusting the exam papers will.

I think they will have to give lots of choice in the questions but then you could have so much choice as to make the exam almost too easy.

TexasTornado

I think we'll now see teachers, SNA's, school bus drivers etc.. all bumped up the list and vaccinated quick smart. I always found it weird that the government said it was a priority to keep schools open and they where so far down their priorities. Get it done and hopefully we'll see them open up again by end of Feb start of March.