Schools closed until February? (part 3)

meeeeh

In fairness a lot of people join their union because they are in unionised job and it's whichever union is in their place. They have no desire to involve themselves into union politics. It's a bit unfair to blame individual teachers for whatever their reps are up to.

Lillyfae

meeeeh wrote: »

In fairness a lot of people join their union because they are in unionised job and it's whichever union is in their place. They have no desire to involve themselves into union politics. It's a bit unfair to blame individual teachers for whatever their reps are up to.

Agreed but if my union says or does something stupid, it's ultimately my responsibility for electing them. Or if they're not fighting for things that I deem important then I bring that up. I don't start hashtagging notmyunion or worse, closing ranks.

Thats me

Deleted User wrote: »

Its pretty clear form your overlay that positive case rate is a strong leading indicator by a couple of days

Even if it would be so, there is no any reason to use it to analyse hystorical data.

khalessi

thomasdylan wrote: »

Whatever about the rest I am surprised about the time off comment. Working nights, Christmas Eve, Christmas day and other holidays is one of the difficult parts of nursing that isn't there in teaching. Working shifts and switching between nights and days (as nurses do) has a proven link to chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes and reduced life expectancy.

'Better time off' is very subjective and I'm not sure it would be a thought shared with your colleagues in either job.

It depends on if you like shift work I enjoyed it and managed to make it work for me. I could organise time off to suit myself and indeed each job has stresses attached to it that can cause medical issues including teaching.

HerrKuehn

khalessi wrote: »

It depends on if you like shift work I enjoyed it and managed to make it work for me. I could organise time off to suit myself and indeed each job has stresses attached to it that can cause medical issues including teaching.

... and yet you changed career to teaching. For the number or hours per year a primary school teacher works you would find it very difficult to beat the pay per hour.

8k71ps

HerrKuehn wrote: »

... and yet you changed career to teaching. For the number or hours per year a primary school teacher works you would find it very difficult to beat the pay per hour.

I don't really see the argument tbqh. Teachers have to work harder under a hybrid model, so if you want the money to be put to better use having similar standards of teaching without the spread throughout schools would be a good approach.

Deeec

I hear Norma is going to announce 'a no homework day'. My kids are still not getting homework so wont make any difference to us and alot of schools are the same. Norma obviously doesnt realise this!

Anyway no major consequences to anyone with this announcement but Im just wondering is she trying to distract from the fact that she wont close the schools early for Christmas?

meeeeh

It might be independent of this or in connection with this but in any case I don't think there is any harm in it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40085726.html%3ftype=amp

It will make very little difference in our house because they get very little homework on seesaw anyway.

She doesn't need to distract from early Christmas closure demands. I'm not naive enough to think public opinion can be accurately gaged by crank texts to radios, social media reaction and phone calls to Joe but I think they do indicate there is very little appetite for early closure.

iamwhoiam

thomasdylan wrote: »

Whatever about the rest I am surprised about the time off comment. Working nights, Christmas Eve, Christmas day and other holidays is one of the difficult parts of nursing that isn't there in teaching. Working shifts and switching between nights and days (as nurses do) has a proven link to chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes and reduced life expectancy.

'Better time off' is very subjective and I'm not sure it would be a thought shared with your colleagues in either job.

I am a retired nurse and I know from working with nurses for 30 years or more that the duty roster and working nights etc is one of the huge stressor in a nurses life
One of the biggest factors that nurses leave acute ward roles and go to out patients or GP’s surgeries or other roles that are 9-5 is the stress of working shifts

I retired early from a HSE hospital and took a different nursing path for a few years and it almost entirely due to the working shifts and the stress on the body
Had I had teachers hours on the ward I think I probably would have stayed a lot longer on an acute ward . As would many of my colleagues who are now is 9-5 roles

It is a big factor in poor staff mix on wards as the highly qualified and experienced nurses often leave acute wards , this leaves a toohigh percentage of junior staff on wards

wirelessdude01

Deeec wrote: »

I hear Norma is going to announce 'a no homework day'. My kids are still not getting homework so wont make any difference to us and alot of schools are the same. Norma obviously doesnt realise this!

Anyway no major consequences to anyone with this announcement but Im just wondering is she trying to distract from the fact that she wont close the schools early for Christmas?

Trying to appear to be cool/down with the kids. She really is such a traditionalist that she is out of touch with how schools actually operate. Surprising seeing as she was an actual working teacher up to quite recently.

meeeeh

I hear you but teachers actually have to deal with children.

Every job has it's pluses and minuses, I don't like comparisons what profession deserves more pay or who has worse conditions. I know I'm not suited either to teaching or nursing so there no point for me to whinge how much better they have it. I don't want to do either of those two jobs so for me they are worse than the job I'm doing now. Someone else might not want the hassle of chasing people for money and the financial responsibility running your business brings.

HerrKuehn

meeeeh wrote: »

I hear you but teachers actually have to deal with children.

Every job has it's pluses and minuses, I don't like comparisons what profession deserves more pay or who has worse conditions. I know I'm not suited either to teaching or nursing so there no point for me to whinge how much better they have it. I don't want to do either of those two jobs so for me they are worse than the job I'm doing now. Someone else might not want the hassle of chasing people for money and the financial responsibility running your business brings.

If someone considers working with children a downside then clearly teaching is not a good option for them. It would be like a mechanic complaining about having to work with cars

jrosen

My kids are only thrilled about no homework day. They have both been getting homework since the beginning of the school year.

Stateofyou

8k71ps wrote: »

I don't really see the argument tbqh. Teachers have to work harder under a hybrid model, so if you want the money to be put to better use having similar standards of teaching without the spread throughout schools would be a good approach.

I have friends and family abroad who's kids are using the fully remote or hybrid learning model. From what I can understand the teachers are working smarter, not harder.

The topic around why the government hasn't implemented a national remote learning plan has been discussed here going back months from what I remember. I don't recall ever seeing an answer or explanation as to why that couldn't be done and has instead been left to each school to scramble around and figure it out for themselves. I'm not even sure they had any additional IT funding for this. My kids school has passed the costs of software licenses onto the parents, of course.

meeeeh

HerrKuehn wrote: »

If someone considers working with children a downside then clearly teaching is not a good option for them. It would be like a mechanic complaining about having to work with cars

That's my point, every job can be hard if you are not suited to it. However dealing with kids is not easy even if you like it.

wirelessdude01

jrosen wrote: »

My kids are only thrilled about no homework day. They have both been getting homework since the beginning of the school year.

What app are they using?

We have zero books going in and out of school.

eviltwin

jrosen wrote: »

My kids are only thrilled about no homework day. They have both been getting homework since the beginning of the school year.

Mine too. He is thrilled to bits with it.

jrosen

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

What app are they using?

We have zero books going in and out of school.

Primary has his homework uploaded to google classroom but he is writing in workbooks, hardbacks like he would have pre covid. So his books are going back and forth every day.

Secondary, using google classroom also. Some subjects he will submit work on google but others its hardbacks and sheets like always. His books are also going back and forth.

Stateofyou

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

What app are they using?

We have zero books going in and out of school.

We have Seesaw and Aladdin, not being utilised either at all or to their full extent. School books here are still going to and from home Mon-Thurs for homework.

Anyone here know if teachers can communicate to parents via Aladdin (or Seesaw) in the apps? Is it normal for teachers not to have any communication to parents, or is our school an anomaly. Parents here are fed up having to rely on information from our children about things going on which always end up being inaccurate or worse, forgotten.

Deeec

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

What app are they using?

We have zero books going in and out of school.

My kids school has the same policy - no books/copies go into or out of school. I thought all schools had this policy for obvious safety reasons.

jrosen

Stateofyou wrote: »

We have Seesaw and Aladdin, not being utilised either at all or to their full extent. School books here are still going to and from home Mon-Thurs for homework.

Anyone here know if teachers can communicate to parents via Aladdin (or Seesaw) in the apps? Is it normal for teachers not to have any communication to parents, or is our school an anomaly. Parents here are fed up having to rely on information from our children about things going on which always end up being inaccurate or worse, forgotten.

What communication is missing? IMO the school should be communicating with regards schools wide updates where as the teacher should only need to communicate with a parent when it comes to their child. Kids should be able to relay information to their parents. Like wear your own clothes day/movie day? bring egg cartons etc. Ours when smaller used to write in their home work journals.

HerrKuehn

meeeeh wrote: »

That's my point, every job can be hard if you are not suited to it. However dealing with kids is not easy even if you like it.

Well if you aren't suited to a job you shouldn't do it as you won't do it well. Someone mentioned something about nurses should get teachers salaries or whatever. Khalessi mentioned that she was paid more as a nurse and had better holidays. Objectively, the salary scales for nurses are lower than teachers. Also teachers get a lot more holidays that nurses, something like 4 times the amount. I am not making any suggestion about who should be paid more. It is however clear that primary school teachers in particular would have possibly the lowest number of hours of any profession in the state. So, I wouldn't accept that they are somehow the overworked and downtrodden serfs that some of them would have you believe. I don't have an issue with holidays, they are part of the conditions of the job, but when comparing with another profession they need to be taken into account.

iamwhoiam

meeeeh wrote: »

I hear you but teachers actually have to deal with children.

Every job has it's pluses and minuses, I don't like comparisons what profession deserves more pay or who has worse conditions. I know I'm not suited either to teaching or nursing so there no point for me to whinge how much better they have it. I don't want to do either of those two jobs so for me they are worse than the job I'm doing now. Someone else might not want the hassle of chasing people for money and the financial responsibility running your business brings.

I am not whinging I was replying to a post about shift work .I worked with children by the way ,very sick ones .

wirelessdude01

Stateofyou wrote: »

We have Seesaw and Aladdin, not being utilised either at all or to their full extent. School books here are still going to and from home Mon-Thurs for homework.

Anyone here know if teachers can communicate to parents via Aladdin (or Seesaw) in the apps? Is it normal for teachers not to have any communication to parents, or is our school an anomaly. Parents here are fed up having to rely on information from our children about things going on which always end up being inaccurate or worse, forgotten.

I communicate with parents using Aladdin. Can do it as a whole class, group or individual. Really is simple.

wirelessdude01

Deeec wrote: »

My kids school has the same policy - no books/copies go into or out of school. I thought all schools had this policy for obvious safety reasons.

Much like an online learning platform it really is left up to each school to decide at this stage.

meeeeh

Stateofyou wrote: »

We have Seesaw and Aladdin, not being utilised either at all or to their full extent. School books here are still going to and from home Mon-Thurs for homework.

Anyone here know if teachers can communicate to parents via Aladdin (or Seesaw) in the apps? Is it normal for teachers not to have any communication to parents, or is our school an anomaly. Parents here are fed up having to rely on information from our children about things going on which always end up being inaccurate or worse, forgotten.

Kids get their messages on Seesaw and take pictures of their work. They get only spellings, reading and very basic maths that younger one attempted to complete while playing AmongUs. There clearly are downsides to use of tablets.

Parents are sent texts and emails. School can sometimes assume we all know when there is a half day or no uniform day but in general I have no problems with communication. I think it's good kids do stuff independently so the last thing I want is me needing to read Seesaw messages.

Stateofyou

jrosen wrote: »

What communication is missing? IMO the school should be communicating with regards schools wide updates where as the teacher should only need to communicate with a parent when it comes to their child. Kids should be able to relay information to their parents. Like wear your own clothes day/movie day? bring egg cartons etc. Ours when smaller used to write in their home work journals.

For example, there was a change in PE day and there was a mad scramble the morning of on the parents WhatsApp group asking if that's the case, kids weren't sure if was to start that week or next, and there were a few upset children who didn't remember or realise it had changed (and either parents aren't on WhatsApp group or didn't see messages) and kids went to school wearing uniforms and feeling upset by it.
There was the implementation of a new online program for spellings and parents didn't know anything about it and were trying to help their kids login from home for the first time for homework. Also mass confusion over WhatsApp on what was to be done once logged in.
Another example is children were asked to bring headphones in, many didn't let their parents know, and a few children thought they were meant to bring in their own tablets, again, mass confusion.
Young children just can't be relied upon to accurately communicate information and I don't see the issue in using one of the apps to send out short bits of communication when needed. We are all sick of the scramble and having to message each other anyway to figure out wtf is going on...
We also want to class reps to be able to message back the teacher directly on occasion.
And many of us want to be able to message the teacher directly about issues with our children. None of us have a way of contacting teachers directly and we are no longer allowed on school property either.

wirelessdude01

Stateofyou wrote: »

For example, there was a change in PE day and there was a mad scramble the morning of on the parents WhatsApp group asking if that's the case, kids weren't sure if was to start that week or next, and there were a few upset children who didn't remember or realise it had changed (and either parents aren't on WhatsApp group or didn't see messages) and kids went to school wearing uniforms and feeling upset by it.
There was the implementation of a new online program for spellings and parents didn't know anything about it and were trying to help their kids login from home for the first time for homework. Also mass confusion over WhatsApp on what was to be done once logged in.
Another example is children were asked to bring headphones in, many didn't let their parents know, and a few children thought they were meant to bring in their own tablets, again, mass confusion.
Young children just can't be relied upon to accurately communicate information and I don't see the issue in using one of the apps to send out short bits of communication when needed. We are all sick of the scramble and having to message each other anyway to figure out wtf is going on...

What class is this?

Stateofyou

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

I communicate with parents using Aladdin. Can do it as a whole class, group or individual. Really is simple.

And can they communicate back to you, too?

Stateofyou

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

What class is this?

3rd and 4th classes are the two with the issues.