Primary schools zoom learning

Motah

Hi, I'm new to boards, so if I'm posting in the wrong place apologies. I'm just wondering if anyone knows of primary schools that are going to zoom classes. We have no information from our primary school yet as how the next few weeks will go, but if like last year, it will assigned homework via seesaw.
I find this totally stressful, as we both work full time, and it caused mayhem in our house last time...everyone was crying, (including the parents!!!)...We are told, just do what you can, but then,3 weeks later, we were so behind, and topics had moved on that the kids missed...
I'd love to get zoom classes, with a real teacher...
Is there anything out there that anyone knows of?
Thanks!

jlm29

Motah wrote: »

Hi, I'm new to boards, so if I'm posting in the wrong place apologies. I'm just wondering if anyone knows of primary schools that are going to zoom classes. We have no information from our primary school yet as how the next few weeks will go, but if like last year, it will assigned homework via seesaw.
I find this totally stressful, as we both work full time, and it caused mayhem in our house last time...everyone was crying, (including the parents!!!)...We are told, just do what you can, but then,3 weeks later, we were so behind, and topics had moved on that the kids missed...
I'd love to get zoom classes, with a real teacher...
Is there anything out there that anyone knows of?
Thanks!

The odd primary school did zoom classes last time round. Most didn’t. I can see why, I can’t see how zoom classes could work for younger kids. Or certainly not mine anyhow.
Either way I’m not fully sure what you’re looking for. Who do you think will be giving the zoom classes that you can involve your children in? Are you looking for something private That you can pay for? the teachers will be teaching/correcting their own classes on whatever platform they’re using, They’re not going to be doing nixers and teaching other kids via zoom?

Motah

Thanks for your opinion. The teachers in my kids school assigned homework at the beginning of the week, and corrected it (sometimes)...there was no other teacher interaction. The assigned work was mainly continue on in the relevant book, the next 3 pages etc. I can't see why they can't zoom an hour or two a day...my kids are young also, but do other classes on line...

pooch90

Motah wrote: »

I can't see why they can't zoom an hour or two a day...my kids are young also, but do other classes on line...

I have two kids under 5, there is absolutely no way I would able to give a zoom class without being interrupted 700 times.

byhookorbycrook

For a child under 13 to be on Zoom, there has to be both parental consent and also a parent present all of the time. I’d say your best chance is to find a student teacher to take you on as most primary teachers will be too busy with their own students, as already mentioned.

Snotty

pooch90 wrote: »

I have two kids under 5, there is absolutely no way I would able to give a zoom class without being interrupted 700 times.

Welcome to the large portion of the population who have been doing this since March without break.

jlm29

Motah wrote: »

Thanks for your opinion. The teachers in my kids school assigned homework at the beginning of the week, and corrected it (sometimes)...there was no other teacher interaction. The assigned work was mainly continue on in the relevant book, the next 3 pages etc. I can't see why they can't zoom an hour or two a day...my kids are young also, but do other classes on line...

I understand that, but your OP was phrased “is there anything out there?” As though you were looking to find out where there were zoom classes that you could “send” your kids to. If your kids teachers aren’t offering them, then there’s not much you can do.
I know you can’t see why they can’t zoom a couple of hours a day, but there’s lots of valid reasons why it wouldn’t work.

Motah

jlm29 wrote: »

I understand that, but your OP was phrased “is there anything out there?” As though you were looking to find out where there were zoom classes that you could “send” your kids to. If your kids teachers aren’t offering them, then there’s not much you can do.
I know you can’t see why they can’t zoom a couple of hours a day, but there’s lots of valid reasons why it wouldn’t work.

I was just hoping other people had examples of school doing zoom work, to see if feasible. I understand it's difficult, it was very stressful for everyone, and we both work full time, as do a lot of people, with children at home, not all school going age. I am also interested if there were online classes as well. You are right when you say, that if the school is not offering, there is not a lot I can do...

wirelessdude01

So in an ideal world what would be occurring on these zoom classes you would like to see?

Also what classes are you kids in?

Motah

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

So in an ideal world what would be occurring on these zoom classes you would like to see?

Also what classes are you kids in?

I think 1 to 2 hours a day, covering maths, English and science/nature...in an ideal world...
My school going children are in first and third

yankinlk

Breakout rooms people. Pair the kids up, have them work together.

And anyone that says this can't work then you don't have kids or an xbox cause they are already doing this without teachers.

juneg

Motah wrote: »

I think 1 to 2 hours a day, covering maths, English and science/nature...in an ideal world...
My school going children are in first and third

Hi. You might like to try Rte school hub on television. Its a really good programme in the mornings from 10 to 12.

juneg

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/healthandwellbeing/arid-40202144.html

I saw this link in the paper today. There are loads of free activities which might be fun to try. At least you have a few children at home so they have each other to play with.

yankinlk

juneg wrote: »

Hi. You might like to try Rte school hub on television. Its a really good programme in the mornings from 10 to 12.

Not being funny but thats the job of the teacher. Im in my own zoom meetings not having time to teach my kids. I tried rte last spring it was terrible and my kid didn't last 5 minutes.

Our schools did nothing but send work out once for the entire week. No online classes but maybe 1 or 2 tines a week, and that was a giant mess of noise and disorganised.

That doesn't earn a paycheck in my book.

wirelessdude01

Motah wrote: »

I think 1 to 2 hours a day, covering maths, English and science/nature...in an ideal world...
My school going children are in first and third

Not a hope they'd be able for that. That is the honest truth. I know that in our school we have been today not to do any live lessons below second. We can in the senior but that the preference with our principal and also from the prarents is for maybe 1 prerecorded lesson a day. By prereecord I mean max of 10-15mins of showing how to do a maths topic. Could also mean going through the maths answers, reading an Irish piece so that the children can listen to the pronunciation and then record themselves and send it back.

No I'm doing more than that for the first weekend will see what the feedback is. Last year even for the spoil love stuff I did the amount t of children who logged on was extremely low. Children also refused point blank to their parents to allow themselves to be shown on camera or record the selves doing stuff to send it back to me.

wirelessdude01

yankinlk wrote: »

Breakout rooms people. Pair the kids up, have them work together.

And anyone that says this can't work then you don't have kids or an xbox cause they are already doing this without teachers.

Main issue from a schools perspective is child protection. Laxt time before we did anything with zoom each parent had to provide consent and also sign the AUP.

EVERY SINGLE TIME.

wirelessdude01

yankinlk wrote: »

Not being funny but thats the job of the teacher. Im in my own zoom meetings not having time to teach my kids. I tried rte last spring it was terrible and my kid didn't last 5 minutes.

Our schools did nothing but send work out once for the entire week. No online classes but maybe 1 or 2 tines a week, and that was a giant mess of noise and disorganised.

That doesn't earn a paycheck in my book.

Did the school look for feedback during the summer or at the start of thr current school year?

Deeec

OP I feel your frustration. I had the same issues as you last time the schools were closed. The school was sending a list of work for us parents to teach the children. This is impossible when parents are expected to work full-time. It was the most stressful time of my life! This time around my kids teachers are going to be sending us prerecorded video tutorials. I think this is going to work well for us. Live online teaching doesn't work for lots of reasons.

wirelessdude01

Deeec wrote: »

OP I feel your frustration. I had the same issues as you last time the schools were closed. The school was sending a list of work for us parents to teach the children. This is impossible when parents are expected to work full-time. It was the most stressful time of my life! This time around my kids teachers are going to be sending us prerecorded video tutorials. I think this is going to work well for us. Live online teaching doesn't work for lots of reasons.

At primary level it doesn't anyway. I tried it at upper printer last tie and it was abandoned less than a week after we started as it was an bloody disaster. Main issue being that most couldn't guarantee a device at a certain time of a day to be on. Rerecord stuff allows self paced learning and teaching. No arguing over the need to have a device right now.

Motah

Deeec wrote: »

OP I feel your frustration. I had the same issues as you last time the schools were closed. The school was sending a list of work for us parents to teach the children. This is impossible when parents are expected to work full-time. It was the most stressful time of my life! This time around my kids teachers are going to be sending us prerecorded video tutorials. I think this is going to work well for us. Live online teaching doesn't work for lots of reasons.

I right there with you on last time...I think I aged a decade, and no one was happy...at all. It was awful. Being sent work to do with your kids, on a Sunday or Monday for the week, barely checked sometimes, after the effort and stress, no verbal communication what's so ever. The homework mail always said, just do what you can, but after a few weeks, we had missed topics...made me feel like a complete failure. I am not a teacher, I am paid to do another job full time, which is taking twice as long with us all at home. I think the prerecorded lessons maybe a start...but my opinion of our school is changing, if this time is like the last...just assigning daily work for us to do...

wirelessdude01

https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-schools-online-learning-are-live-lessons-really-better-recorded-ones?amp&__twitter_impression=true

An article explaining why live live zoom isn't better than prerecorded.

Motah

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

At primary level it doesn't anyway. I tried it at upper printer last tie and it was abandoned less than a week after we started as it was an bloody disaster. Main issue being that most couldn't guarantee a device at a certain time of a day to be on. Rerecord stuff allows self paced learning and teaching. No arguing over the need to have a device right now.

I think prerecorded lessons could be a good...better than assigned work week after week, with no communication in our case, bar no pressure...

Widdensushi

juneg wrote: »

Hi. You might like to try Rte school hub on television. Its a really good programme in the mornings from 10 to 12.

That didn't work for my gang, for one thing it was not aimed at a particular class, getting kids to sit through stuff they had either learnt years previously or was too advanced for them, watching a show for 30 minutes when only 5 minutes was relevant. If there were class specific shows available on demand that might work better.

wirelessdude01

Motah wrote: »

I think prerecorded lessons could be a good...better than assigned work week after week, with no communication in our case, bar no pressure...

Just be aware that prerecorded means s bite sized chunk. 5/10min explaining the likes of a maths concept and then the child go do their work. Do be expecting hour long videos.

wirelessdude01

Widdensushi wrote: »

That didn't work for my gang, for one thing it was not aimed at a particular class, getting kids to sit through stuff they had either learnt years previously or was too advanced for them, watching a show for 30 minutes when only 5 minutes was relevant. If there were class specific shows available on demand that might work better.

The Home school hub is split up into age groups. Segments are 20mins long with the expectation that that group then has an activity they can do or art of the likes.
Activities are on the rte home school hub website.

Cliona is for5th/6th class stuff .

shesty

So we got an email yesterday from the teacher and the principal.

The principal's was over-arching...kind of a "look, we don't want to be here again, but let's just do it and hopefully it won't be for long" kind of thing.They aim to do more zoom calls, but to coordinate it so that they don't overlap between classes, with the need for different devices etc in mind .Books are to be collected during allocated slots on Monday for each class.

The teacher who is new this year (and so far extremely impressive) sent a longer email -our eldest is only 6.So the email wa focused on what was realistic.She said she cannot cover 11 subjects as she would in class, so to focus on 4 items -think it was basically reading reading, writing Maths, Irish (I have to re-read).She said she will send stuff out, but that she will also do short pre-recorded videos of herself teaching phonics etc.She basically said do not expect kids to sit still for ages, she doesn't expect it in school, so don't start now - make sure they have movement breaks very regularly and the like.Very practical, to the point, requesting plenty of feedback from parents, and also giving some very practical tips to parents.

My struggle for now is that while we do have a minder and 2 younger kids, I now feel I should be keeping the older at home with me all day to try and homeschool, which is a disaster for work,-last time round we did a bit in the mornings before she went to the kinder round 9.45am with the other 2....so I am not sure how to juggle that, but I will work it out in the next week or so.Hoping it won't last for long.

wirelessdude01

shesty wrote: »

So we got an email yesterday from the teacher and the principal.

The principal's was over-arching...kind of a "look, we don't want to be here again, but let's just do it and hopefully it won't be for long" kind of thing.They aim to do more zoom calls, but to coordinate it so that they don't overlap between classes, with the need for different devices etc in mind .Books are to be collected during allocated slots on Monday for each class.

The teacher who is new this year (and so far extremely impressive) sent a longer email -our eldest is only 6.So the email wa focused on what was realistic.She said she cannot cover 11 subjects as she would in class, so to focus on 4 items -think it was basically reading reading, writing Maths, Irish (I have to re-read).She said she will send stuff out, but that she will also do short pre-recorded videos of herself teaching phonics etc.She basically said do not expect kids to sit still for ages, she doesn't expect it in school, so don't start now - make sure they have movement breaks very regularly and the like.Very practical, to the point, requesting plenty of feedback from parents, and also giving some very practical tips to parents.

My struggle for now is that while we do have a minder and 2 younger kids, I now feel I should be keeping the older at home with me all day to try and homeschool, which is a disaster for work,-last time round we did a bit in the mornings before she went to the kinder round 9.45am with the other 2....so I am not sure how to juggle that, but I will work it out in the next week or so.Hoping it won't last for long.

Being realistic, we are looking at a return after midterm at the earliest. Anything before that is a miracle.

shesty

I have the mid-term in my head, but still hoping for that miracle.
The difference for me this time is that it is "short", as in it will probably be a fairly defined period and it is a bigger priority to get them back compared to last year's debacle, which just dragged on and on, and then the holidays arrived on top of it, and nobody was showing any interest in how schools were to reopen.
Anything is better than that.

jlm29

We’ve heard nothing bar an email to come and collect books in the middle of next week. I really hope nobody suggests zoom classes or anything “live”, I’m not working from home, and neither is my OH, so if there’s any live lessons my kids will just miss them, and I’d really hate that.

wirelessdude01

jlm29 wrote: »

We’ve heard nothing bar an email to come and collect books in the middle of next week. I really hope nobody suggests zoom classes or anything “live”, I’m not working from home, and neither is my OH, so if there’s any live lessons my kids will just miss them, and I’d really hate that.

A different perspective from the whole they need to be live all day narrative that some would like. You cannot replicate school at home.

daheff

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

A different perspective from the whole they need to be live all day narrative that some would like. You cannot replicate school at home.

No they can't be live all day, but surely they can organise to be live for at least one hour each day(or even an hour a week)?? People can plan around work etc if they knew each day at 11 the class would be online.


The first lockdown should have spurred schools to put together a better strategy....but it's like we're starting from scratch again in the main.

wirelessdude01

daheff wrote: »

No they can't be live all day, but surely they can organise to be live for at least one hour each day(or even an hour a week)?? People can plan around work etc if they knew each day at 11 the class would be online.


The first lockdown should have spurred schools to put together a better strategy....but it's like we're starting from scratch again in the main.

See the poster above. Live doesn't suit them. Should their child be left behind? The objective in our school is continuity of teaching and learning but not using any means which would disadvantage children due to their home circumstances. I'm doing some zoom but it'll be corrections and social stuff. Maths will be prerecorded as it is accessible by parents and children when it suits them.

BonsaiKitten

My school is doing a lot of live lessons, yes. It can work very well, I found back in March that the learning and engagement in non-live work simply doesn't compare to work on Zoom. As a teacher I found it's much less stressful than prerecorded work too (I really hate correcting things handed in online).

The issue is equality and access to devices. There's a lot of households out there that wouldn't have a device for each child or even somewhere quiet for them to work. That's not an issue in my school, so we'll do live because that's what we've found is effective. I couldn't and wouldn't expect every school to do that.

jlm29

daheff wrote: »

No they can't be live all day, but surely they can organise to be live for at least one hour each day(or even an hour a week)?? People can plan around work etc if they knew each day at 11 the class would be online.


The first lockdown should have spurred schools to put together a better strategy....but it's like we're starting from scratch again in the main.

Unless there’s going to be live classes after 5 pm, I can’t work around it. I’m a health care worker, and we’re fairly busy at work at the moment (it’s been on the news a bit lately ), so whether it’s an hour a week or an hour a day, if there’s live classes my child will miss them. I’m not the only parent in the class with that issue, but my boys would be in the minority in both Their classes in being excluded.
I’m so grateful that my childminder is continuing to mind my kids at the moment that I wouldn’t be happy to ask her to take on supervising zoom classes as well as everything else.
I don’t feel that the world should revolve around me and my needs, but I’m just pointing out that it’s hard to suit everyone, whatever happens

shesty

daheff wrote: »

No they can't be live all day, but surely they can organise to be live for at least one hour each day(or even an hour a week)?? People can plan around work etc if they knew each day at 11 the class would be online.


The first lockdown should have spurred schools to put together a better strategy....but it's like we're starting from scratch again in the main.

It really depends on the child's age I think And as the last poster said, we would also be in a slightly awkward situation of having childcare available but being unable to use it if our eldest has to be kept home for "live" sessions at a specific time.But realistically, our 2 younger would have to go to childcare, as she couldn't do Zoom classes with the 2 younger ones bouncing around.And our work has to fit in around all this too. There is literally no substitute for them being in school in person, at best we will be ticking over here and no more.Thankfully the school seem to be sensible enouugh in their approach so hopefully it will work out ok just to get us through.

yankinlk

If all our schools did in January was to focus on the basics around cyber security and online safety.... I would be pleased.

Recorded, offline, videos... anything. Maybe the teachers would learn something new as well.

daheff

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

See the poster above. Live doesn't suit them. Should their child be left behind? The objective in our school is continuity of teaching and learning but not using any means which would disadvantage children due to their home circumstances. I'm doing some zoom but it'll be corrections and social stuff. Maths will be prerecorded as it is accessible by parents and children when it suits them.

So are you telling me that teachers in your school cannot arrange themselves to teach their students for just 1 hour a day?

byhookorbycrook

daheff wrote: »

So are you telling me that teachers in your school cannot arrange themselves to teach their students for just 1 hour a day?

I'm not sure I understand your question? Are you looking for a live one hour session?


"Teaching" doesn't have to be via live Zoom or similar. Considering the difficulties adults have with zoom ,I think many parents would under severe pressure to be made sit with their child for a specific hour in the day, and that's before you take in the the connection issues, broadband problems, cameras on or off etc.etc. Setting an hour for live teaching would be very stressful for many parents who may need to use the device to work from home or that other siblings might need at the same time.



We are using seesaw and sending out video clips with it, which means parents can pick and choose what time suits them best and that the child can pause and rewind as needed. As they will be returning work for correction and feedback, that will also take time. In class, feedback is quick and easy, because you can correct the work as a group and then check with anyone who is having difficulty on the spot or re-teach a point if a significant number of children have had a difficulty. Remotely, you have to correct each article separately for each child and then try to give individual feedback.



There's a reason most teachers would prefer to be face to face in a classroom,it's just easier. But safety needs to take priority right now.

wirelessdude01

daheff wrote: »

So are you telling me that teachers in your school cannot arrange themselves to teach their students for just 1 hour a day?

Did you even read what I said? Jog on with your stirring.

mirrorwall14

We have childcare this time. Childminder is happy to tackle work set for my eldest but I haven’t and won’t broach live zooms with her. That’s too much responsibility when my toddler would be running around too so my child will likely have to do with out when they start. We apparently will have a few. I’m teaching from home though myself so I’ll have to wait and see when those classes are from the primary school and if I can pull him early from the childminder or drop him late to let him attend depending on when my classes are.

Our teacher was excellent last time though and is the same again so I’m expecting individual short video clips for him to do on class dojo. Those should be fine with childcare

Spanishpoint

Motah wrote: »

I think prerecorded lessons could be a good...better than assigned work week after week, with no communication in our case, bar no pressure...

I agree with you. Prerecorded lessons will save time to everybody!

Motah

Spanishpoint wrote: »

I agree with you. Prerecorded lessons will save time to everybody!

Well, it's the same as last time...
Email on a Sunday night, here's the work for the week...no zoom, no recordings, nothing. Do what you can...no pressure.
We, like a lot of people, are working from home, full time, with 3 small kids. I find this frustrating. Also, the seesaw app is only to submit the work the kids have done...
I think they should zoom, at least 1/2 hour a day, interrupted or not, or send recorded lessons...all my kids are at home, I'm constantly interrupted, meetings are not on my kids radar...
Some schools seem to be making much more of an effort than others...
This is not learning. It's just assigned work. I am not a teacher, but I feel under extreme pressure to get work done, while working and doing, like most you, dinners, snacks, washing etc and just seeing my kids...
We have no childcare while in level 5, and no relatives near us.

Motah

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

See the poster above. Live doesn't suit them. Should their child be left behind? The objective in our school is continuity of teaching and learning but not using any means which would disadvantage children due to their home circumstances. I'm doing some zoom but it'll be corrections and social stuff. Maths will be prerecorded as it is accessible by parents and children when it suits them.

You seem to be making a great effort, and your students are lucky.
From the emails I received from our school, my impression is there will be no learning unless I'm teaching. Same as March to June, assigned homework mailed to me on Sunday, for submission on Thurs...that's it!
After all this time, 10 months later, we have no advancement on the home/school learning environment, or even a single recording of a single lesson. I feel I'm going to have to pay someone to teach my children during lockdown...if I can find someone...
Some schools are making much more of an effort than others...is there no national standard on this?
This pandemic is going no where fast. This will be the norm, on and off for the next year, maybe year and a half...

wirelessdude01

Motah wrote: »

You seem to be making a great effort, and your students are lucky.
From the emails I received from our school, my impression is there will be no learning unless I'm teaching. Same as March to June, assigned homework mailed to me on Sunday, for submission on Thurs...that's it!
After all this time, 10 months later, we have no advancement on the home/school learning environment, or even a single recording of a single lesson. I feel I'm going to have to pay someone to teach my children during lockdown...if I can find someone...
Some schools are making much more of an effort than others...is there no national standard on this?
This pandemic is going no where fast. This will be the norm, on and off for the next year, maybe year and a half...

No national standard. DES really don't give a rats about anyone or anything.

mirrorwall14

If you have only heard from the main school wait until you hear from the teacher themselves and see what the plan is. The detail can be very different once the teacher themselves break it down into what works for their class

There is a floor now however, the department have said daily contact so it shouldn’t be one email a week.

Wait and see. But I will say as a teacher I don’t think asking for demonstration videos from teachers is unreasonable for any work that is being set. Depending on the age of the students live may be appropriate too.

If nothing is forth coming then the procedure is contacting class teacher first, then the principal and then there are further steps like contacting the board of management

You should also have access to the schools online contingency plan for learning. All schools should have one

Cyrus

Motah wrote: »

Well, it's the same as last time...
Email on a Sunday night, here's the work for the week...no zoom, no recordings, nothing. Do what you can...no pressure.
We, like a lot of people, are working from home, full time, with 3 small kids. I find this frustrating. Also, the seesaw app is only to submit the work the kids have done...
I think they should zoom, at least 1/2 hour a day, interrupted or not, or send recorded lessons...all my kids are at home, I'm constantly interrupted, meetings are not on my kids radar...
Some schools seem to be making much more of an effort than others...
This is not learning. It's just assigned work. I am not a teacher, but I feel under extreme pressure to get work done, while working and doing, like most you, dinners, snacks, washing etc and just seeing my kids...
We have no childcare while in level 5, and no relatives near us.

Are they going to fall that far behind in a few weeks? Just do some reading with them at night , get them
To practice their writing a bit during the day and leave the rest they will catch up.

You are causing most of the stress for yourself.

And yes we are in the same boat

shesty

I am firmly in the "it is completely crazy" camp this morning. No way is this ok, nor should we think it is.

AmberGold

A friend of mine works for a leading video conferencing company where they make a cheap USB attached camera with microphone its used a lot in classroom / remote learning. They are out the door with orders into German and mainland European schools.

No such demand from Ireland at all.

Having seen the news in the UK with teachers complaining that Zoom is breach of privacy and the response to my initial thread on this matter here it's apparent a substantial cohort of teachers don't want to teach.

wirelessdude01

shesty wrote: »

I am firmly in the "it is completely crazy" camp this morning. No way is this ok, nor should we think it is.

What isn't okay?

wirelessdude01

AmberGold wrote: »

it's apparent a substantial cohort of teachers don't want to teach.

What do you base that on? The fact that Irish schools aren't ordering from your friend.

shesty

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

What isn't okay?

Working a full-time job and home-schooling your child at the same time.If you have kids at the younger end of the school system, it is just not a feasible idea.I can't imagine it is much benefit to older kids either.