Primary schools zoom learning

Motah · 07-01-2021 9:39pm #1

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 · 07-01-2021 10:06pm

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 · 08-01-2021 12:31am

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 · 08-01-2021 1:45am

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 · 08-01-2021 1:49am

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 · 08-01-2021 1:54am

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 · 08-01-2021 11:25am

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 · 08-01-2021 12:21pm

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 · 08-01-2021 6:40pm

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 · 09-01-2021 3:43am

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 · 09-01-2021 3:48am

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 · 09-01-2021 3:48am

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 · 09-01-2021 3:55am

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 · 09-01-2021 7:50am

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 · 09-01-2021 9:37am

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 · 09-01-2021 9:39am

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 · 09-01-2021 9:41am

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 · 09-01-2021 9:53am

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 · 09-01-2021 9:57am

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 · 09-01-2021 11:07am

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 · 09-01-2021 11:07am

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 · 09-01-2021 11:08am

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 · 09-01-2021 11:19am

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 · 09-01-2021 11:23am

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 · 09-01-2021 11:25am

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 · 09-01-2021 8:39pm

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 · 09-01-2021 8:59pm

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 · 09-01-2021 9:06pm

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 · 09-01-2021 10:17pm

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 · 09-01-2021 10:49pm

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 · 09-01-2021 10:57pm

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.

Primary schools zoom learning

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