One week back at school- Lockdown 2

 It's Sunday night and last week was my first week 'back to school' as it were but 'back to school in Lockdown'- something I was not expecting to happen again.

I thought I'd share a few thoughts and experiences from last week.

Monday was, luckily, a holiday day so it was a 4 day week- I'd got an email on Sunday letting me know that I would be in school at some point this week but details were to follow- I found out on Monday that I would be in year 5, taking the Year worker children in year 5 and the French teacher would be in the class the other three days.  I am so grateful that they take into account my journey and try, not to make me travel too unnecessarily.  The main teachers in each year group would be taking Zoom lessons for Maths, English and one foundation subject every day and in school, those taking the Keyworker year groups would be the Higher Level teaching assistants and myself and the French teacher.

Tuesday, I got started early and started trying to plan.  It did take me a while to work out how I was going to approach this. My mind was flitting in a kind of overwhelmed panic at trying to work out how I was going to work out an online version of everything as well as trying to register with how we communicate with parents on an online platform we use and share posts on there as well as worrying about what I would do in school, how many children etc- lots of unknowns. I was also worried about taking so long over posts and then children not using them like last Lockdown but at the same time, thinking that now parents would be expecting really good lessons and resources and being more critical this time.  

I realised that in year 6, we were on the similar unit of work we had been doing in the Spring Lockdown so I could adapt one of the online lessons I had already written but even editing that and adding things in took a couple of hours which caused me to panic a bit.

I then started working on the Year 5 lesson and decided to prolong the Medieval work we had been doing by adding in an extra lesson since the first lesson on the Renaissance era is a practical one which sorely relies on having groups of children since it is all about textures like homophony and polyphony and antiphony compared to monophony and explaining that is not as good as the way I do it in class where they learn it by DOING/PLAYING it together. I decided to create a lesson on learning that popular Medieval song- Summer is acumen in.   I decided to see if I could find a good video of someone teaching you to sing it rather than me having to go through the painful process of recording those short videos I did last time and found quite a good one to use. I then worked out how to play it and typed up the tune into a sheet graphic with note names in colours broken down, with a large introductory text and then recorded myself teaching them to play the melody on the online keyboard broken down into 20second videos (the length I know Blogger allows).  I then searched for a lead to see if I could transfer my videos across but it didn't work so I then managed to discover you can bluetooth across but it is painfully slow and it took several attempts to work out HOW to bluetooth them.

Eventually, I managed to transfer them across and get the post ready but again, it had taken several hours to do so. I already realised how much I HATED being back at a computer again. Success that I managed to register for the online platform we use with parents.

It was past 4 by this point so I then tried recording some videos for the Year 3's as a longer video as an experiment with seeing if I could add them to Dojo. I made up a piece of music for them and created some practice sheets and activities leading up to them around about 8-9 sheets. I then attempted to send via Bluetooth and almost went mad as they were STILL transferring at 7.30pm and if I left my computer and went anywhere, it hung up! It was infuriating- the computer hate was strong! CBC had a manic day on Tuesday of teaching 4 lessons to his pupils via MS Teams and then frantically trying to prepare for the next day's lessons so he was also still working at 7.30pm.  I gave up around 8 and then started to make the dinner, having only uploaded the 2 lessons- 4 more year groups to go with one day to do it!

The next day, I tried to upload a video to the online platform the parents communicate with to discover MY VIDEOS WERE TOO LARGE and if they were bigger than 150KB, they were too big! I almost cried as I had 12 videos for year 3 alone and I'd have to rerecord them and BLUE TOOTH them again.

I tried bluetoothing whilst creating a Year 2 lesson post (and again searching for videos and then realising I'd just have to make some of my own as none did what I wanted) and then when my computer suddenly hibernated, realised it wasn't plugged in and it was still bluetoothing so it hung up and everything that was half transferred was lost! AGHGH!GHG!HG!H  

I then decided to see if CBC could work out how to transfer via lead- he experimented with it and then got cross because it didn't do what it should do. Later, I found a different lead that DID work and managed to show up the photos in my phone but when I tried to transfer the videos, they said they were an unrecognised file type and refused to transfer! I could have screamed! Back to bluetooth! I tried to film another video and tried the wire and that worked but NOT the 12 rerecorded videos that I really needed. I truly hate technology!

Eventually, I managed to get all the files across via bluetooth, 8pm this time, and started to try and upload them to the online platform but just as I thought it was all going to finally be up, then it seemed my internet speed was too slow and it just wouldn't complete on uploading the videos! I gave up and read up on what I would be teaching on Thursday in school and made dinner.  It was nice to be able to make dinner for poor CBC who was still locked in the study trying to grapple with references for sixth form applications as he is Head of Year 11, as well as trying to run the gauntlet of various online meetings as well as teaching lessons and try and plan for them.

I went to bed quite late and wondered how on earth I would get up at 6.35 in the morning, also realising with dismay, that I had forgotten to go to the station on Wednesday afternoon, to go and buy my train tickets so I would have to go in the morning. Sigh.

Of course, I lay wide awake when I actually went to bed.

Thursday morning and I was awake and getting up at 6.45am after ignoring the first alarm. To my confusion, CBC was out of bed and already working in the study as he was stressing to get ready for online lessons and hadn't managed to get it ready the night before. I went in the shower and then got ready to leave.

It was disgustingly dark when I left and I had to traverse dark roads to get to the station- luckily, there wasn't too much traffic (though there was a bit more than I would have thought in lockdown) so I could ride on the road to get to the ticket office easier. I made the 07.31 train and luckily had a set of seats to myself and the carriage remained fairly empty. At my interchange station, I got across to the other platform and did my creative writing for the January Challenge. At 4 stops before mine, the carriage was still fairly empty so I was annoyed to discover someone sit right opposite me (actually, still at a good distance as the seats are wide apart) when all the other seats were empty. I looked up and discovered my work colleague getting on! We had a quiet chat.

At school, I arrived just before 8.30am, I got things ready and chatted to one of the TAs who was there to work with her autistic 1:1 and we talked about the day.  The other TA arrived who was the TA in my very first class and we discovered we would be teaching English lessons we had taught together 13 years ago! I ended up with 7 children and after getting them to read several chapters of the English novel to get ready for the lesson, we zoomed into the online maths lesson with the year 5 teacher as we teach 'Maths No Problem', a scheme and I haven't taught this method before so I wanted to see how the class teacher did it.  The Head had also said that we should join in with the Zoom lessons (though I was welcome to teach it myself).

The Maths lesson went well though the starter caused some confusion though I was able to go around and help my kids with their Improper fractions multiplying.  I was very relieved, watching the Year 5 teacher teach, that I wasn't having to do online LIVE lessons- it seems quite difficult to do! At all stages, if the technology fails or if something goes wrong, or someone doesn't understand something or you can't work out to is asking you a question, you feel you are being judged by parents!

Later, the English lesson, I taught myself, ably assisted by my lovely TA- she started grinning as I began and later told me, "AAAAAAh, it was SO nice to be working with you again and seeing you teach English the way you do it!"- I must say I loved it and I was so glad I knew the book, There's a boy in the Girl's bathroom, so well after teaching it for 4 years back in my Class teacher days (though scarily, I haven't taught it for at least 10 years!)  and was really able to give my children good insights and aid their understanding.  

At lunchtime, my TA and I headed across to Lidl to get some shopping- this was my opportunity to stock up on some non-plastic wrapped veg and fruit as well as some other bits. I got bananas, satsumas, courgettes, peppers, vine tomatoes, garlic, cabbage, Spring onions as well as a bag of Kale and then I got some reduced bargains (I am willing to buy plastic-items if their use-by-date is the day I buy them as to avoid food waste) some fritatas, a sandwich, some sea bass, some fishcakes and then I found 2 blocks of extra mature cheddar which were just in black wax, no other wrapping and a ceramic large pot of Stilton- all those 3 for £3.70 in total. I also picked up a cute mini house plant in a pretty pot.

Back in class, the children finished their diaries and they immediately clocked my plant on the desk. 

"What's that?" they asked.

"HE'S called SPIKE!" I replied.

One of the boys said, "Hi Spike!" so I replied with a gruff voice, ventriloquist-style and they loved it. 

That afternoon, the year 5 teachers were leading the online children in my music lesson so I taught it live in school.  I'd brought over Glockenspiels for them and they learnt to play Summer is acumen in. I was really pleased that they all learnt to play most lines of the melody and they were really focused. It was really nice.  

In the last 45 minutes, they had to read 5 chapters of the novel ready for the next lesson and as I had a bit of a sore throat and wanted to mark their English, my TA read the chapters with the children (which she'd told me earlier, she loves doing). She was in her element and we all had a fab day. The children all said they'd had a good day and one who'd come in for the first time and hadn't wanted to, told his Mum that he was glad he'd come.

After that, I went to the music room to search for the year 4 children's composing sheets and took them to the office to scan them in so I could upload them to the online platform for the kids to access as I want their music lesson to be practising those pieces at home and improving them. I then had the arduous task of trying to pack my pannier with all my shopping. It weighed a TON!

The next day, the children all came in and, totally unprompted by me, got out their glockenspiels and practised Summer is acumen in! I was super proud! They also greeted Spike!

Maths went well and before the online lesson, I'd gone through how to order fractions and find common denominators as they'd got stuck on that starter yesterday.  In the lesson though, there was an extension activity that the kids got stuck on and I could not, for the life of me, work out how to do it! Luckily, the class teacher had said it was really tricky! I might have to zoom in on Monday to find out how to do it!

In the afternoon, the art lesson was to teach them how to mix and create different shades with paints to then paint the moon. I decided to use Powder paints as I think they are brilliant to use and I got to do a lovely demo with them all watching- they then set to work and I challenged them to beat me and create more than 15 shades. They succeeded.

Once they had all done their strips, I gathered them round and demonstrated how I would go about painting the moon and noticing all the little details

They all seemed very happy and excited and they kept saying how lucky they were that they had come in today and they could do this when the kids at home had to use pencils (if they didn't have any paints) . We listened to an hour long version of Debussy's 'Clair de la lune' (By the light of the moon!) as they painted and we had a wonderfully serene, focused atmosphere. With only 7 children in class, I was able to go around and give them feedback and point out things easily. 

Here was my demo versions I did.

One of the children told me that she knew I was teaching on Thursday and Friday and had begged to come in on Thursday ("Because you're my favourite teacher!" ) but Mum only works at the hospital on Monday and Friday so she said no.  It turned out that the hospital where Mum works is incredibly stressful in case there are any conspiracists out there and they are running out of oxygen and so many staff are absolutely knackered and exhausted from overworking that they are off sick and she found it really hard to get back to pick her up in time as things are so crazy. I knew such things were going on but it makes me angry to hear of these people who think it is all a hoax.

At the end of the day, I sent home 8 happy children and said goodbye to 2 happy TAs. 

I then attempted to upload those videos I had failed to on Wednesday night. Annoyingly, I have to upload the videos 3 times because there are 3 classes and they have separate areas,  Of course, the first class, the videos uploaded fine but the second two classes, it kept freezing after uploading parts of the videos and I was still there at 6pm with the caretaker at the door with a full on gasmark and the gas machine (they are doing extreme cleaning with a anti-virus spray) waiting for me to go! I ended up having to uploads the videos in some completely random order (and there are no captions) on the two class areas and I expect there will be some parent who complains and says it is all to confusing for the children. As a precaution,I recorded one more video explaining that there is an uploading issue and apologising for any confusion to preempt any of that nonsense.

I quickly went to my room to load up my pannier with the Christmas presents that had been left for me by children when I was isolating and to fill my bag with the out of date milk in the fridge (cartons that reception usually drink but their date was 26 Dec) and to bring home a glockenspiel, Spike and a few other things I needed- it was a precarious cycle to the station.

Still, I had had two really good days at school and the difference between my feelings of frustration over uploading lessons and the joy of face to face teaching were so stark.

I was unlucky at the station and had just missed a train. My luck continued as I waited on the freezing platform as a pigeon projectile pooed on my right boot with a big white splat. At my interchange station, I discovered my train (due in 12 minutes) was cancelled and the next one wasn't for another 12 minutes after that so it was a cold 24 minute wait!

Back home, CBC was still working hard in the study so I got on with making a dinner of fishcakes and vegetables.

After watching Neighbours, we headed off to bed.