If you/your spouse is a teacher

lovingmommy3417

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 7:14 pm

For teachers who are working remotely from home, how long are you working via phone/video calls during the day?
My husband is a teacher and is working more now than he was before. I'm losing my mind. I have no help with the kids during the day bec he is working. I just saw in another post that people have 1 hour video calls a day? Is this normal?

amother

Maroon

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 7:30 pm

lovingmommy3417 wrote:

All mine have almost full day of school, rebbeim 2 hours straight. Rest 40-80 min at a time.

notshanarishona

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 7:31 pm

The Rebeiim are doing one -two hours total and limudei chol are doing 20-30 minutes per subject .

amother

Wine

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 7:33 pm

Yes. Teachers and school administrators are working harder than ever under very tryingcircumstances (their own kids home, some familymemberssick...). Even when it looks like it's only one hour of lessons it takes many hours to coordinate.

People should please keep that in mind when complaining about everything not working perfectly and threatening about withholding tuition.

amother

Amber

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 7:34 pm

Totally can relate! My husband is working so many more hours! With the classes , the prep , figuring out all the technology, the meetings! He’s up very late prepping. Plus he has another job that he does at nights and now he is doing that remotely too. It’s so hard for me to be getting the little kids away and to manage with this new schedule which I’m sure it is hard for many people.

lovingmommy3417

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 7:38 pm

amother [ Wine ] wrote:

Yes! It's the meetings in between all the classes! whether its between other teachers or specific students that need help, I'm losing my mind! My husband is too and hes too exhausted to do anything once hes done let alone help with the kids.
This has been so hard for all of us.

amother

Tangerine

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 7:52 pm

I teach only 2 40 minute periods instead of 6, but there's a ton of writing and grading assessments to make sure the kids are learning in that time because I'm doing an entire grade at once.
Generally I'm on my computer about an hour before each class begins dealing with prep or grading, and 20 minutes after finishing to answer questions, plus another 2 hours of grading at night.

icedcoffee

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 8:57 pm

I'm thankful that my admin doesn't expect us to do video calls / lessons with the students. I just upload the assignments for them. I have a one hour video department meeting call once a week, and a one hour whole school call once a week.

amother

Lilac

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 9:05 pm

I teach. My husband is still working. So he is gone all day until well after bedtime. I'm home trying to get my own kids' assignments set up and trying to get my own classroom set up plus answering questions and messages from parents and students. I don't mind. I know it's appreciated by my parents, but I'm definitely working more now than ever before.

Optione

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:09 pm

amother [ Lilac ] wrote:

This.

amother

Teal

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:13 pm

I'm both a teacher and assisting administrative staff. It's been a very stressful few days.

amother

Cerulean

Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:59 pm

We both teach and my kids have been watching videos 24/7

Super stressful times- you can’t even imagine.
We both need to record lessons and My husband does live shiurim as well. Our house quiets down at 10 so we both get to work till the wee hours of the morning working

What is ironic is that as a parent this entire “homeschooling “ is so super stressful I already gave up! I realize that schools have a pressure to produce because parents are paying tuition and they have no intention on refunding anything

IMHO I wouldn’t mind if school would extend through the summer and just give us the last three weeks off- to make up for this lost time

amother

Pewter

Thu, Mar 19 2020, 12:34 am

Agreeing with most amothers above.

We’re both teachers - totally drowning here. Hours of preparations, getting sheets to parents who may or may not have time to print them, grading scanned worksheets that come in dribs and drabs and reassuring parents who are concerned/overwhelmed on so many levels. Troubleshooting zillions of issues that crop up.

Families with multiple kids who don’t have enough phone lines/laptops, crashing servers and busy signals etc. Kids not having quiet places to work and focus, or not having enough paper/working printers etc. Kids not “getting it.” Kids not understanding the phone system.

There is no good way to teach math over the phone!! Parents are way too busy to be able to teach the necessary few minutes so their child can follow along.

AND we have a house full of our own school age kids, who ironically aren’t getting much schooling due to both of our obligations.

I appreciate the dilemma most schools are in. There is so much pressure to earn their tuition. But for my own kids - I’m relaxing my standards out of necessity, and I honestly don’t think they’ll lose out. if I had my drothers, I’d opt out of school at least until after Pesach and just bond as a family and bring Pesach in with joy and fun in the atmosphere. This is so, so stressful for all of us. Who really cares about math and English right now? Why can’t I choose what I think my kids should be learning now? I love the fun morahs/Rebbeim who are davening, singing, telling stories, etc. I think we should skip all the work, and just keep things light, educational and entertaining. There’s enough pressure just being cooped up with all their siblings for so long!

Parents! You’re such warriors! You’re doing great!!

Teachers!! You’re amazing!!

Count your victories and try to understand that we’re ALL in this together. Teachers and students, parents and children, husbands and wives. Let’s all try to understand each other. Let’s try to think positive and be as understanding as possible. Let’s support everyone around us - we’re all dealing with a lot!

Let’s grow from this trying time together!