workdiary

[workdiary]

[workdiary]

Piece of warning before you start working in education, especially primary school. Parents can and will be difficult. Please remember that for most of them these kids are their babies and they will go absolutely feral at even the slightest indication that something happened to them. You need to be careful how you deal with them even if as a TA you don’t have as much interaction as the main teacher does. Acknowledge their concerns or questions and be as respectful and polite as you can, even if at times they can be incredibly rude. While this is probably common knowledge, the joys of quarantining multiple times with their babies over a years period has resulted in some tense situations. The use of Zoom to now teach children under the age of 10 brings its own struggles and you must be quick to adapt.

Having a class of 30 on zoom is difficult, the students will be talking over each other, walking away, or even jumping on the bed. You have to be quick to catch the kids when they start messing about or when their siblings start playing with them. Oh don’t forget that some of these kids are working in the kitchen and not all family’s are the quiet type so be prepared for background screaming, utilise the mute button, it is your friend.

The biggest struggle I’ve encountered frequently is children either logging on late or not even bothering to show up at all. There’s always the chance of losing a child mid class or that they forget to come back after their breaks. It’s easy to get annoyed or frustrated with the kids but remember they are still kids, it is the parents who don’t keep up with it. In all honesty, it’s understandable really. They never really had to deal with this aspect of their child’s education. It’s a big change especially if there are more than one kid in the house. Try to be understanding but also firm with the emails and the phone calls because there is only so many classes they can miss before it starts becoming a problem. On the other hand, make sure that you don’t get to frustrated with the missing kids because there is only so many emails and phone calls that can be made, you’ve done your part and now it’s time for the parent to do theirs.

[workdiary]

UPDATE TO THIS:

I look at the chat once again to see that in response to the boy yelling out what was said, the child who started all of this had typed out “BAD BAD (Name)”.

Honestly.

SO! We’re in lockdown for a month due to the plague and let me tell you, zoom and 2nd graders: not easy. However! They can be highly amusing! So today’s story time revolves around zoom and the chat option that should always be watched. So the main teacher usually disabled it during class time because 2nd graders can and will get distracted by it but for the 5 minutes we wait for all the kiddos to log on she keeps it open. This was a mistake.

Usually our kids take the time to just keyboard smash or type a nice hello or even the stray I love you! My job as the TA is to do the register as the they come in as that’s just the easiest way to do it but I also used to look at the chat when we had it on during class time in case of questions from the students or their parents. The button smashing led to that lovely feature being disabled. Therefore, I no longer looked at the chat all that often anymore. I opened it today because the little notification was starting to annoy me. It was then that I saw it. The message. One of my kids opened the chat, the very first message of the day, with “fak you all”.

Now my gut reaction was to burst into laugh but I was able to stop that because I didn’t want to drag everyone’s attention to that lovely greeting. I took a picture and sent it to the main teacher to give her a heads up hey this exists! She just looks absolutely done and gives the heaviest sigh Ive ever heard. I ask her “what do we do?” Because we in no way want to try to explain why this shouldn’t be said to a child who might have put in typo (it is in now way a typo). So our plan of action was ignore ignore ignore and it was working until one of the girls calls out to us and says exactly this “ you might want to look at the chat”. Bless her soul only 7 and already understands the need for discretion. I tell her we know and that we’ll take care of it. She nods and end of conversation. I thought we were free, that we avoided an absolute mess. I was wrong.

Today was spelling test day and we needed to mark it right then and there. We decided that we would do a break out room and have half the kiddos with me and the other half the main teacher so we could mark it quicker. So I go to the breakout room and I’m getting ready to do some quick marking but I am interrupted by one of the boys. “MISS MISS ON THE CHAT-” I stop him right there because the kiddo who sent it is in my break out room and we don’t want to give him attention. I tell him that I saw it and that the main teacher will take care of it. That should have been the end of it. It wasn’t. The damage is already in motion. I turn from him to call out to one of the kids and he yells as loud as he can “ (kiddo) SAID FUCK YOU TO US”. Complete silence. If there was hope that none of the other kiddos saw the message, out the window. I need to damage control but I’m stuck in shock and my next gut response isn’t all that helpful asI once again have to prevent myself from laughing because he said that with so much passion and sounded so offended that I can hear the meme “ the audacity” all over his tone of voice. All I could do is reprimand him, saying that he can’t say that and that this word is rude and that the other boy will be getting in trouble.

Moral of this story is that zoom chat is a menace and that 2nd graders can and will say whatever they want no matter how much you try to get them to just not.

[workdiary]

SO! We’re in lockdown for a month due to the plague and let me tell you, zoom and 2nd graders: not easy. However! They can be highly amusing! So today’s story time revolves around zoom and the chat option that should always be watched. So the main teacher usually disabled it during class time because 2nd graders can and will get distracted by it but for the 5 minutes we wait for all the kiddos to log on she keeps it open. This was a mistake.

Usually our kids take the time to just keyboard smash or type a nice hello or even the stray I love you! My job as the TA is to do the register as the they come in as that’s just the easiest way to do it but I also used to look at the chat when we had it on during class time in case of questions from the students or their parents. The button smashing led to that lovely feature being disabled. Therefore, I no longer looked at the chat all that often anymore. I opened it today because the little notification was starting to annoy me. It was then that I saw it. The message. One of my kids opened the chat, the very first message of the day, with “fak you all”.

Now my gut reaction was to burst into laugh but I was able to stop that because I didn’t want to drag everyone’s attention to that lovely greeting. I took a picture and sent it to the main teacher to give her a heads up hey this exists! She just looks absolutely done and gives the heaviest sigh Ive ever heard. I ask her “what do we do?” Because we in no way want to try to explain why this shouldn’t be said to a child who might have put in typo (it is in now way a typo). So our plan of action was ignore ignore ignore and it was working until one of the girls calls out to us and says exactly this “ you might want to look at the chat”. Bless her soul only 7 and already understands the need for discretion. I tell her we know and that we’ll take care of it. She nods and end of conversation. I thought we were free, that we avoided an absolute mess. I was wrong.

Today was spelling test day and we needed to mark it right then and there. We decided that we would do a break out room and have half the kiddos with me and the other half the main teacher so we could mark it quicker. So I go to the breakout room and I’m getting ready to do some quick marking but I am interrupted by one of the boys. “MISS MISS ON THE CHAT-” I stop him right there because the kiddo who sent it is in my break out room and we don’t want to give him attention. I tell him that I saw it and that the main teacher will take care of it. That should have been the end of it. It wasn’t. The damage is already in motion. I turn from him to call out to one of the kids and he yells as loud as he can “ (kiddo) SAID FUCK YOU TO US”. Complete silence. If there was hope that none of the other kiddos saw the message, out the window. I need to damage control but I’m stuck in shock and my next gut response isn’t all that helpful asI once again have to prevent myself from laughing because he said that with so much passion and sounded so offended that I can hear the meme “ the audacity” all over his tone of voice. All I could do is reprimand him, saying that he can’t say that and that this word is rude and that the other boy will be getting in trouble.

Moral of this story is that zoom chat is a menace and that 2nd graders can and will say whatever they want no matter how much you try to get them to just not.

[workdiary]

Just giving my niece the maths worksheets for her classes to work on causes a Huge Difference in her engagement. The online learning is boring for her because it’s just a video of someone talking at her. It doesn’t engage her. Having the worksheet and working with her in person is much more engaging. I don’t know the subject well enough to trust myself to do it every time with her, but it’s definitely telling that she finds focusing on videos so hard. 

Adapting my teaching to suit her better means constant breaks and a little fun time here and there. It means snacks on hand. It means making jokes and being silly and letting her get side-tracked with little tangents her mind thinks of.

In the end, she does the work and does it well. It’s hard for her and she still struggles but just by being engaging and giving her the chance to Do Something Physical Like Bunny Hopping Around The House helps her.

Is it chaotic? Yes.

Does it give me a headache? Yes.

Am I really not designed for the chaos of a child wanting to Move Move Move? Yes.

Am I doing this anyway because it works for her and it’s helping her learn? Hell, yes.

I’m in mild discomfort and will continue to be because this is a method that is helping her. I might not enjoy noise. I might not enjoy the chaos of a child and a dog bouncing around so much. But sometimes you have to endure things you don’t enjoy for a reason.

Helping my niece learn is a damned good reason, in my opinion.

A damned good reason.