Are there any other teachers who AREN'T freaking out about teaching virtually?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach HS math and belong to many online teaching groups where all the teachers are stressing out about teaching online this fall and talking about how busy they are preparing for it. I really don't get it. I taught over Zoom this spring and while there were some modification that needed to be made, it really wasn't terribly different than what would happen in class. In person, I have presentations that are displayed on my SmartBoard, on Zoom, I display the same presentations on my computer. I don't understand how it's THAT much work for other teachers to transition to teaching over Zoom. Obviously, I'm not referring to elementary school teachers who are leading reading groups, or teachers who teach subjects like FACS where they normally cook in class. But for HS teachers, who teach in the four core subject areas, we already have presentations that we use in the classroom, these can just as easily be shared on Zoom. There's not a tremendous amount of modifications that need to be made. Is most of the stressing out coming from the elementary teachers, and those who teach subjects like PE, Theater, that really need to be completely reworked?

I think your teaching style is exactly why so many students hate math. This sounds dry, boring, unimaginative and just plan lousy lazy teaching. I hope your school has few teachers like you and more than realize teaching is more than putting up a presentation.

You have any better ideas of how students are supposed to learn high level math without receiving a lot of explicit, direct instruction? It's not something kids just "discover" working in groups with each other.

+1. PP you are either an ES teacher or the parent of an ES student. Flowers, unicorns and funny hats are not required to teach pre-calculus or geometry in HS. OP- keep up the good work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any parents who don’t think teachers are stupid? If parents think teachers are really this stupid, why would they allow their children to be educated by them?

What choice is there? You think everyone has $40k sitting around to send them to private? The unions won’t allow principals to cut deadwood and these positions are treated as jobs for life.
PP18:13 has it exactly right. In no other world did it takes months to learn how to use zoom outside of public teachers.

[Anonymous]

My kid’s private school is $17K per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach HS math and belong to many online teaching groups where all the teachers are stressing out about teaching online this fall and talking about how busy they are preparing for it. I really don't get it. I taught over Zoom this spring and while there were some modification that needed to be made, it really wasn't terribly different than what would happen in class. In person, I have presentations that are displayed on my SmartBoard, on Zoom, I display the same presentations on my computer. I don't understand how it's THAT much work for other teachers to transition to teaching over Zoom. Obviously, I'm not referring to elementary school teachers who are leading reading groups, or teachers who teach subjects like FACS where they normally cook in class. But for HS teachers, who teach in the four core subject areas, we already have presentations that we use in the classroom, these can just as easily be shared on Zoom. There's not a tremendous amount of modifications that need to be made. Is most of the stressing out coming from the elementary teachers, and those who teach subjects like PE, Theater, that really need to be completely reworked?

I think your teaching style is exactly why so many students hate math. This sounds dry, boring, unimaginative and just plan lousy lazy teaching. I hope your school has few teachers like you and more than realize teaching is more than putting up a presentation.

You have any better ideas of how students are supposed to learn high level math without receiving a lot of explicit, direct instruction? It's not something kids just "discover" working in groups with each other.

NP but yes I do have idea for how students can learn high level math without lots of direct instruction. I use lecture sparingly. Yes it took a lot of work developing materials but my classes have been very successful on the AP exams. Including this year.

Well, don't hold back. Please share.

I use a lot of discovery based activities to have students learn instead of me directly teaching them the content. It is not the easiest thing to write out on an anonymous forum but it works very effectively for my students and for my upper level math courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach HS math and belong to many online teaching groups where all the teachers are stressing out about teaching online this fall and talking about how busy they are preparing for it. I really don't get it. I taught over Zoom this spring and while there were some modification that needed to be made, it really wasn't terribly different than what would happen in class. In person, I have presentations that are displayed on my SmartBoard, on Zoom, I display the same presentations on my computer. I don't understand how it's THAT much work for other teachers to transition to teaching over Zoom. Obviously, I'm not referring to elementary school teachers who are leading reading groups, or teachers who teach subjects like FACS where they normally cook in class. But for HS teachers, who teach in the four core subject areas, we already have presentations that we use in the classroom, these can just as easily be shared on Zoom. There's not a tremendous amount of modifications that need to be made. Is most of the stressing out coming from the elementary teachers, and those who teach subjects like PE, Theater, that really need to be completely reworked?

I think your teaching style is exactly why so many students hate math. This sounds dry, boring, unimaginative and just plan lousy lazy teaching. I hope your school has few teachers like you and more than realize teaching is more than putting up a presentation.

You have any better ideas of how students are supposed to learn high level math without receiving a lot of explicit, direct instruction? It's not something kids just "discover" working in groups with each other.

+1. PP you are either an ES teacher or the parent of an ES student. Flowers, unicorns and funny hats are not required to teach pre-calculus or geometry in HS. OP- keep up the good work!

NP, but I used to teach geometry and barely lectured. There are lots of activity based learning opportunities for geometry. It is by far my favorite class to teach because it is so active and there is little need for lecture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any parents who don’t think teachers are stupid? If parents think teachers are really this stupid, why would they allow their children to be educated by them?

What choice is there? You think everyone has $40k sitting around to send them to private? The unions won’t allow principals to cut deadwood and these positions are treated as jobs for life.
PP18:13 has it exactly right. In no other world did it takes months to learn how to use zoom outside of public teachers.

At every single school board meeting I’ve seen since Covid, the school board members struggle with zoom, from at a minimum forgetting to unmute themselves or turn on their videos, to struggling with getting their powerpoints to show, and these are all people with highly professional day jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach HS math and belong to many online teaching groups where all the teachers are stressing out about teaching online this fall and talking about how busy they are preparing for it. I really don't get it. I taught over Zoom this spring and while there were some modification that needed to be made, it really wasn't terribly different than what would happen in class. In person, I have presentations that are displayed on my SmartBoard, on Zoom, I display the same presentations on my computer. I don't understand how it's THAT much work for other teachers to transition to teaching over Zoom. Obviously, I'm not referring to elementary school teachers who are leading reading groups, or teachers who teach subjects like FACS where they normally cook in class. But for HS teachers, who teach in the four core subject areas, we already have presentations that we use in the classroom, these can just as easily be shared on Zoom. There's not a tremendous amount of modifications that need to be made. Is most of the stressing out coming from the elementary teachers, and those who teach subjects like PE, Theater, that really need to be completely reworked?

I think your teaching style is exactly why so many students hate math. This sounds dry, boring, unimaginative and just plan lousy lazy teaching. I hope your school has few teachers like you and more than realize teaching is more than putting up a presentation.

You have any better ideas of how students are supposed to learn high level math without receiving a lot of explicit, direct instruction? It's not something kids just "discover" working in groups with each other.

+1. PP you are either an ES teacher or the parent of an ES student. Flowers, unicorns and funny hats are not required to teach pre-calculus or geometry in HS. OP- keep up the good work!

NP, but I used to teach geometry and barely lectured. There are lots of activity based learning opportunities for geometry. It is by far my favorite class to teach because it is so active and there is little need for lecture.

So how exactly did you teach new material without lecturing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach HS math and belong to many online teaching groups where all the teachers are stressing out about teaching online this fall and talking about how busy they are preparing for it. I really don't get it. I taught over Zoom this spring and while there were some modification that needed to be made, it really wasn't terribly different than what would happen in class. In person, I have presentations that are displayed on my SmartBoard, on Zoom, I display the same presentations on my computer. I don't understand how it's THAT much work for other teachers to transition to teaching over Zoom. Obviously, I'm not referring to elementary school teachers who are leading reading groups, or teachers who teach subjects like FACS where they normally cook in class. But for HS teachers, who teach in the four core subject areas, we already have presentations that we use in the classroom, these can just as easily be shared on Zoom. There's not a tremendous amount of modifications that need to be made. Is most of the stressing out coming from the elementary teachers, and those who teach subjects like PE, Theater, that really need to be completely reworked?

I think your teaching style is exactly why so many students hate math. This sounds dry, boring, unimaginative and just plan lousy lazy teaching. I hope your school has few teachers like you and more than realize teaching is more than putting up a presentation.

You have any better ideas of how students are supposed to learn high level math without receiving a lot of explicit, direct instruction? It's not something kids just "discover" working in groups with each other.

NP but yes I do have idea for how students can learn high level math without lots of direct instruction. I use lecture sparingly. Yes it took a lot of work developing materials but my classes have been very successful on the AP exams. Including this year.

Well, don't hold back. Please share.

I use a lot of discovery based activities to have students learn instead of me directly teaching them the content. It is not the easiest thing to write out on an anonymous forum but it works very effectively for my students and for my upper level math courses.

If you are teaching high level math you are doing a decent amount of direct teaching. At a certain level, people just don’t get the concepts without explicit instruction. And I have never seen a math teacher who didn’t do direct instruction. They may use some other euphemism for it such as a “mini-lesson”, but make no mistake it’s direct instruction aka - a lecture. And so what? I seriously don’t understand this notion, that providing direct, explicit, clear cut instruction is a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

No. Not freaking out. Stick me in the classroom, put me outside or put me on a zoom. I can teach anywhere. Let's go!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Not freaking out. Stick me in the classroom, put me outside or put me on a zoom. I can teach anywhere. Let's go!

This x1000. I can't wait to get back to school no matter what it looks like!

[Anonymous]

I have taught math and statistics.

I think math is way easier to teach in the online format. You do some direct instruction, some guided practice, some independent practice. Online the hardest part is giving feedback since it's difficult to look over the kids shoulder and see their work.

Statistics is way harder online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach HS math and belong to many online teaching groups where all the teachers are stressing out about teaching online this fall and talking about how busy they are preparing for it. I really don't get it. I taught over Zoom this spring and while there were some modification that needed to be made, it really wasn't terribly different than what would happen in class. In person, I have presentations that are displayed on my SmartBoard, on Zoom, I display the same presentations on my computer. I don't understand how it's THAT much work for other teachers to transition to teaching over Zoom. Obviously, I'm not referring to elementary school teachers who are leading reading groups, or teachers who teach subjects like FACS where they normally cook in class. But for HS teachers, who teach in the four core subject areas, we already have presentations that we use in the classroom, these can just as easily be shared on Zoom. There's not a tremendous amount of modifications that need to be made. Is most of the stressing out coming from the elementary teachers, and those who teach subjects like PE, Theater, that really need to be completely reworked?

I think your teaching style is exactly why so many students hate math. This sounds dry, boring, unimaginative and just plan lousy lazy teaching. I hope your school has few teachers like you and more than realize teaching is more than putting up a presentation.

NP. It’s likely OP is quite a good teacher, confident and competent in her subject. In modern education, schools always have kids do “group work.”

My kids hate group work. It’s a lousy way to learn.

I hope Zoom forces schools to return to more traditional ways of delivering knowledge. So long poster boards and group projects!

My HS DCPS kid had to do a group poster board in DL. I asked how he did this virtually. He said that he gathered the material, sent pictures to partner, and partner made the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s private school is $17K per year.

The human head weighs 8 pounds.

[Anonymous]

If you teach a course that requires lots of hands on, materials, or manipulatives than that is a tough switch. If you are textbook and lecture based, much easier. Let’s not pretend the switch to DL will be the same level of difficulty for all content areas!