Becoming teacher in a global pandemic and lockdown
None of us thought we would be back to schooling our children from home but another lockdown has called on those who can to start supporting our children with home learning again. While we were all a little more prepared this time for what it entails it hasn’t made scheduling around working from home any easier. And, perhaps even more worrying our children have moved into new school years which comes with added difficulty in some subjects. Math’s sums are testing our abilities and pronouns and subjunctive clauses have some of us wondering if we were present in our English classes.
The St Antony’s Centre team have been working to support our Functional Skills tutor and we are now in a position to support those parents who may be struggling with some of the work being set.
In our Home Schooling Help for Parents workshops, our tutor will take you through the basics over Zoom.
Juggling completing your own work and supporting your children with theirs is, undoubtedly, a challenge, one which many have shared. Finding a balance which suits your family and what works for you is difficult - what might work one week might not work the other. It is important to recognise you’re doing your best and comparisons to others isn’t fair.
For parents with more than one child and children in different years, it has become a job in itself to monitor the different ways schoolwork is being set. From Google classrooms live lessons, to apps like Showbie and BBC bitesize, parents are having to make sure each child has access to and can complete their work on time.
Many families are now, beginning to find their own ‘routines’ and what works for them. Children are becoming more accustomed to learning from home and teachers are updating blogs, sharing how pupils are learning and what they are doing at home too. There are Facebook pages for different areas of the country and school communities, where parents and carers have been talking and supporting one another.
It has become and is, a period in time, which is highlighting the larger community around us, showing how we are encouraging and supporting one another from our safe spaces, our homes.
As a team, we too have been finding different ways to work from home whilst helping our children with schoolwork and learning how to work alongside others at home.
Get in touch with the team to day for advice and guidance on navigating home learning.
