Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I completely agree with you on this point.  I think in this day and age there is no excuse for it, we all have laptops/smartboards that we use every day, yet some of my colleagues can't even connect to their WiFi at home.  Granted, some teachers are of an older generation where the idea of creating and narrating PowerPoints is alien to them.  But councils and schools should've had the foresight to get staff training on all this organised as soon as it became a possibility of a long term closure and have clear expectations about the amount of online content we would be generating.  There's been too much inconsistency .

It's been a learning curve for some - I'm fortunate that I'm in a subject which is IT heavy (Business Studies) - we've tried to share our knowledge and experience with colleagues who are less confident.

 

Like you I've been involved in the hubs, often picking up paper packs once I've finished to drop off to pupils who don't have consistent access to a computer - usually because they are sharing with siblings or parent(s) working from home.

 

We've had to adapt a lot of resources so they can be completed in either handwritten or electronically (using Google Classrooms). A significant amount of my time has been spent creating resources not just for remote learning (including extension tasks fiur this who finish) but also for when we return - we are looking to streamline course to cover the essential content with additional work set that pupils will carry out remotely.

 

Another part of my time is marking - online comments and feedback via Google Classrooms and email - as a department we decided that it would be easier for a single teacher to look after an entire course or cohort - I have the short straw of looking after 3 separate courses in the Senior Phase - it's not just setting work but putting out reminders and providing support and advice when they email.

 

There is also time chasing up pupils who have either not signed up to Google Classrooms of who have signed up and then avoided work. As a PT I have had to regularly contact parents through text alerts and emails - submitting referrals to our Guidance staff when we have not made any headway. We have also uncovered pupils who try and pull the wool over their parents eyes - this monitoring is really important as some parents think their children ard working when they are not.

 

As I say, a big learning experience and certainly food for thought for the future - I think it is fair to say that it may make teachers think quite differently how to support pupils outside their usual lessons.

 

Just one question - what are you using remotely with pupils? We've used Google Classrooms as it was fine for theory work - but it is useless for practical IT as it has very limited functionality. We're looking at Teams as the way to go - are you using that?

 

[renton]

45 minutes ago, Michael W said:

Again, a rising R is not being reflected in the daily case numbers, which are still trending down (albeit not as quickly as one would've liked) 

Either the estimate is wrong, or the initial estimate of the R number was incorrect. 

The R value is extrapolated from a complex model that runs on some pretty hefty computing resources. It takes a probabilistic approach usinng corner cases  and models the whole country. As far as I know, they tend to model on historical data so tends to be a week or two behind.

So there could be a few things at work here: FIrstly, while the overall case load is going down, the overall R effective value could be reflecting local clusters where that is not occurring, small knots where case loads are flat or worse. It would also depend on factors like connectivity between clusters as to how high the R value is likely to be.  Like, say you had ten regions where the R value was low and one where it was high, the overall R value would vary depending on how that one region interacted with others.

Secondly, when you drill into regional data the sample sizes go down and ultimately the variance in confidence of the data goes up. So regions like the South West that show a 1.1 at the upper limit may well not be anywhere near that but we hit the limits of data confidence.

Thirdly, it should be noted that different models yield different results bit interesting that the Scottish model (University of Edinburgh, I think) shows Scotland with a lower R value around 0.6 to 0.8. That may be due to the differing demographic realities of Scoltand vs England or it may reflect the impact of a slower release rate.

I do wonder if its possible to reverse the model and find the optimal R effective number for each lockdown release point without causing large rises in case numbers.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

And now I’m teaching kids who are leaving S6 who were born the year after I left!

It’s great sitting with kids and talking about options now. My Guidance Teacher just wanted to know how many Highers I would get and what Uni courses I had to then apply for. We talk about so much now and there are dozens of different paths they can take.

I worked out that some of the puplls I first taught are now in their mid-40s.

I feel old.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

 

 

 

 

 

 I really hope that we can return to normality as soon as possible. The thought of next term running into the October - December term isn’t what anyone wants or needs.

 

Agreed - it's a real concern for some of our courses - particularly those with a significant practical element - in Business Studies it is our National 5 Admin & IT (85% practical) and Higher Admin & IT (58% practical) that are giving concerns. In both courses we are usually through the bulk of practical content by Christmas. We can cut some skills out - those that might appear in assignments that we can follow up on later - but there is only do mic of thatv you can do.

 

The sooner we are back to something like a full timetable the better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[renton]

4 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

Wee bit surprised by this.

Estimates for R in Scotland have been below 1 (and fairly static) since the lockdown began.

It shows that R was above 1 until after the full lockdown was put in place, and decayed to under 1 shortly after, which is what you'd expect to happen based purely on the idea that lack of contact isolates vectors. 

However, since there is no medical intervention in the form of vaccines then the case load can only decay as fast as recovery or death, which is the only way to get a further decay in R effective.

The report later on states that there is probably 4,500 active cases left in Scotland, which would be enough to trigger an exponential increase if enough of those were exposed to susceptible vectors. In other words, there is still a danger of pushing too hard, too fast with the existing estimate of case load that would expose us to a jump in R effective.

Edited June 12, 2020 by renton

[DeeTillEhDeh]

As a pinko leftist commie radical demagogue instead it sounds to me like this is a perfect opportunity to properly invest in teaching so that teachers only need to work their contracted hours and are well rested and better at their jobs. I mean we've had 40 years of newspapers telling people unions are bad so I can understand why the mean spirited attitude in the post like above will percolate through. This is of course completely fanciful in our current political reality but we've just witnessed that problems like homelessness can go away at the stroke of a pen and the only things stopping good things happening in society are unpleasant men with blue rosettes who don't like the idea of people being happy.

It's an opportunity to make sure all pupils have access to the necessary IT equipment and free Wi-Fi (and improvements to networks to allow them to access remotely) - yes it would be costly but once up and running would be fantastic investment in children.

[Michael W]

15 minutes ago, renton said:

The R value is extrapolated from a complex model that runs on some pretty hefty computing resources. It takes a probabilistic approach usinng corner cases  and models the whole country. As far as I know, they tend to model on historical data so tends to be a week or two behind.

So there could be a few things at work here: FIrstly, while the overall case load is going down, the overall R effective value could be reflecting local clusters where that is not occurring, small knots where case loads are flat or worse. It would also depend on factors like connectivity between clusters as to how high the R value is likely to be.  Like, say you had ten regions where the R value was low and one where it was high, the overall R value would vary depending on how that one region interacted with others.

Secondly, when you drill into regional data the sample sizes go down and ultimately the variance in confidence of the data goes up. So regions like the South West that show a 1.1 at the upper limit may well not be anywhere near that but we hit the limits of data confidence.

Thirdly, it should be noted that different models yield different results bit interesting that the Scottish model (University of Edinburgh, I think) shows Scotland with a lower R value around 0.6 to 0.8. That may be due to the differing demographic realities of Scoltand vs England or it may reflect the impact of a slower release rate.

I do wonder if its possible to reverse the model and find the optimal R effective number for each lockdown release point without causing large rises in case numbers.

This is a good post and genuinely informative. Thank you. 

I would be confident of the R number in Scotland being lower given the very low number of cases occurring currently. Hopefully it stays that way. 

[super_carson]

24 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Just one question - what are you using remotely with pupils? We've used Google Classrooms as it was fine for theory work - but it is useless for practical IT as it has very limited functionality. We're looking at Teams as the way to go - are you using that?

We're using teams, though it was tricky getting the younger ones used to it (in reality, for anything under P4 it's probably their parents).  I like it because we can have channels for different things within a class team...for example I've got it set up so my class can share work with each other, chat to each other, ask the teacher questions etc.  Assignments is also pretty good for setting and marking specific tasks, and I've used a couple of whiteboard apps and a graphics tablet to do virtual lessons that kids can access anytime they need to.  We're not allowed to use direct video with the pupils though, I think there's a child protection issue there, but other than that it's been very helpful keeping in touch with my class.  

I'm quite a big fan of it, and as I'll be staying with my class next session I'll be looking to use it as a permanent feature - even once we're back to normal. 

[Thistle_do_nicely]

4 hours ago, ICTChris said:

virginton is primarily concerned with status. His ferocious streams of posting on here have concentrated on attacks on groups who have received some level of recognition during the current crisis - supermarket workers, public health officials, the careers clap and now teachers. There’s certainly a lot to criticise about many of those groups (although I doubt many people had “Tesco shelf stackers” as an obvious target for trolling) but the consistency of the targeting is what’s interesting. Any group who receives praise and recognition has to be knocked down, it’s a zero sum game.

One thing that’s really fascinating is the introduction in the last few posts of insulting people based on their degree (“Desmond here” etc). This is a real indication of the underlying motivations And bitterness behind this. How can a shelf stacker receive any recognition above me? They don’t even have a higher educations! Teachers, pah! most of them barely scraped a 2:1. This thinking is something you occasionally see among people who are high achievers educationally, particularly those who do so in subjects or areas that don’t have direct career paths, for example PPE or History. It’s driven by the underlying knowledge that all their intelligence and achievements does guarantee a satisfying or rewarding (financially or otherwise) life. the kids at school who picked on them and now work as tradesmen probably have more money and happiness.

Nietzsche wrote that the emotion he called “Ressentiment” was the result of reassigning your pain and sense of inferiority onto an external force or enemy and then pickling your personality around that resentment and pain. He also said that the highest calling for a man was to “become who you are” - sadly for the people who exhibit these tendencies the niggling resentments and imagined slights prevent this from ever happening with “become who you feel you deserve to be based on your early to mid education” being a poor substitute.

Somewhat tangential but there was a guy I went to school with who got a first class honours (in History funnily enough) that was always a fairly mild mannered, quiet guy in any of my classes at school.

When I still had a Facebook account it was kind of horrible to watch him drift away into the alt right in the span of about a year (he started posted stuff about filling in online surveys for hours at a time to make money out of sheer desperation, failing his driving test, an acrimonious break-up with his girlfriend, not being able to get a decent job which I suspect was maybe due to interviewing really poorly as he was always a little bit twitchy when he was at school and all sorts of little Peep Show esque "life is fucking me over" moments besides)

At a certain point he started spraffing stuff about God Emperor Trump, smug pictures of Farage, evil feminazi's, communism is evil and will never ever work and the like, and I think he managed to alienate a lot of people in his social circle through it all. Your last paragraph sounds absolutely bang on about him projecting his inferiority; I always got the impression he wasn't able to understand why he wasn't getting whatever he wanted out of life and got taken in by Lyle Lanley types.

It was kind of eye opening as to it not just being thick gammon c***s that end up attracted to the alt right, if nothing else.

Edited June 12, 2020 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Wee Willie]

3 hours ago, MixuFruit said:

Brilliant!

2 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

Yes. But in the 12 years or so they have been the largest party in Scotland they haven't achieved that, and it's arguably further away now than it was in 2014.

They have an end game of independence, but also a day job in running Scotland until then.

This is the first time they have really been asked a big question. When it was just about looking and communicating better than WM they absolutely smashed that because that is what they are best at. Now the focus has switched to them stepping up and leading Scotland, making big decisions along the way that they cannot blame on WM if they don't work, and they are floundering.

They are fortunate that distrust of BJ is so high that they can get away with being ridiculously slow, despite the fact that England too is seeing cases and deaths drop.

Of course they have to run Scotland until independence (hopefully) and as NS said today the Scottish government was elected to make the decisions regarding Covid-19 and everything else. They cannae please everybody and I, for one, want them to keep on running Scotland. Admittedly I'm auld, on a pension and I'm self-isolating so I'm no meeting the problems others have but again, the SG cannae please everyone.

2 hours ago, Ron Aldo said:

Spot on.

As an SNP voter I still have a lack of confidence in them when it comes to making big decisions. Throughout this pandemic, they've have had a perfect opportunity to make some tough decisions and to show some real leadership - something which might have converted some previous no voters to yes voters (in the event of a second referendum, obviously).

Instead, the SG's entire plan seems to be to sit a couple of weeks behind England and see what does/doesn't work down there. Other than communicating things a bit better than WM, they haven't really shown any initiative as far as I can tell.

And you don't think that's a good idea.  You want the SG to dive in ahead of England and be the guinea pig once again.

2 hours ago, bendan said:

It's true that it's up to them to make the decision, but I really hope they understand what the consequences are.

I agree. But the SG have to make decisions based on a balancing act of what they should do and what they shouldn't. It's no easy.

2 hours ago, die hard doonhamer said:

No, I can't see it, unfortunately. If they did, I'd vote for them. It might allow the unionists back in a bit, but I don't think to the extent where they end up in power.

Why would ye vote for them?

Surely vote for independence then vote for whichever party you want. Voting for any party bar the SNP before independence would weaken the independence movement.

[Todd_is_God]

Just now, Wee Willie said:

And you don't think that's a good idea.  You want the SG to dive in ahead of England and be the guinea pig once again.

Why the fixation with England?

We should do what is best for Scotland, when it is best for Scotland. Not wait until England decides what's best for them then tries it out. 

For once, England is irrelevant.

[Todd_is_God]

3 minutes ago, Wee Willie said:

Why would ye vote for them?

Surely vote for independence then vote for whichever party you want. Voting for any party bar the SNP before independence would weaken the independence movement.

Surely you must see why this is a potential issue?

If it was a one time deal, then it would be fine to do exactly as you describe. But it's not a one time deal. By the next GE we will be approaching 17 years of SNP dominance without achieving this.

Essentially if you are pro-independence you must vote SNP, regardless of whether or not you agree with their policies, which allows them to be complacent.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Is that "you" directed at me? If so you are on very dangerous ground.

 

It's you plural: the teaching body as a whole, which the evidence shows are doing very little work during the schools closure. Not that I could give even the slightest shit about besmirching your non-existent honour: 'dangerous ground' or not.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

 

Funny that those being furloughed on 80% pay and doing f**k all (as they are meant to be) are not demonised as teachers seem to be.

Well not really, given that:

i) they aren't receiving 100% pay in exchange for doing f**k all and

ii) are mostly private sector employees with no state-mandated task of educating its citizens. 

Nobody cares about the employee of some faceless corporate organisation playing CoD in the middle of a virus lockdown then; they do however care about marginalised students being left behind because state employees preferred to keep their ski holiday window open during the February week. 

 

[pandarilla]

A £100 voucher for a fucking hotel stay (and a £30 voucher for a local restaurant as well) is like using a sticking plaster to deal with a ruptured artery. That is a small time as f**k agenda for an organisation that styles itself on 'big ideas'. 

[emoji1787]

That's only a couple of their suggestions.

 

Go and have a look at the report that's released today - it's very detailed, and is being released in phases.

 

https://commonweal.scot/policy-library/resilient-scotland-part-one

 

The idea is that subsidies shouldn't be given to airlines or oil companies, or other multinationals.

 

We should spend recovery money giving it to people, in the form of vouchers for local businesses.

 

There's a guaranteed 'noone losses a job scheme' over this crisis, connected to retraining for supporting specific Scottish industries (medium sized companies - but i can't remember the specific term used - it was based on the German economic model). The details are in the report.

 

We should be increasing the borrowing powers that currently exist - and using them wisely. The point of the plan was that this stuff can be done without further powers from Westminster (although common weal still supports independence... Obviously).

 

That and the banking reform i mentioned earlier, relating to the Scottish investment Bank.

 

 

 

 

 

[coprolite]

20 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Surely you must see why this is a potential issue?

If it was a one time deal, then it would be fine to do exactly as you describe. But it's not a one time deal. By the next GE we will be approaching 17 years of SNP dominance without achieving this.

Essentially if you are pro-independence you must vote SNP, regardless of whether or not you agree with their policies, which allows them to be complacent.

Since the recent Westminster government was elected I have reluctantly come to the view that independence would be best for Scotland. I won’t be voting for the SNP at the next election though.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well not really, given that: i) they aren't receiving 100% pay in exchange for doing f**k all and ii) are mostly private sector employees with no state-mandated task of educating its citizens.  Nobody cares about the employee of some faceless corporate organisation playing CoD in the middle of a virus lockdown then; they do however care about marginalised students being left behind because state employees preferred to keep their ski holiday window open during the February week.     

 

 

 

 

 You seriously need to give it a rest. There are times you make a lot of sense on some topics - but these posts are just ridiculously OTT and without substance - they fail the statement of verifiable fact test - it make you look like a complete dick.  

 

 

It's Oaksoft levels of hate against the teaching profession - you don't know me, you don't know what I do, you are in no position to make a judgement about me or sweeping generalisations about teachers.

 

End of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andy Dufresne]

I would like to suggest the ignore function DeeTillEhDeh

[vikingTON]

37 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

That's only a couple of their suggestions.

 

Go and have a look at the report that's released today - it's very detailed, and is being released in phases.

 

https://commonweal.scot/policy-library/resilient-scotland-part-one

 

The idea is that subsidies shouldn't be given to airlines or oil companies, or other multinationals.

 

We should spend recovery money giving it to people, in the form of vouchers for local businesses.

 

There's a guaranteed 'noone losses a job scheme' over this crisis, connected to retraining for supporting specific Scottish industries (medium sized companies - but i can't remember the specific term used - it was based on the German economic model). The details are in the report.

 

We should be increasing the borrowing powers that currently exist - and using them wisely. The point of the plan was that this stuff can be done without further powers from Westminster (although common weal still supports independence... Obviously).

 

That and the banking reform i mentioned earlier, relating to the Scottish investment Bank.

You're right that it's very detailed but when that's one of your flagship schemes you know the group isn't going to prove up to much. A lot of the rest is Royston Vasey type 'local jobs for local people and local contracts for local firms' pish that the Scottish nationalist mainstream thankfully steers clear of. They'll probably want to throw more money at useless firms like Ferguson's Shipyards while they're at it.

A genuinely credible and radical way out of this economic car crash needs to have a basic income scheme as Priority 1A, preferably with a loose community service condition attached that encourages the sort of voluntary service (and rewards already ongoing unpaid care) that people signed up for in their droves when lockdown began and they were put on furlough. We're already transferring up to £2500 a month into people's bank accounts for a greater good so it's not as if we're far away from that goal. 

That's the sort of platform I'd be interested in voting for next year instead of a National Investment Bank.

[stumigoo]

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 You seriously need to give it a rest. There are times you make a lot of sense on some topics - but these posts are just ridiculously OTT and without substance - they fail the statement of verifiable fact test - it make you look like a complete dick. 
It's Oaksoft levels of hate against the teaching profession - you don't know me, you don't know what I do, you are in no position to make a judgement about me or sweeping generalisations about teachers.
 
End of.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Don’t say these facts of his are not verifiable. He’ll use his report regarding a few thousand English kids to make judgements about Scottish teachers again.

He’s got no clue of what goes on in the job and comes across as a complete tool when he tries to validate his opinions on the profession. Best ignored.