The “Easter Holidays” are over and we are back to our new normal of trying to home school our children. It is not for nothing that I have shirked this option in the past. Whilst it may suit some (brave, clever…crazy…?) mummies and daddies in their normal lives sans Corona, it just isn’t my bag. And I’m supposed to be a teacher!
We muddle along. Our routine is loose, and our goals are low. If we’re reading and using a pencil (so as not to forget how), and if we we are doing a few sums and thinking of how things work a bit, I am satisfied.
The real test of whether our “school day” has gone well or not is the tantrum scale. How many meltdowns has Mini Seymour had? How infuriating has Boy become? And how many times have I had to repeat the same sentence to Number Two by way of an answer to one of her questions so that she can copy it, word-for-word, onto Google Classroom as she seems largely incapable of independent thought? And listening.
And how often have I had to yell to “Get back here! Don’t you dare leave! We have not finished yet! FFS!” I have never heard real primary school teachers utter such things. Yet here I am. Doing sweary yelling.
And yet, all of the above was forming our routine. It was kind of working for us. Slowly but surely, we were adapting, learning, hitting hurdles, forgiving each other and moving on. Then the bloody Easter Holidays happened. (What was the point in that?) And then we “returned to schooling” and discovered… oh no they haven’t… oh yes they have… The school has decided to use something called Seesaw.
Seesaw! A game! Playing! Fun times! Such connotations are gone forever. For Seesaw is of the Devil. Seesaw is baaaaaad.
We had used Seesaw a bit before. It seemed like fun! There was even a blog section, where we could see other pupils’ activities, which was nice, if a little demoralising. (Why has my child not chosen, independently, to create a beautiful chalk painting of a rainbow on the patio? Or a Mayan hut out of straw? FFS). But God help me, could I work out how to post stuff to Seesaw without it taking an hour and twelve minutes? No. Did I spend all that time trying to work out how to do this and then realise my post was unsuitable for the blog as it showed my child’s face? Yes. Did I then realise that my child alone seems to have the power to upload to his own journal without my input? Yep. As if that’s ever gonna happen. Seesaw was nice to dabble with. End of.
And in the good old days, it was just the one child who was – sporadically – using Seesaw. Just the one. Now, all of a sudden, I have to manage two kids on the Seesaw, all the time, and whoa! Have things ramped up! We have activities coming out of our ears! I had thought the new activities that popped up there might be for the whole week but no! Every day, they keep coming, until we are further and further behind….
The biggest drawback of Seesaw though, is the bloody recording feature. Yesterday’s submission for Mini Seymour’s Science had me at the start, scowling, screeching and scolding another small Seymour in the corner of the room as Mini pressed play and started to describe (inaccurately) the parts of her runner bean seedling. I captioned the video with an apology. Who knows when a child, sat at a screen with a little video icon, has started to film stuff? Several times I have had to think “What was I doing/saying at that point?” when I have found Mini to be recording. Thankfully, I was saved yesterday when the laptop battery died…
And the worksheets! Every time we have tried to fill in a bloomin’ Maths worksheet, I feel technology has regressed by fifteen years! Trying to insert fractions and decimals with a feature that can only be likened to Paint is frustrating beyond all measure, and surely cannot be the only way? All we wanted to scribble was 0.5!
I can see the advantages of this Seesaw malarkey. It’s got its uses. The teachers are very responsive to messages on there, and can also see the drawbacks; we all acknowledge that this whole situation is “imperfect”. So why should Seesaw be any different?
All of this just cements my view that, under normal circumstances, homeschooling is a bad idea (special cases notwithstanding of course). Technology is not what makes school cool. Bring back blackboards and tablets made out of wax and goose fat, because what kids really get out of being at school is the sense of community, the routine and the teamwork. Playing ball at lunchtime! Running errands and towing the line – it’s so good for them.
As for Seesaw, I still can’t work it out. Saving a draft? Nope. What we send is what you get. Uploading a picture? I’m afraid I don’t know where that has gone. Perhaps it’ll pop up on the blog, perhaps not. And those pesky videos? Dangerous. It’s like having a spy in the room.
But it is what it is! And I guess some of the Seesaw stuff might make for an interesting record of events in the future, although I suspect accessing it in years to come will be beyond anyone’s technological capabilities.
Shame.
(Attractive.)
0 Comments