Best of both worlds: Estelle’s journey in a pioneering role - Apr 20
Hello, I hope this blog piece finds you well and developing new strategies for working and perhaps teaching your own children at home.
As I write this blog, I am thinking that in some ways everything has changed and in others nothing has. My Digital Schoolhouse role has always meant that I worked from home and I have gotten used to managing my own time while working remotely with the rest of the team. My husband also already worked from home most of the week, so little has changed there either. What has changed is that the whole Ukie office is now working remotely; this means that we have daily 1 to 1’s and a team huddle.
Where I was completely free to plan my day and be flexible in my working hours (I wrote about this in my August 2019 blog), I now have meetings first thing in the morning and I’ll be honest - it took me a while to get used to that. Previously, I could take my time in the morning working to my own timetable but now I have a deadline and at first, I didn’t like it! However, as the full lockdown came into force I found that I appreciated having more structure to my day and knowing that I would see friendly faces every morning – this has even led me to request that I still take part in the daily meetings on days I would normally have been in school.
My school days have completely changed. Because I teach Computing to primary aged children and I am not their main class teacher, I have not been asked to go in – although I have volunteered! Also, the schools focus for home learning has been on Maths and English meaning I haven’t been asked to help with providing work – there is also a worry that some children won’t have access to the technology required for Computing at home. Therefore, my head of department has given me permission to focus on creating home learning resources for Digital Schoolhouse which will also be pushed out via our own school channels and I am so grateful for that as I worry I would have begun to go stir crazy on days I would normally have been in school. I am missing my students and seeing their excited faces at the prospect of their Computing lessons – the parent of one of my pupils shared a picture their son had drawn of me as a ninja and completely made my day.
The projects I am currently working on for Digital Schoolhouse have also evolved to provide the face-to-face element that so many children are missing now. This has led me to delve into the world of streaming and I have had so much fun learning how to use the software to make our Computing at Home stream the best it can possibly be.
Look out for our brand new love Computing workshops on our twitch.
you can sign up to our first lesson, Just Dance with the Algorithm, here!
So in conclusion, so much of my work is the same and so much has changed but I’m up for the challenge and look forward to hearing your feedback as our video resources go live!
