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When I started teaching Math from home during our initial shutdown in late March, I kept the timing of my lessons in line with the bell times of the period. I set the work for the class at the start of the period (say 9:45) and was available for questions and follow-ups until the end of the period (say 10:30). This turned out to be fairly stressful for me as I was often battling to post work for the next period while I was still addressing problems from the previous period. I would often get conscientious students posting on Teams asking me where was the day's work at 9:46 if it wasn't up at 9:45 for the start of their period. It was also difficult for students with less structure who didn't get themselves organized between 9:45 and 10:30 and posted questions to me later in the day.
What worked out best for me (and for many of the better students) was that I starting posting the day's work early in the morning. I would post my period 1 work at around 8:00, my period 2 work at around 8:15 and so on. I would have the day's lessons posted by 9:00 (our school day runs from 9:00 until 3:00). The students would get to it when they got to it and I would be available all day to answer their questions at any time.
Personally I did not use video conferencing (Zoom/Teams) for any of my classes but I think that I was the exception to this rule. I have been using OneNote extensively for my classes for the past few years (most of my colleagues are still chalk-and-talk) so all of my work lives there. Once in a while, I would do a screen recording of me narrating a demo on Microsoft Whiteboard and post that on Teams if the static notes in OneNote were not enough. I would use Whiteboard and then do a screen clip and post this to Teams for students who had problems with questions.
When we returned to the classroom, many of the more able students said that they actually like the WFH model. They could plan their day as they saw fit and allocated their time accordingly. They liked the less rigid nature of being their own boss. I actually tested this with a top Year 8 class when we were back at school. I posted the entire chapter of notes in OneNote (usually I dripfeed the work day by day) on a topic that didn't require too much explanation from me (Geometry) and then gave them targets of where they had to be up to by a certain date. I initially used an open classroom environment (the library) where they could sit and work as they wished but this led to distractions with some students so we returned to the classroom but continued the self-directed work.
It was also important for me to switch off at certain times. I closed all of my screens (computer/phone) for at least 30 minutes for lunch as well as at the end of the day (for school stuff). There were several stories of teachers still working until 10:30pm which was crazy.
What was hugely beneficial to me was that our school (in line with our entire diocesan school system) relaxed our scope and sequence. We didn't have to keep up with our structure of completing a topic/chapter in 3 or 4 weeks. We also stopped our summative testing, even since our return to the classroom, and have focused on our own formative testing. This has reduced the anxiety levels of students, parents and teachers. Our mid-year student reports were still issued, albeit slightly later, but they were more comment-driven rather than grade based (no grades were given).
I can't get over how much the difference in testing has made. In the past, we would test after every two chapters. We needed to post the dates of the tests in an assessment handbook for parents at the start of the year and issue test notifications to students two weeks in advance. The tests would be common printed tests used across an entire cohort and there would often be anxious parents contacting the school once the results were handed back either wringing their hands in anguish (often calling for the dismissal of the incompetent teacher that caused this calamity) or complaining that their child should get extra marks. Now I usually tell a class that we are about to finish a chapter tomorrow, have a revision lesson the following day and then do the test on the subsequent day. If we do a topic that doesn't require any working out then I often use an online Maths site that is self-marking. The student gets their result instantly instead of several days later for the paper version where different teachers mark a different section across the entire cohort.
TL-DR working from home started out stressfully for me but eventually I fould a sweet spot for me and the students.
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