Horror Stories for the Working Mom Who’s Teaching Online

Last Updated on July 1, 2022 by Brie

I have recorded many of our experiences here on the blog on dealing with the pandemic. As a result of the pandemic, I bridged over as a working mom into the online teaching industry. It is an industry that has been thriving since shortly after the computers and internet began. However, it has become more interesting, and an entire sector is geared towards students between the ages of 4 to 12, which is where I have been camped out for the last few months.

Teaching my first 100 Students Online as a Working Mom

II have taught over 100 students online so far, and I have had some great students.

However, it is not the great students that you remember. Sure, they make your classtime much more pleasant, and it leads to a great start to the day. But these students are soon forgotten in the shuffle that is online teaching.

Nonetheless, the ones you remember are the online teaching horror stories, which I have now wracked up quite a few. While I can mostly laugh at them, I have to say this is not an industry for those who cannot handle the weird or the critique. Let’s face it. Kids can be cruel, particularly if they don’t want to participate.

Without further ado, here are the horror stories from teaching my first 100 students online (Part 1):

Encountering Kids with Covid Online as a Working Mom

From my best calculations and what I have seen in the backgrounds of student cameras, I had taught a total of 3 kids who were symptomatic with covid when they came to their online class. They were also in a hospital setting, usually on a hospital bed or at a hospital table to do the course. The three kids were 3, 5, and 5, so I guess their parents either needed something to keep them entertained or didn’t want to lose their money. If I had been running the show, I would have given them a refund, but the program I used with these cases controls refunds and works with parents, so there was nothing I could do. Anyhow, they were all pretty sick, and I felt terrible for them. The coughs were awful sounding, and they had ice packs for fevers.

Encountering Kids in the Bathroom while Online Teaching

I have heard horror stories about kids in the bathroom…SHUT OFF THE CAMERA when this happens. This has only ever happened one time in one of my classes. One student was old enough to try to hide the fact that he was in the bathroom by angling the camera up toward the ceiling and looking down at it (thank goodness). But that brings the question of, why was a kid who was old enough to comprehend he shouldn’t be in the bathroom with the class camera still doing it? I cannot remember now, but I believe this student was seven or eight. I immediately shut off the kid’s camera when I figured out what was going on and left it off for the remainder of the class. 1/100 isn’t a bad ratio for this, but it really shouldn’t happen at all.

Encountering Nude Parents as a Working Mom while Teaching Online

Yes, I have heard this one too. I had even seen some of my favorite comedians who are ex-teachers make jokes about it. BUT it happens. In that I had, it was a dad with his shirt off, so nothing too obscene. It was also speedy, as he realized within moments that his kids were on camera taking a class and ran off the screen. So, 1/100 ratio for this issue as well. It could be worse, much worse.

Kids Acting Unintelegent on Purpose

This one is tricky because if they start the class with this behavior, you do not know if it is their usual level of intelligence or just pretending. However, I had half a class decide once they were going to begin to play dumb about 10 minutes into the meeting. It made for a very long meeting. This is where the kids can be mean section comes into play. One parent did come over and give her son a scolding.

Could you relate to this post? Leave a comment below! As always, feel free to brag about your motherhood successes in the comments section too!

Brie

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