April 1, 2019 at 23:32The problem of switching to winter and summer time for a single Skype school
On March 28 at Habraseminar, Ivan Zvyagin, chief editor at Habr, advised me to write an article about the everyday life of our linguistic Skype school. “People will be interested in a hundred pounds,” he promised, “now many are creating online schools, and it would be interesting to learn this kitchen from the inside.”
For seven years our language Skype school has existed, with the funny name GLASHA, and seven years twice a year our operators work in emergency mode.
This annual nightmare is associated with a change in time in different countries.
The fact is that teachers and students of our Skype school live in 26 countries on different continents.
Accordingly, at normal times, we try to arrange them in the schedule to the teacher one by one, so that it is more convenient.
The teacher sends us his availability, for example like this:
And when a new student appears who can take lessons in these slots, then we put him on the schedule.
Thus, students from Russia, Israel, Canada and France find themselves together in the schedule of a teacher who, for example, lives in Brazil.
They are engaged quietly until the time when Maurice, the same teacher, changes time to winter, that is, until mid-February.
How do you know when Brazil will switch to winter time? Very simple: The
full wording is: “the third Sunday of February, except when it is Carnival.”
This year, apparently there was a carnival, since the transition happened suddenly on February 17th.
After receiving information from Maurice, we should, in theory, move the entire "Babylonian" team of students an hour later. Or invite Maurice to give lessons to them an hour earlier.
In the case of Maurice, it turns out, cheers! In the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Bahia and Distrito Federal) one could sleep longer.
Fortunately, our other teacher, Englishwoman Rachel lives in another region of Brazil - Rio Grande do Norte.
Despite all the carnivals, the time there does not change for winter time. Lucky.
Until November 3, the time of switching some parts of Brazil to summer time can be relaxed if Maurice does not leave for China or returns to Holland during this time.
However, with Alessandra, who lives in Australia, a miracle did not happen, she can only adhere to her hard winter schedule. And the winter in Australia has just begun. Therefore, all her students have to move for one hour. This requires a lot of time and effort, as some students are engaged from work, and for young students the time of circles and sections is clearly defined.
In winter time, residents of New South Wales and Victoria, whose capitals are Sydney and Melbourne, began to live and work. Now the difference with Moscow time there is plus 7 hours. In the same way, time has changed in Canberra and on the island of Tasmania.
And where only the fate of our students and teachers does not throw!
One single student, Masha Zelenina, lives with us in the west of the continent in the state of Western Australia. Time does not change there, so the five-hour difference with Moscow continues to persist.
The time does not change in the Northern Territory either - the difference with Moscow time was and is 6 and a half hours. But in the state of South Australia, the clock hands were moved back an hour, and now the difference with Moscow time here will be 6 and a half hours.
So, the winter in the southern hemisphere has started. A couple of weeks you can live in peace.
Daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday of March at 02:00 in the USA and Canada, and back at 02:00 on the first Sunday of November. Only Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands do not cross.
In Canada, time does not change in the state of Saskatchewan. A big hello to our teacher Brown!
Arizona does not translate hours (but the transition is carried out by Americans from the northern part of the state).
In mid-March, we change the schedule of students from Russia and European countries for two weeks, since at the end of March, time in Europe and the USA will be correlated with Canada.
This usually happens on the night of Saturday to Sunday, but before that, Israel switches to summer time on Friday. Since on Saturday night there is religious Shabbat.
Accordingly, we need to make small reshuffles for Friday's lessons before the global shift for 500 students on Sunday.
Many Skype schools probably use some kind of built-in automatic time and notification systems for students and teachers, but I can’t imagine how automatic systems can be used in our case.
Since each student needs an individual approach. For example, one student can take classes late in the evening, while others cannot concentrate at 6:00 p.m.
Despite the fact that we are turning upside down and asking other students to move, each time part of the students have to change teachers.
This means organizing additional test lessons, psychological discomfort and disruption of the educational process.
Students and teachers usually become attached to each other and do not easily agree to replacements.
In March 2019, all EU member states last switched to summer time, and by October of next year, each EU state will have to decide on its own whether it will remain in summer time or switch to winter time.
It looks like this innovation will add us a headache.
In addition, the Russian government constantly puts forward proposals for the return of daylight saving time. This is in addition to the fact that in 2016 the Astrakhan and Saratov regions of Russia, as well as Ulyanovsk, Zabaykalsky Krai and Sakhalin changed the time by an hour, in 2017 the Volgograd region joined them.
Fortunately, Japan, China, India, Singapore, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan do not change time yet
And it’s not always that exact time websites manage to make updates to their programs.
In addition, over the years of work, we learned that there are countries where the difference with Moscow is not a multiple of one hour, but half an hour, these are India +2.5 and Iran +1.5.
So problems with coordination in time can sneak up where they were not expected at all. .
We always check the skill of accurate time calculation at an interview with new operators, and their number is constantly growing. It’s very disappointing when the lesson breaks down because the difference with Moscow and Kazakhstan was counted in the wrong direction. Fortunately, this rarely happens.
At present, you can choose the best teachers from all over the world, and you can study according to any convenient schedule, but the skype operators work hard to build the hard work of Skype school operators.
For seven years our language Skype school has existed, with the funny name GLASHA, and seven years twice a year our operators work in emergency mode.
This annual nightmare is associated with a change in time in different countries.
The fact is that teachers and students of our Skype school live in 26 countries on different continents.
Accordingly, at normal times, we try to arrange them in the schedule to the teacher one by one, so that it is more convenient.
The teacher sends us his availability, for example like this:
And when a new student appears who can take lessons in these slots, then we put him on the schedule.
Thus, students from Russia, Israel, Canada and France find themselves together in the schedule of a teacher who, for example, lives in Brazil.
They are engaged quietly until the time when Maurice, the same teacher, changes time to winter, that is, until mid-February.
How do you know when Brazil will switch to winter time? Very simple: The
full wording is: “the third Sunday of February, except when it is Carnival.”
This year, apparently there was a carnival, since the transition happened suddenly on February 17th.
After receiving information from Maurice, we should, in theory, move the entire "Babylonian" team of students an hour later. Or invite Maurice to give lessons to them an hour earlier.
In the case of Maurice, it turns out, cheers! In the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Bahia and Distrito Federal) one could sleep longer.
Fortunately, our other teacher, Englishwoman Rachel lives in another region of Brazil - Rio Grande do Norte.
Despite all the carnivals, the time there does not change for winter time. Lucky.
Until November 3, the time of switching some parts of Brazil to summer time can be relaxed if Maurice does not leave for China or returns to Holland during this time.
However, with Alessandra, who lives in Australia, a miracle did not happen, she can only adhere to her hard winter schedule. And the winter in Australia has just begun. Therefore, all her students have to move for one hour. This requires a lot of time and effort, as some students are engaged from work, and for young students the time of circles and sections is clearly defined.
In winter time, residents of New South Wales and Victoria, whose capitals are Sydney and Melbourne, began to live and work. Now the difference with Moscow time there is plus 7 hours. In the same way, time has changed in Canberra and on the island of Tasmania.
And where only the fate of our students and teachers does not throw!
One single student, Masha Zelenina, lives with us in the west of the continent in the state of Western Australia. Time does not change there, so the five-hour difference with Moscow continues to persist.
The time does not change in the Northern Territory either - the difference with Moscow time was and is 6 and a half hours. But in the state of South Australia, the clock hands were moved back an hour, and now the difference with Moscow time here will be 6 and a half hours.
So, the winter in the southern hemisphere has started. A couple of weeks you can live in peace.
Daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday of March at 02:00 in the USA and Canada, and back at 02:00 on the first Sunday of November. Only Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands do not cross.
In Canada, time does not change in the state of Saskatchewan. A big hello to our teacher Brown!
Arizona does not translate hours (but the transition is carried out by Americans from the northern part of the state).
In mid-March, we change the schedule of students from Russia and European countries for two weeks, since at the end of March, time in Europe and the USA will be correlated with Canada.
This usually happens on the night of Saturday to Sunday, but before that, Israel switches to summer time on Friday. Since on Saturday night there is religious Shabbat.
Accordingly, we need to make small reshuffles for Friday's lessons before the global shift for 500 students on Sunday.
Many Skype schools probably use some kind of built-in automatic time and notification systems for students and teachers, but I can’t imagine how automatic systems can be used in our case.
Since each student needs an individual approach. For example, one student can take classes late in the evening, while others cannot concentrate at 6:00 p.m.
Despite the fact that we are turning upside down and asking other students to move, each time part of the students have to change teachers.
This means organizing additional test lessons, psychological discomfort and disruption of the educational process.
Students and teachers usually become attached to each other and do not easily agree to replacements.
In March 2019, all EU member states last switched to summer time, and by October of next year, each EU state will have to decide on its own whether it will remain in summer time or switch to winter time.
It looks like this innovation will add us a headache.
In addition, the Russian government constantly puts forward proposals for the return of daylight saving time. This is in addition to the fact that in 2016 the Astrakhan and Saratov regions of Russia, as well as Ulyanovsk, Zabaykalsky Krai and Sakhalin changed the time by an hour, in 2017 the Volgograd region joined them.
Fortunately, Japan, China, India, Singapore, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan do not change time yet
And it’s not always that exact time websites manage to make updates to their programs.
In addition, over the years of work, we learned that there are countries where the difference with Moscow is not a multiple of one hour, but half an hour, these are India +2.5 and Iran +1.5.
So problems with coordination in time can sneak up where they were not expected at all. .
We always check the skill of accurate time calculation at an interview with new operators, and their number is constantly growing. It’s very disappointing when the lesson breaks down because the difference with Moscow and Kazakhstan was counted in the wrong direction. Fortunately, this rarely happens.
At present, you can choose the best teachers from all over the world, and you can study according to any convenient schedule, but the skype operators work hard to build the hard work of Skype school operators.