School staff have been putting in Herculean efforts to make remote learning a success, but - as any teacher will know - you should never underestimate some pupils’ inventiveness when it comes to avoiding work.

Online learning: Pupils’ ingenious ways of avoiding work

And while we don’t endorse this kind of behaviour, we can appreciate the humour in it...

1. This is either a great way of not being called on or of getting more attention drawn to you

My wife is a teacher and apparently one kid has been changing his name to ‘Reconnecting’ during the Zoom lessons so that he doesn’t get asked any questions. Been doing it for weeks. The lad doesn’t need to worry about his education, he’s already a bona fide genius.

- Chris Arnold (@ChrisArnoldInc) January 25, 2021

2. The looped image is a classic of the Zoom lesson

My son said some of his friends had set a looped moving image of themselves staring at the computer screen as their profile pic. Also lots of kids having private chatrooms to cheat on tests or in case someone gets called on in a lesson and wasn’t paying attention

- Laurence Knight (@lhknightbbc) January 26, 2021

3. A more DIY approach to the looped image scam

My son had a video of himself playing on a loop studying intensely set up on an iPad in front of the webcam while he was playing Fifa on his phone on the bed!

- rhys llywelyn (@rhysllewpart) January 25, 2021

4. The rule of thirds is important 

Last summer a kid set his profile to a photo of 3/4 of his face staring at the camera with a background of a wall in his room. Mandated cameras on, but you couldn’t tell if his was on or off-if you’re going to do that good of a job being awesome, I’m not going to stop you.

- Anya (@aslets927) January 26, 2021

5. This is just sweet

I had a kid change his name to smart boy on Seesaw (app for elementary school work) took me awhile to figure out how he did it?.. don’t tell me they aren’t learning!

- Stephanie (@stephaniehl1) January 26, 2021

6. The classic ‘my wi-fi went down’ excuse

My sister was giving a presentation on zoom and dipped half way through it ? First of all that’s savage but funny because the teachers can’t do anything about it ??

- Hails Brodie? (@HaileyBrodie) January 22, 2021

7. Minecraft and villainy go hand in hand

My kid would screenshot some online worksheets, set as wallpaper and then minimise the Minecraft when I came to check him. I was concerned by this level of genius and villainary.

- Jo washes their hands (@nallanj) January 27, 2021

8. Caught out quickly

My kid turned his camera on and off and said he was having buffering issues and left the zoom. Teacher asked me if we needed a hotspot. Um, no. Needless to say, kid is in trouble. ?

- raksparky (@raksparky) January 27, 2021

9. Be right back

I have a student that occasionally writes “brb” followed by “back”. He thinks he has gamed the system. It’s an okay attempt, but not the most effective way to avoid school.

- Mary Blakley (@Ms_MJBlakley) January 27, 2021

10. Audio is important

Kid in my son’s class downloaded white noise from Youtube so he can’t answer any questions cos Poor Audio. Homeschool hacks. Brilliant.

- Elizabeth Kenny (@Liz67Kenny) January 26, 2021

11. Hoping no one falls for this

Heres a funny prank to do on zoom: ask your teacher to hit alt f4 to reduce lag

- Rinne (rip li’l macho and pyro kujo) (@Rinne_Z_rank) January 26, 2021

12. A low-tech approach

My wife’s friends 7 year old daughter stops blinking and gives a frozen look at the screen when questioned to make it look like the internet has been disconnected

- Tandava Krishnan (@panakanti) January 27, 2021

If you have any funny live lesson stories, tweet them to us @tes.