Brutal Honesty

One thing about my job is that you can always rely on pupils to be brutally honest with you, especially the younger ones.  This week it's been nice to have some positive comments on my new haircut.  (Only one pupil said just 'but why?'!)  Sometimes though, you have to develop quite a thick skin to last long in teaching.

One particular pupil was astounded to learn I was pregnant this week despite seeing me every day.  When we asked her if she hadn't noticed, she said 'I haven't seen you with your stomach lately...'  I almost pointed out to her that I hadn't been anywhere without it lately!

I don't mind that though - I did mind when the pupils thought I was pregnant last summer.  Cue crash diet!  No, seriously though, it is one of the joys of my job to collect some of their little comments.  I think the following may be my all time favourite:

Pupil 1: 'Miss, are you married?'

Me: 'No.'

Pupil 2: 'Do you have children?'

Pupil 1:  'Are you deaf?  She just said she's not married!'

I will miss this when I am on maternity leave.  The pupils are really the best thing about the job.

Acts of Kindness

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Imagine you've just spent two nights away from home supervising over forty kids on a class trip.  It's also that time of year with cold weather and darker mornings and evenings.  You've had less sleep than usual and are in the middle of helping said forty kids retrieve their luggage from a bus while drivers continue to drive past the bus ignoring the teachers, parents and kids in their way.  (Don't get me wrong the class trip was good but this is how negative I was feeling at that moment).

Then imagine that a pupil from your colleague's class strides up to you with a big smile on her face and a huge sunflower in her hand "For you miss, thank you for the trip."  I could have cried.  I hadn't even learnt her name and there she was with a sunflower for all of us - it made my day.  It also reminded me to start being more mindful again and thankful for what people do for me.

Inspire Me.

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I have to admit, I'm finding it harder than expected to get through this last week at work.  I thought it would be easy until my colleague called in sick and left me with a class I don't know.  To be fair the kids were really well behaved (I hope that doesn't jinx it for the rest of the week...  One thing made me a bit sad was when they told me they won't achieve the leaving exam...being the 'bad' class.  I was talking to a colleague about this later which was coincidental because her class graduated last week and one of the girls mentioned the same thing in her speech, thanking the said colleague for never giving up on them even though they were the 'bad' class.  It really got me to thinking about where they get this attitude from.  As a teacher, there are certain classes that I dread teaching but I would never tell them that.  It just goes to show how much kids actually pick up on and it's something I need to work on - body language and being more positive.  This also struck me last year when I took a class I had been teaching for over a year on a class trip and they said it was the first time they had seen me smile!  It makes me sad to think that that's the impression I give off!  I think it's because I find it hard to strike the balance between being nice and being a pushover.  Being young and female already has it's disadvantages, especially in a school with so many Muslim boys!  So my target for next year - smile more and be nicer to pupils!  Actually, I'm going to start today when I am doing the game of life project with the same class again.

By the way, if you need a pick me up, try this.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Yesterday, I had my first run in with a German parent.  It was my 'bad' class and a pupil who has been playing up a lot recently.  In fact, the last two lessons, I had to kick her out for repeatedly shouting 'penis' across the classroom despite repeated warnings. 

So, at the beginning of yesterday's lesson (well, I say beginning, they come to me from science so are always five minutes late anyway), the said pupil comes up to me while I am writing on the board (I was writing what is going to be on the test tomorrow in case your interested, they weren't) and asks if she and a friend can go to the toilet.  I said no, they couldn't go together.  At this point, she flipped out and started shouting about how unreasonable I was.  Eventually she went to sat down and quietened down.  

A few minutes later, there were already a few names on the board when I caught her talking over me again and wrote her name on the board.  At this point she flipped out completely and started screaming across the room, so I asked her to leave.  She refused so I had to send for her class teacher to come and remove her.  I don't know whether he sent her back in or she chose to come back in but she did, and proceeded to sprawl across the table and cry at full volume.  Eventually her friend, after telling me what a mean teacher I was for ignoring this behaviour (even though I had kicked her out at this point so she could technically go to the toilet), took her outside and called her mother. 

So the end of the lesson comes around and I am faced with said girl, her mother and the parents' representative for the class.  I let her give her side of the story first.  Unfortunately, they weren't so gracious in giving me the same respect.  When I explained her screaming fits, the mother was a little disappointed but when I explained that it's a school rule that pupils don't go to the toilet during lessons, and that while I am prepared to bend that rule if pupils are unwell, I still don't feel it requires letting two pupils out of lessons at the same time, she couldn't understand.  Apparently the school toilets have no locks or toilet paper, and while I have sympathy over this, it doesn't change the rules.  Because I admitted that I wouldn't relish the prospect of going to these toilets either, they felt that proved I was wrong, even though I never leave lessons to go to the toilet even when I'm ill, never mind asking a colleague to accompany me!

In the end, when the mother started shouting at me too, and I realised where the pupil gets it from in the first place, I told her she could make an appointment to see me with the class teacher or head present but I was going for my lunch.  She marched off to the class teacher who told her every teacher had the right to have their own rules in the classroom and sent her packing.  I was really shaken and upset at the time, but I think I'll handle my next run in when it does happen.