A Day in the Life of ...

My day started with a meeting with the parents of a boy whose behaviour has been quite disruptive in lessons. It was a very productive meeting ... until it appeared that another teacher had the boy's school planner. The Father wanted to know where the teacher's room was, and the son helpfully pointed it out - not far from where we were meeting. I pointed out that the teacher was teaching, but the Father got up and strode off. He came back a few minutes later, angry with the response from the teacher. An angry stranger strides into your classroom as you finish taking the register and getting pupils on task with the starter, demanding to see his son's planner ... slightly intimidating, I would think - I'm sure I wouldn't be at my most accommodating. I felt very bad about my colleague - I was glad that I was able to see her in assembly a couple of hours later to apologise for not managing to stop him. I had been very taken by surprise at his reaction, since he had been very pleasant not long before. Anyway, I'm sure when I have children I might have a better idea of that protective feeling that parents must feel that can enable them to become angry like that ...

This meeting meant I was a bit late for my first class. Fortunately one of my departmental colleagues had let the class in, and they were all getting their books out. I was worried that I would arrive and find them playing tig, chase, basketball and let's annoy the other teachers in the playground. We were going over the last exam that the class had sat, and they were very keen to share their results with each other; not too keen to see how they could have improved though! We then began looking at the Key Words for the new unit of work. About four pupils were more interested in chatting than in getting started, and when I moved onto the next slide on the interactive whiteboard (IWB), they were very vocal about their discontent. "Move it back, Miss!", "I've almost finished!", "What have you done that for?" They were not too happy when I pointed out that everyone else in the class had long since finished copying out the meaning of Resurrection, but I like to think that everyone else was on my side, and happy that they could proceed! One boy took exception and decided to do no work for the rest of the lesson. Since he wasn't disturbing anyone else and was otherwise taking part in the class discussions that accompanied learning the meanings of contraception, paranormal and euthanasia, I decided to keep him in the room - he will just have extra homework over the holidays.

Assembly went well today - much better than the last one. Possibly because most of year 10 and year 11 were missing, for no apparent reason ... bizarre. Miss told the story of St Moses the Black to them, much better than I could have done! The pupils seemed quite happy that Black History Month was being marked in this way. I think we have done quite a bit for BHM recently. We've been studying Rosa Parks and Desmond Tutu in RE, and the Year 7s have been designing "Kick Racism Out of Football" posters, after reading interviews with Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand and Thierry Henry.

I have an interesting set of girls in one of my Year 10 classes. Today one of the them decided to sit in my chair when I was getting a new book from the office for a girl from another class. I told her to move to her own seat, and she petulantly answered back, "Don't speak to me rudely like that"! I couldn't quite believe my ears - she had simply been given a clear instruction - so already I started to form the idea that she would need to be sent to the Referral Unit. I thought I would give her a chance though, after she moved. However, she started listening to music, and when I told her to switch off the music and remove the earphones she spoke insolently again: "No, you spoke to me rudely. I'm going to listen to my music." Can you imagine the scene? The sulky pushed out bottom lip, the furrowed brow, the wrinkled nose, the disdain in her eyes? And she's quite a pretty girl really! Anyway, she was too much, so I told her to pack and go. She refused! Fortunately this time I was able to get in touch with an on-call teacher who came to take her away. She didn't want to go at first, but eventually did, calling me a silly woman on her way out. I'm sure I've had worse though! I have a period tomorrow when I should be able to catch up with her to get an apology in order to reintegrate her into the class.

In another Year 10 lesson, the class was completing its end of unit assessment. Well. Almost as soon as they started, one pupil pointed out that another child was cheating, looking at the book. I collected the book, did a sweep of the room for other books, sat back down again. One pupil was whispering an answer to another child. Two marks off each. Then another pupil made a comment about cheating. Another pupil had taken a book off the pile at the back and had it under the desk. That one was removed, another reappeared, removed, a pupil from another teacher came to borrow textbooks, another child picked up a book ... I suppose at least this shows that the pupils were keen to succeed, to do well. But the pupils who were calling out about cheating did not stop. I eventually had to send two outside, and told them that their calling out during the test was much worse for the whole class than the pupils who were cheating who were only limiting their own chances to learn how to improve. However, during this incident I could feel my blood pressure rise and rise ...

At the end of the day I was encouraging pupils to move quickly to the next lesson when a girl came and told me that there was a fight in the car park. Fortunately there was already a sixth former there separating the two main antagonists, or perhaps I should say the bully and victim. The rest of that period was spent sorting out that one incident. I was grateful to the sixth former and another pupil who did a great job of calming down the angry recipient of the bullying. I'm not sure how Heads of Year can manage, trying to sort out many such incidents in one day. They must be exhausted. I do think they should have more non-contact periods to help them do their job better.

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that I have attended three meetings this week, a clear breach of the Workload Agreement (or at least it's spirit), which recommends no more than one meeting per week. I will alert my union rep.

Right. I am exhausted now. Beef stew is in the oven, with stovies as the accompaniment. Looking forward to it - I think I need it!