Two weeks...
Sep. 17th, 2004 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_vultureWell, I've survived two weeks in the school from Purgatory. I can't say it's from Hell, as I've been assured that there are many schools in London that are much worse. Just recently, I've been informed that the English department is no longer to submit anything for photocopying without written consent from the head of the department as apparently our photocopying budget had been savaged in just the first two weeks. This pretty much cuts me off from photocopies. Yep, not only do I not have an overhead projector or sufficient board space, I now don't even have photocopying privileges. Yerg! At least I'm getting paid on time and I'm collecting a number of interesting stories. Oh, and I suppose I've had a smile or two along the way.
I'll start off with a story of a student that I gave a detention to for speaking out loud in class after I had expressely warned the entire class that I would assign one to anyone I caught speaking over a whisper mere minutes earlier. We had a discussion, he and I, about how fair he thought that was. His opinion was that, since he was finished his work, he should have been allowed to talk in class. How did he come to this conclusion? Well, how many of you have been privy to this particular conversation:
Teacher: (upon approaching a student talking in class) Have you finished your work?
Student: No.
Teacher: Then why are you talking?
What's the logical assumption?
Apparently, this is a very common conversation in the UK school system; after I heard another student in the class express a similar view, I thought that I had better address the class as a whole. According to the vast majority, teachers *always* tell them this. I asked them quite simply "Have *I* ever said this in class?" Aside from one person who must've had his wires crossed temporarily, all of them began shaking their heads with dawning comprehension; in my class, permission to speak cannot be assumed, period ('course, not that this stops many of 'em).
To all my fellow teachers; if I catch you carrying on the above conversation with your students, I'm going to smack you.
I'll start off with a story of a student that I gave a detention to for speaking out loud in class after I had expressely warned the entire class that I would assign one to anyone I caught speaking over a whisper mere minutes earlier. We had a discussion, he and I, about how fair he thought that was. His opinion was that, since he was finished his work, he should have been allowed to talk in class. How did he come to this conclusion? Well, how many of you have been privy to this particular conversation:
Teacher: (upon approaching a student talking in class) Have you finished your work?
Student: No.
Teacher: Then why are you talking?
What's the logical assumption?
Apparently, this is a very common conversation in the UK school system; after I heard another student in the class express a similar view, I thought that I had better address the class as a whole. According to the vast majority, teachers *always* tell them this. I asked them quite simply "Have *I* ever said this in class?" Aside from one person who must've had his wires crossed temporarily, all of them began shaking their heads with dawning comprehension; in my class, permission to speak cannot be assumed, period ('course, not that this stops many of 'em).
To all my fellow teachers; if I catch you carrying on the above conversation with your students, I'm going to smack you.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
only two years to go
Date: 2004-09-18 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-19 01:44 am (UTC)Now if only I could photocopy stuff...