Let's Move On From Here...

I am well aware that I have a set of catchphrases in the classroom - mainly because the kids tell me so. Some of them can do unnervingly good impressions of me... One lad came into the classroom the other day and said, "Miss, I'm just going to crack on today." Crack on is a favourite phrase of mine at the moment. Bless his socks and give the boy a house point! Mine are not as good as a certain colleague whose sayings are legendary at Hogwarts and include one which intimates that everything is a pile of pony dung, man*, but I am proud of them anyway. I think they reveal my philosophy and approach in the classroom, I think. One of support and humour but also a gentle insistence on independence and self-reliance. I should emphasise that many of these phrases rely on the student being able to use inference and so are not used with ASD children - or those of a nervous disposition - unless I am sure they know what I mean. They are never used sarcastically or in anger. H...

Come in please year 7. That's right. Tuck your shirt in please, Andrew, and you please Thomas. Good lads. Steven, please do your top button up dear. Thank you. Sit down everyone. What's that Peter? Someone's stolen your pencil case? When you say stolen, Peter do you mean you've lost it? Yes? I thought so. Sit down dear - here's a pen. So everyone today we are going to... Charlie. What are you doing? Well don't dear. Because it isn't nice and Thomas doesn't like it. No Thomas, you don't like it. You do? Well I don't like it on your behalf. Today we are going to do our writing assessment... Now don't start year 7. We talked about this last lesson, and the lesson before. I emailed the date of the assessment to your parents and its on the website and the VLE. You are going to write a description of a forest and show me your best techniques. I'm really looking forward to marking them. Yes I am Charlie. I like marking. Because I ca...

The current crop of teens and young adults are rather unkindly being dubbed the "snowflake" generation. Snowflakes have no resiliance - they melt in the face of challenge, have poor mental health, and they are easily offended say their critics. Deborah Orr wrote a sterling piece in the Guardian recently about just this issue, challenging the negative sterotypes and lazy assumption so often touted in the press. Link:  Deborah Orr on the "snowflake" generation. Not all children are snowflakes - some of them are sunshine (happy, well adjusted and bright); others are more like tornadoes wreaking havoc wherever they go. So what do snowflakes look like in my classroom? 1. They are anxious and overwhelmed. They have received loud and clear all the messages about the importance of exam results - not education, mind you, just the results of the tests at the end. The message that they have received is that they are not working hard enough and that if they don...

A colleague is having problems with a learner. She runs a tight ship and students respect her and like her, but her usual behaviour techniques are not cutting it with this child. He is seldom involved in serious incidents, but his low level disruptive behaviour is wearing her down. He is what we sometimes call a "Teflon Kid" - nothing sticks to him! Let's call him Carl. Carl just doesn't think that the rules apply to him. Carl doesn't care if you call home. Carl would rather do endless detentions than give you ground on his behaviours. Carl is a giant thorn in the side of his teachers and he is underperforming massively.  Carl's parents are at a loss how to deal with their teenage son and can offer no support.  Sound familiar? There have always been Carls in my classroom, and over the years they have become more and more common. But why are they so hard to crack? The conclusion I have come to over 20 years in the classroom is that "permiss...

Picture the scene: a Year 7 boy is sitting in the medical room having been splendidly sick twice in the space of an hour. The receptionist is on the phone to his Grandmother because his parents cannot be contacted (all numbers have been tried) and she is the third on the boy's emergency contact list. Grandmother is asking why he can't just go back to class - she doesn't want him if he's ill because she might catch the bug he has got. Receptionist gives me a weary look and pushes on. Eventually, someone from home is dispatched to collect the vomiting Peter who is looking more and more like death warmed up, but you can tell that they don't really think this is part of their contract. Or this: teacher is a bit fed up with the attitude of her Y10 GCSE class. They are set 1 but many of them are underperforming. They are not horrible, they are just lazy and entitled. She asks them whose responsibility it is to get their grades up. She is assured by a good 60% of this ...