I had to cover for an absent colleage recently, one who has a "xx days to retirement" board displayed prominently on his wall. As seems par for the course in my current establishment, he had left no work, and my resourcefulness in subjects in which I have no knowledge is being rapidly depleted.
So I popped next door to ask another teacher in his department (science) if he had, perchance,
left some work. The reply I received was partway between a snort and a snigger, and the
"retirement" sign flashed before my eyes. Okay, this teacher was definitely on wind down, and who can blame
him really. But that's not much use, especially when I saw the class of reprobates barge
into the room, and visions of fingers wedged in gas taps began to fog my senses.
Next-door teacher had a suggestion, not exactly inspired by his years of teaching the subject,
of making a poster of their favourite experiment of the year. I wrote the instructions on the
board. My misgivings were justified it seemed, as the class began to shout out that they
hadn't done any experiments this year. Hmmm. No experiments in science? Well, sticking to
the poster theme, I told them to write out and illustrate ("what's that?") the top five
facts from their last unit of work.
Amazingly, during the lesson there were only two fights, eight requests for the toilet (denied, as this is a thinly disguised cover for a stroll around the school when bored), and absolutely no fingers stuck in gas taps. I know, it was hard to resist temptation, and it would have kept them on the stools, but I'm not that cruel.
added 22/9/03
© Copyright laws apply to the contents of this website. 2003