I'm getting anxious.

Recently I've really started to feel at home at my school. Things are going pretty well: I'm getting to know the other staff better, lesson observations are going alright, the kids are starting to behave themselves, senior management are congratulating me on things and I'm walking into school feeling relaxed and confident. I even think I'm starting to enjoy teaching again like I did as a student teacher.

This is why I'm worried. When things go wrong I can understand it - it's comfortable and I know where I am. I'm not really sure how to handle things going well. And my blog's bound to suffer. Who wants to hear about me going to school, the kids behaving themselves and no one getting sworn at, no windows getting smashed and nothing getting set on fire. I'll run out of things to write about.

Then again I'm sure it won't last.

My year sevens have been driving me mad. They won’t listen, can’t sit still and seem hell-bent on not only failing to learn anything but see every lesson as an opportunity to get worse at maths. Yesterday was a particularly trying lesson; two boys in particular caused me a nightmare.

So today I had them working in other classrooms in a planned removal. The difference was amazing. All of a sudden they little monsters turned back into sweet eleven year olds. Hands went up, no one shouted out, no one got called a ‘gayer’ or a ‘windowlicker’ (what?!), work got done, learning objectives were met and no one got put in detention – this is the way it was always supposed to be!