There are days in teaching when everything seems so relaxed, they're called INSET days and there are no pupils around to ruin the calm. Joking aside, life in the classroom can be very chilled out at times. On Friday I took my year nines into the computer room to play on some maths games on the internet. As if I was going to make them do lots of hard work on a sunny Friday afternoon just after the SATs. I think it's important to have the occasional lesson where you just take it easy, and it makes it so much harder for them to get in trouble (easily done on a Friday afternoon) when they're not being nagged into solving equations. Just so long as you find something to engage them and keep them occupied.
It was nice to have a bit of a laugh and a joke with them. 'Sir are you going to the fair tonight?' 'No because you'll be there'. I love taking the piss out of my pupils, it's great fun. One pupil suggested that I wouldn't be allowed to go to the fair anyway because that would make me a paedophile. I think that might be a little over the top. Suggesting that any adult that goes to a fair is a pervert is the sort of paranoia that you might find the in the News of the World. Curiously it's the same reason my year elevens thought I wouldn't add them as friends on Facebook. That and I just don't like them.
Actually I do quite like them and will miss them when they go. They're sort of on the right track because I'm sure there's some rule about contacting pupils out of school, though I'd be concerned about any teacher who the only reason for not wanting teenagers as friends on facebook is because there's a rule against it. Personally I wouldn't want sixteen year olds writing in txtspk on my wall anyway.
Back to my year nine lesson. It was a nice bit of revenge on the science department. We have year nine last thing on a Wednesday afternoon just after science. They always come to us as high as kites. I think they must do experiments with chemicals or just load them up with sweets. The head of science is always annoyed that the maths results are better than science's so perhaps it's a cunning ploy to gain an advantage. On Friday they had science immediately following my lesson so good luck to anyone who was trying to get them working hard after they'd had such a relaxed time period four.
I was free last so had a nice easy time of it before going to Warhammer Club later. It's a hard club to run not because of anything to do with the club itself but because of the way the other pupils see it. Whilst I'm not concerned about kids thinking I'm a geek I do have to defend it for the sake of the pupils who go. It would be so easy to distance myself from it as until they asked me to run it my models had been sitting in the loft gathering dust, but I owe it to the members to take any flak for it and to get properly involved. On Friday I had a battle against the top dog in the club and managed a creditable draw. It's sad how happy I was about drawing, not even winning, a game of Warhammer with a thirteen year old.
On my way home I came across a colleague who had stopped by the side of the road. She's got a reputation for bad luck with cars so I wondered what it was this time and stopped. She'd only run out a petrol so rather than being sympathetic I just called her a muppet. Her brother was already there and had got some petrol for her. Later she sent me a text thanking me for being a good friend. Which was great seeing as I hadn't even had to do anything. I like getting thanks for nothing.