One of the nice things about having been at a school for a few years is that you know so many of the kids. It's always good to bump into pupils you've taught in previous years and catch up.
At break time today a swarm of girls in year nine who I'd taught last year came to see me. To be honest they drove me mad because they hardly ever stopped talking but you don't really worry about it when you know you don't have to teach them anymore.
They'd come with some posters they'd done for their current maths teacher to see if I'd put them up my room. It was odd because they said they could remember learning it with me last year and the particular messing around they'd been doing in that lesson: 'that was when we were putting post-it notes everywhere'. Amazingly they came out with great results in their end of year test. I'd thought it was inspite of the mucking about, but perhaps it acted as a hook to their memories and the learning was somehow because of the mucking about. I really hope it isn't because I'd like to think learning shouldn't be so stressful.
They even wanted to come back to my class as they'd enjoyed the lessons so much. I'm glad somebody did because I was always tearing my hair out. Nevertheless it was actually quite nice to see them again as it's reassuring to know that you've made an impression.
The posters are now on my classroom wall.
