h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry this has taken so long - life's kind of hectic at the moment, what with the dreaded 'C' word and it's imminent arrival.

I sympathise totally with you - we have classes of 30+ in our school and yet my 23 children are one of, if not *the* most difficult to handle. It's quality not quantity that counts in this case! The thing I found most difficult when I started teaching was not to feel personally insulted - yeah, they treat you like s**t, and probably more so than with some other teachers, but that's just kids for you. I've only taught one child so far who really didn't like me - and if I admit the truth the feeling was mutual. There is, however, always a solution - finding it is the trick. But then you sound very calm and unflappable, and so don't need to hear that.

Hope life is cool,

hmmmmmm...... now what could the dreaded 'c' word be.........
carrots? are you feeling threatened be carrots?

castles? cows? carol singers..... uh oh...... you mean, *gulp* , christmas don't you..

omigod! of course! you'll have to deal with all the xmas concert malarky won't you! phew, i think i made a good decsion to go for the over 16's, no concerts for them, the girls i teach IT to are even going on block work placement for the last two weeks of term. i'll miss them, though, they're a lovely bunch.

my mature student maths group say they want to keep me and not have their tutor back, isn't that nice of them? perhaps it's because i spend more time giving them esteem boosting pep talks than making them do maths......

do your pupils give you pressies at end of christmas term?

Got it in, well... five or six. Yup, Christmas. Our first performance is 12 days away and so far it's a shambles. It'll be alright on the night, though. At least I hope it will.

I'll be interested to hear how your lot deal with Christmas, whether they go all hyper. 10 year olds do, for sure. Nothing specific, just very excitable. Even without a Christmas concert I tend to abandon the normal timetable for at least the last two weeks of term, just stick to making cards and such like.

I've bought presents in the past and probably will again this year - something simple like a small toy or a pen set. The thing that irks me is the ungrateful manner in which they are often received, and going all heavy on them is the last thing you want to do when you're giving out gifts. But (again) that's just children for you. Do you plan to buy them? If so, what will you get to suit their age?

It sounds like you're doing well with your mature maths group - I'm sure it's basic behaviour science but children always work better in a positive atmosphere where they feel good about themselves.



May the dark forces of evil become lost and confused on the way to your house.

WHy, thank you!

that explains all the dazed and bewildered entities wandering around the end of our street and on the mountain* behind our house.

...or it could just be teenagers with bottles of hooch and white lightening.......

I hope you survived the end of term. all my classes went on block work placement two weeks before the end of term, so i didn't have any cards or anything (admittedly, no work either, so not soooooooo bad). I did some sick-cover work in the maths workshop drop-in (ie, I got on with some of my own college work, whilst hanging around in case anyone got a sudden urge to do some emergency maths) and I noticed that the regular staff got given a PHENONOMAL amount of chocolate and biscuits by the students. I also noticed that they do not share with the non-regular staff. bah!!!
there is a definate hierarchy, permenant full-time staff holding supremecy, followed by part-timers, followed by casual staff, followed by PGCE/FAETC students. Now I've done sick cover, I'm promoted to casual staff. HOORAY! I might even get paid for it by the end of February.

Hello again, and may I be the last to wish you 'Happy New Year'.

Yup, Christmas came and went - our school performances went OK and, as you say, a vast quantity of chocolate and biscuits were delivered to and consumed by the staff. And now the new term has started it's back to the grindstone - SATs next term for my lot so it's heavy on the revision for the next four months or so.

We've got 4 students in school this term who have been given 'an area' of their own (ie, not the staff room). I feel a bit bad about this as I know it was a bit of a kick in the face when I was chucked out of the staff room on my teaching practice, but it's practical. Our staff room sometimes struggles to fit the existing staff in - adding four more would cause some people to get really p*ssed off having nowhere to sit. The students don't get much of a share of the goodies that make their way into the staff room, but that's basically because they're in the wrong place, not because we're greedy (honestly!)

Hope you get paid soon,

hooray hooray i got paid hooray hooray!

I also have now got two paid regular hours a week, bizarrly teaching English for Maths to some engineering students from the United Arab Emirates. So now I am an IT tutor who teaches 1 hour of IT, two of Maths and two of English/Maths.......I think I may be having an identity crisis.......I'm morphing into a key skills tutor.....argh!!

mmmmm. ice cream. i do not give in to gifts. except ice cream.

i had ice cream and apple crumble for tea tonight and it was very tastey. do you like ice cream and apple tart? i call it tartan ice cream. likewise, apple tart and custard is called tartan custard.


well, it makes me laugh.