Friday, November 12

 

One of the issues with this job is that most of the supervisors I work with are ex-secondary school teachers of a particular generation.   The women are mostly fine and happy to talk about what they are doing now, but the men, too often, want to talk about their days in the classroom.  I don't enjoy re-living the past and my years since retirement have been much more exciting.

 

A surprising number start the conversation by saying, “I had one rule (or  two or three),” then go on to outline them.  Just today I heard another list of three magic rules.

 

1.     Don’t swear.

2.     If you need help, put your hand up, and

3.     When I’m talking, you shut up.

 

No doubt these were useful guidelines to set up a classroom environment for young people a generation ago but today's students are different: I suspect they would not be so accepting of arbitrary imposed regulations.  This fellow went on to say that he never had any trouble but I suspect that’s not entirely true.  It’s in the nature of young male teenagers to challenge the people in charge and setting up a ‘rule’ is an invitation for a 13-year old to try to break it.

 

Much better to try to set up an environment where the students won’t see the need to flex their muscles.  Teaching well is not easy but there’s nothing to be gained by setting yourself up for a fall.

 

I had just one student to supervise this afternoon – a girl who has been allowed an extra thirty minutes to complete the paper.  She has also been given permission to bring food into the room and a blood sugar monitor.  In the end, she doesn’t bring either.

 

Her exam is French and, as part of it, I have to play a CD which she responds to by writing her answers in English in an answer booklet.  It’s a three-hour exam but, with her extra time, I don’t expect to finish until 4.45pm.

 

The CD takes about an hour and she’s now beavering away at the rest of the paper.  Another supervisor arrives at about 3 o’clock to give me a break, which is welcome but my student hasn’t shown any sign of wanting to stretch her legs.  Impressive!