Mad moments in Education

Baker Days were named 'School Organisation Days' by one of DD's teachers and he had SOD OFF SCHOOL written in the appropriate column in the register!

At Teacher Training college, I remember the DT practical session where we're taught how to 'disassemble' a cheese sandwich. I was a mature student in my forties.
You can imagine my thoughts!

Oh fiorentina I had forgotten about the disassemble malarky. I had a textiles student who wanted to teach Y9 how to make hats. She started by letting them loose on a range of hats she had bought at charity shops. The kids were meant to take them apart to see how they were made. They would then be able to design and make their own hats. What fun! What chaos! What waste! I knew what the outcome would be when she came up with the idea but as she was a final year student I was told I must let her do what she wished to do and of course it was my job to pick up the pieces after she went back to uni.

Oh my! ?

I will never forget school sports day (which parents were not allowed to attend) a lovely boy won a running race, waved his hands in the air and got a massive ticking off from the head for exhibitionism!!! All children were then given a certificate for 'competing'. So pupils were allowed to be good academically but not on the sports field. Ridiculous nonsense. All change now and the school is doing so so much better.

Your sentence was perfectly phrased J52. My mistake. I have no idea what vertical grouping is.

I remember the DT practical session where we're taught how to 'disassemble' a cheese sandwich.
fiorentina that could be very useful these days, as 'deconstructed food' is very fashionable.

I had a 'deconstructed Black Forest cheesecake' recently in a posh pub

ps it ended up reconstructed in my tummy!

Darn it! I could have been ahead of the game. ?

Elrel& Co I would have driven you mad. I started in 1953 with Marion Richardson writing but moved school when I was eight to a school where italics were taught.
Add to that what I eventually discovered was my dyslexia my writing was appalling.
I still cannot always get the right letters or words to come off my pencil. I used to hate writing because I cannot write without making mistakes or I have to write very slowly letter by letter. As for Marion Richardson How am I supposed to write a "k" .???

Thanks for all of these.
I remember the Numeracy Strategy and trying to teach some of the most complicated ways of addition ever invented. One bright child informed me "It's much easier if you do it like this," and did one in seconds. I had to say "Yes, but today please can you do them the way I have shown you." He gave a long sigh and went back to his desk. Had to have evidence that I had taught the methods, the head collected and examined books each half term, checking them against your planning.

It really is a miracle our children survive and do as well as they do.

What amazed me about Sports Day was how the mums who didn't want their children to be competitive were transformed into screaming combative banshees if there was a mums' race

How many of us knew that what we were asked to waste our time doing was exactly that - a waste of time. To me teaching the kids was what I was there to do so in order to do that there were certain things I 'missed out'. One of these were sheets, supposedly very necessary, filled in for each class twice a year. They were then to be placed in the correct place in the filing cabinet so others in the department could look at them. I was always 'just on with them' and for at least 5 years never did them. No one, not even my HoD, ever noticed because NO ONE ever looked at them.
Do you remember those big thick subject specific, ring binders we were all given when NC first came about. We were to read and follow them as they were our new bible. Each year another one came and it was always thinner than the previous one. Don't ask me what they were about as I never read them and maybe that is why my exam results were as good as they could be.

You have touched a nerve with me trisher and no doubt I shall be remembering yet more !

But isn't it nice to be out of it tiggypro and to reflect that you did the best you could for all the children you taught over many years, and that it had B*** All to do with all the initiatives and innovations that were thrown at you whilst you were getting on with teaching.

Ha ha - your tale of that boy reminds me of a time when DD was struggling with her maths homework and I helped her by showing her a much easier method I had learnt.
Teacher said 'well done Jalima Junior, all correct but the wrong method. Did your mother help you'?
If the end result is correct who cares about the method?

The government are a little upset that children don't know how to cook and know very little about feeding themselves in a healthy way (actually I think they are more upset about the cost of treating obesity). Again the NC has much to answer for. Food Technology (awful title) lessons cut to 1hr 10mins, 20 pupils, 6 ovens (if you are lucky they will all be working)and a 'Design and Make' didactic from the powers that be who havn't got a clue.
Lesson 1. Talk about scones
Lesson 2. Make a basic scone and evaluate it. Say how to improve it.
Lesson 3. Make improved scone (ie add fruit or cheese)
Lesson 4. In groups decide how to batch bake scones.
Lesson 5. Each group makes a batch of scones (ie one pupil makes scones while the rest mess about)
Lesson 6. Make a box with a label to put scones in
Lesson 7. Oh sorry there wasn't a lesson 7 for this group as they now had to go off to another technology lesson and do something else equally worthless.

Yes trisher I am so glad to be out of it. The pity of it now is that all the teachers who have come into the profession in the last 20 years thinks that all the c* is normal.

crap