Rubbish you learn whilst training to be a teacher

[scifisam]

i want to hear more about kids not putting their hands in the air of they know the answers - I mean wtf are they supposed to do - beam it telepathically?

The teacher picks, usually - and has a method for dealing with it if the student doesn't know the answer (I used to let them 'phone a friend,').

Or the teacher does things like having certain groups be pre-warned that they are going to have to feed back on this part of the topic, or the teacher selects pupils using random numbers (raffle tickets and the like), or the kids have those individual whiteboards where everyone puts their answer on and holds it up - that's a really useful one.

Most teachers I've seen still do 'hands up' occasionally, but it's only one of the ways they get answers.

 

[brixtonvilla]

I generally warn children that I'm going to ask random people for answers, rather than for hands up, especially if I've given something to talk about. Keeps them on their toes, I find.

 

[isitme]

I had a teacher who used to mark my work in brown ink. What does that mean?

 

[samk]

I had a teacher who used to mark my work in brown ink. What does that mean?

That they thought of homework as a cheap replacement for toilet paper

 

[catinthehat]

A less scientific way of marking is to stand at the top of the stairs and throw the lot down them. If they land in the hall its an A, bottom half of stairs B, top half of stairs C. If you use this method it does not really matter what colour pen you use.

Not me though.

 

[mrs quoad]

Do they teach you why people are called longpigs?

Just in case they're extra naughty, like

 

[Xanadu]

In China its very very very very very rude to write any kind of personal letter to someone in red. If you do it means you want to kill them.

If we adopted the same over here, there'd be a world-wide shortage of red ink.

 

[scifisam]

If we adopted the same over here, there'd be a world-wide shortage of red ink.

What, you often write letters in red ink?

 

[Hocus Eye.]

I used to hate one of my teachers at school for the use of red ink. We used fountain pens in those days and sometimes there would be a blot of blue. Or perhaps I would make a mistake and try to neatly cross it out and write the correct thing next to it. This particular teacher would put a red ring around every little blot and amendment thus making it look ten times worse than when I handed it in. He would also write a sentence or more of red criticism of the lack of neatness in my work. I wouldn't have minded but most of what I wrote was good and the correct answer but didn't look that way. I don't remember making as many mistakes with the other teachers, perhaps the intimidation made me nervous.

I expect we all have silly memories of schoolday slights that we felt.

 

[nursey]

Well thanx again I always learn something on urban no matter how random. Just to think I considered teaching before I started my nurse training, Mental Health (obviously!). I'd like to have my "feedback" in red please, shows you mean it.

 

[mrs quoad]

In China its very very very very very rude to write any kind of personal letter to someone in red. If you do it means you want to kill them.

I've seen a death threat part-written in blood

Must admit, it was slightly less amusing at the time

 

[Limejuice]

In my wife's school, teachers mark in green only. The damn things are in such demand that the staff nick any unattended pens. So I scored the entire stock of them - about 200 - from the local stationers right before the start of term. My missus is now the Green Pen Baron of Xxxxxxx Primary School.

 

[marty21]

i did teacher training in 94/5 for FE, tbh i found it very useful, although in the end i didn't go into teaching, at the time the only jobs on offer seemed to be part time, a few hours here,a few hours there, no pay for holidays,etc. So i ended up looking for something else to do, and stumbled into social housing. The course did make a lot more confident, about giving presentations, speaking in public etc, so it has had a lasting benefit

 

[Cloo]

interactive white boards are great - when your projectors aren't routinely stolen

I hear this is a major problem for schools... especially around major sports tournaments.

 

[scifisam]

I hear this is a major problem for schools... especially around major sports tournaments.

The schools that have the biggest problems are those with prefabs for classrooms - the theives can just saw through the roof and pull the projector out. At one of my PGCE schools, the entire English dept. was in prefabs, so they had no interactive whiteboards, whereas the departments in the main building still had theirs.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

I've seen a death threat part-written in blood

Must admit, it was slightly less amusing at the time

Part written? Was there by any chance a red splodge where the author's head hit the page after running low on ink?

 

[mrs quoad]

Part written? Was there by any chance a red splodge where the author's head hit the page after running low on ink?

Wasn't in school

One of the benefits of working in a drugs service with fuck all in the way f institutionalised professional boundaries

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I lasted six weeks on my PGCE course in 1986.

All right, I was having a breakdown at the time and the tutors were arseholes, but even so, anybody who lasts the year, and then actually goes on to stand up in front of the little bastards every day and get away with it, has my utmost respect.

 

[UID]

In China its very very very very very rude to write any kind of personal letter to someone in red. If you do it means you want to kill them.

But I thought red is a *lucky* colour to the Chinese, are you sure this is right?