Thursday 10 February 2022

Come Back Miss Brodie, All Is Forgiven

I love this book. "I am in my prime, and my girls are the crème de la crème". 


An amusing post by Sue earlier in the week about one of her teachers [a real guy, not a fictional character] reminded me of some of the eccentric characters I have encountered in a lifetime of teaching.

In my early days of supply teaching, I was called into a school I had not been to before. The staff were all very friendly. 
I had a lovely day. As I was about to leave in the afternoon, I thanked my Teaching Assistant.[I always did that, they usually work very hard and are not always paid fairly imho] She said she'd enjoyed the day- she'd been so concerned beforehand that the Supply Staff would be Mrs Doubtfire or Compo. It seemed that these were two retired teachers who had become Supply Teachers, one was a stern woman given to wearing large handknit sweaters - the other a rather grumpy guy, who arrived in a woolly hat [he did take it off before he came inside] and always wore a patched jumper. In subsequent months I met both these people. They were very pleasant - but I could see why the children had given them the nicknames.
Another TA I worked with was supposed to be helping a children count, using a number square. I could not work out why they kept getting wrong answers.
The dear lady had somehow not realised that you count along one row, then go back to the start for the next row. She was teaching them to count round the number square in a zigzag, rather like the path on a Snakes&Ladders board.
So instead of 8,9,10 back to 11,12, 13  she was showing them 8,9,10 round to  20, 19,18. It took me a while to spot what was going wrong- and then gently explain to her how to count!
Schools are much better now at having the lesson plans in place - but twenty five years ago that was not always so. I had a couple of boxes of resources in the back of my car so I could produce all sorts of lessons at the drop of a hat. Supply Staff were also supposed to leave detailed notes of what they had done that day. 

In one school the TA told me of a supply teacher who always did "Basketwork" when nothing was on the plan. I said I loved craft, but that seemed rather ambitious with 7 year olds. She told me- "Basketwork is any activity [writing, drawing, maths] done on loose sheets of paper, not in their exercise books. Then at the end of the day, once the class has left, it is screwed up and put in the basket [and nobody ever bothers to mark it, either!]"
I was in a Staff Room once filling out my supply timesheet, and the woman next to me was also doing hers. 
"Excuse me being nosey, but what is ECO?"I asked her [I thought maybe it was some sort of Planet-friendly Green lesson] She smiled at me and said "ECO and ECI are Supply Teacher's shorthand for you never left any lesson plans but I kept them busy and quiet all afternoon anyway
But what do these letters mean? I asked again. "Educational Cutting Out and Educational Colouring In" she replied with a smile. "I've been using these on Timesheets for years and you are the first person to ever query them!" I don't think I ever did that with a class. But sometimes I was tempted.

Teaching has changed significantly since I qualified in the 70s - now it is more like competing in the Olympics. All school staff have to work hard to catch deadlines, jump through hoops, run through the entire syllabus, throw everything they have into the lesson, and make sure the whole team will score high marks. 
Did you have any wildly eccentric staff at your school?







 

15 comments:

  1. Did we have any eccentric staff? Well, probably but I'm a little hazy on the details. I do remember that there was an infant teacherr called Miss Hancock when I was in Reception and she insisted that you address her by her full name, not just, "Miss." Unfortunately, at Christmas, she got married and became Mrs Van Der Hellstrater- quite a mouthful for a 4-5 year old!

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    1. We had a PE teacher called Miss Nix, and she was, unsurprisingly, nicknamed GymKnickers.

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  2. In the 6th Form we had a teacher who produced a lot of sniggering in the wider school population, including some other teachers I might add (not from us, though). He looked like Ben the simple man at Manderley in Hitchcock's film Rebecca. His shoes squeaked when he paced the classroom ("they're older than you boy"). He wore the same ill-fitting suit each day. But he was amazingly knowledgeable and an effective teacher with us (English Literature) and we enjoyed every lesson with him.

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    1. Sometimes the best teachers spent more time with their subject than their appearance [and vice versa with others] If they make their subject come alive, that is splendid

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  3. Thanks for the mention and link, now everyone will know all about Mr Downey.

    Another teacher and yes, a supply teacher very like Compo in your photo was Mr Brown. I only had him a supply of times in secondary school when he took over the Business Studies class. Although he didn't have a woolly hat, his brown tweed suit had definintely seen better days and I wouldn't have been surprised to see the trousers held up with string 'a la Compo'. For some reason the class just would not behave for him and he seemed to have no control. A class of 25-30 girls all laughing, chatting and being silly made a hell of a din. I loved business studies and would have loved to see his take on the lessons but nope, he never got a lesson out. One day I was just sitting quietly hoping for a lull in the din and doodling in my jotter and I looked up and caught his eye ... he gave me a wry smile and shrugged his shoulders. It was the first time that I had ever felt grown up and on the same wavelength as one of my secondary school teachers.

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    1. I sometimes look back and remember the teachers who were unable to control the class - and wish I had behaved a little better. Teaching is hard work!

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  4. I taught in a Convent school for 4 years, and that was extremely eccentric. I sent a little girl (who had stuffed a crayon up her nose) off to the Matron. she got waylaid by one of the very elderly nuns, who decided that prayer was the answer and took her off to the Chapel. Without telling anyone. The crayon was later removed in A and E!

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    1. That is a brilliant story!! I'm glad that it got sorted in the end. Prayer is always good, but I am sure the Lord wants us to take wise actions as well sometimes.

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  5. The best physics teacher I had (we went through a few) got fired for punching a pupil. I spent a lot of my chemistry lessons listening to what the chemistry teacher's sheep had go up to. Bear's staff have to log points for each of the thirty members of the class for each lesson at secondary school, as well as a mound of paperwork. I have utmost respect for teacher's stamina (and you!)

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  6. My daughters had a fantastic teacher in primary school - and 30 years later she still sends the occasional message asking how they are doing

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  7. There were plenty of nicknames for staff in my day. The headmaster was called "Holy Joe" because he liked to share his faith at assembly. I remember him trying to teach us, "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4.8). At the time it didn't mean much to me, but later I realized the wisdom of these words and have a greater appreciation for this man who knew that what we fill our minds with has an effect on us.

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  8. I had a wonderful teacher whilst at school in Winchester. She drove a red sports car, and once did a 'streak' around the assembly hall wearing wellies and a flasher mac which she removed to reveal her swimsuit.Streaking was all the rage at the time, and she was called Miss Straker. She was responsible for a production of The Hobbit in which I played Gandalf, complete with amazing costumes, scenery and lighting, and arranged for an Olympic high jumper to come to the school to coach us, amongst other things. I missed her greatly when I moved north.

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    1. What a character!! Clearly very committed to engaging with her students.

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  9. I've just remembered that my Primary teacher, Mr Treadway was nicknamed Cheddar Cheese....it waa sort of Cockney rhyming slang...Tredders, Cheddar....

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