Saturday, March 11, 2006

T.F.I.S.

Fear

I was forcibly moved completely out of my comfort zone yesterday afternoon and boy-oh-boy is my body paying for it today!! In case you didn't realise, I am KS1/FS trained ~ that's 3 to 7 yr olds! In fact my specialisation is nursery ... the 3 year olds! However, as the SMT is AWOL, things have been swapped around a little this week ... yesterday, I had year 5 for the afternoon and I honestly have to tell you that I take my hat off to their usual teacher Mr C* ~ oh my god it was a hard afternoon!

I was "given" planning to teach ... it went like this ::

Mr C ~ They're halfway through painting their design for a shoe.

Me ~ Ok!

Mr C ~ They need to finish that off!

Me ~ Ok! And?

Mr C ~ They need to paint a wash as a background.

Me ~ And do they know how to do that? Paint a wash that is?

Mr C ~ Ah, no!

So, there I was ... with 29 9-10 year olds, 3 doses of ritalin, 15 paint palettes, 1 nervous breakdown** and I had the
child from hell with me as well because my student is too scared to have him in the class on her own! Let me tell you about this class, actually it's not just this class it's the whole year group! We've had problems with them since they came into the nursery ... they've had input from the LEA's behavioural support service since day #1 and to be totally honest with you it's not helped ANY!

A while ago, one of the serial offenders was picked up by the police at 3am as part of a gang burglarising a local house. In the grand tradition of Bill Sykes, they'd taken him along because he was little enough to get through a small window!! WTF? Parents? Social services? Hello? Part of the afternoon was PSHE ~ rules in our homes/families ... well you can imagine the responses I had from that table!!!

And more than anything I feel really sorry for the "good" kids, those who keep their heads down and get on ... that's where the nervous breakdown is occuring! Anyway, I survived and boy-oh boy did I sleep well last night! And I will be so happy to see my ickle-lovlies on Monday!! Right I am off to the hairdresser's .... have a lovely Saturday you lot!!

*and to the lovely Fizzy who regularly teaches this age range of darling children!
** not mine I might add!



BTW, you're right the cartoon has nothing to do with the post I just love Doug's chickens!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love Savage Chicken. Thank you for introducing me to it.

What a challenging group of kids.

I found you via Michele's.

Bennu said...

Jo,

I thought you were going to say you taught the 5 year olds, but the 5 years are the 10 year olds, how interesting.

Ummm, enjoy your hair appt. get some rest and be ready to go on Monday.

Yes, Savage Chickens are one of my all time favorites, glad you like them as well.

Bennu

Cheryl said...

But you DID it!
More than that, you coped with being thrown in at the deep end whilst simultaneously juggling 'child from Hell' - nobody expected to stretch you to that extreme (nor, possibly would anyone else consider tolerating the combination), yet you DID it!
To steal a phrase from American friends:
You rock, girl!

Le laquet said...

Pearl ~ I'm glad you like Doug's chickens!

Bennu ~ year 5 is 9-10 yr olds. The penultimate year of Primary school! I currently teach year 1 ~ 5 year olds!

Cheryl ~ thankyou! You're right, I did! *Starts singing Fat Bottom*