STEPHEN FRY

It is nearing the end of the school year here - unlike you nutters we follow the calendar :p

Anyway the kids are getting to me.

I teach final year - the big year - the one where they get the scores for university.

Wow what do you teach Occy? How long have you been teaching?

Some kids have given up - just before the end of the year - in fact one of my year 11 girls is coming in tomorrow - just two weeks before the end of school - to officially leave schoo. I'm heartbroken as she is quite a smart girl and has a lot going for her and another two weeks and she would have had a year 11 pass.

That's sad to hear.

Back to the year 12s. They seem to have finished school about 2 weeks ago - they're well and truly over it and it's exhausting being their teacher. They no longer care - most of them are 18 now so they want to go out drinking etc. School officially ends for them at the end of next week but so many don't seem to be able to fathom the idea that their exams are the week after.

I have kids with grudges against me - cause we were meant to go somewhere and we didnt due to time and money restricitons - who are only doing a disservice to themselves by not attending the last few - exam preparation - classes. Well it's only one kid but it really does drive me insane.

You want to be treated like grown ups? Start acting like grown ups!

I know, you get those who want to become grown-ups so quickly but they think being grown-up means care-free fun, boozing and cruising. They don't realise there's so much responsibility that goes with it too. University students can be just as bad (in any year too not just freshers) and just go party mad and then neglect their studies. I guess part of it is people see this as the 'done thing'. You go to uni and you get drunk because everyone else does. At my uni this year someone decided a Fresher's Week just isn't long enough so they made it a Fresher's Fortnight of endless partying. Maybe I'm just weird but I prefer to get on with my work. I don't mind spending my weekends in front of the computer writing reports. That's what I'm at uni for afterall. I don't how it is in Australia but here there's always been a chunk of the 16-18 college/sixth-formers who are there simply because their parents made them but you get those types at university too. :S

I'm in my third year and teaching a mixture of subjects. I've taught English, Humanities, Legal Studies, Science, media studies and History: Revolutions which looks at the reason for revolution and the establishment of the new order. I really like the subject - that is my - err is it A level? subject to teach. My first time teaching it and Im sure I will be better next year but that doesnt help me now lol.

All those subjects! I'm impressed. It can't be easy teaching so many different ones and to the age group you're teaching and all. I hear it get's easier each year to plan lessons though some tutors tell me it can still be scary to teach even when you've been doing it years!

A-levels are usually taken by 16-18 year olds. They take two years after you've done your GCSEs so is that right then? You're teaching 16-18 year olds? I always get confused by how the year groups work out in other countries. It doesn't help that in this country we have different terms for that age group depending on the place. :S

I worked my guts out for the little fucks and they finally drove me to tears today - just takes one to say - this is shit - hey everyone let's concentrate on our other subjects cause this one wont give us anything. Little shit acts like a spoilt brat - fucking 5 year old antics. Hope the real world hits her like a sledgehammer.

Hope the real world hits her like a sledgehammer.

It will. *hugs too*

It's not even that. She says - very unconvincingly mind you - that she will get crap grades and it's all my fault

It's not even that. She says - very unconvincingly mind you - that she will get crap grades and it's all my fault

I can totally understand how you can take that to heart - I would certainly affect me very badly if anyone said that sort of thing to me. But the truth is that if she gets bad grades, it will be her fault for not studying, not engaging with the subject - basically, not caring about her own education.

I guess everyone deals with things in different ways, but as a teacher you cannot afford to let the students hurt you like that. I don't think you should be upset or hurt. I think you should be angry.

I mean, how dare these kids, who you dedicate so much time and effort to, treat you like that? How dare they blame you for their own failings in attitude?

Feel confident in yourself, and what you're doing, and be perfectly happy to be angry if the students don't respect you. Okay, maybe that's not your personality - but teaching is a bit of a performance, so act out the part of a hard-bastard teacher if needs be.

Thinking back on my own school days, the teachers who I ended-up having the most respect for were the ones that, as a 1st year, I was most scared of. They were fair, but very commanding. By the time I left, I respected them - but even then wouldn't dream of stepping out of line with them.

Okay, I know that I have it very easy - I teach at a university, so I don't have anywhere near the hassle from the students that school teachers get. But, for what it's worth just this afternoon I was teaching a course that I've been doing for a few years now.

They are a good bunch, but quite boisterous. The first time I taught them I found it quite intimidating - I really didn't know how to cope with them. But in the few years since then I've gone into the lessons knowing that they're going to be boisterous.

As a result, I've gone in with a rather more assertive attitude than normal (which isn't my usual character at all) and it's worked really well.

Sorry for such a long, boring, rambling post, but let me boil it down to the following:

1. Be prepared to be a dominant personality - if it's not you, then act. Teaching is a performance anyway, so why not make out like you're the most important person in the room? And what difference would it make if a student was missing from the room? What difference would it make if you were missing?

2. It may be your job to educate the students, but part of the deal (a very big part) is that the students have to engage with the process, too. If they don't, then on their heads be it. Is it your fault that they cannot plug in learning like in The Matrix? No. You can only show them the Fountain of Knowledge - if they choose not to drink, that's up to them. If they die of thirst later on, it's their fault, not yours.

And finally, be assured that the there are a great many of us out here who really respect you for being a teacher - it's an amazing job, done by amazing people. Just like you.

It is nearing the end of the school year here - unlike you nutters we follow the calendar :p

Anyway the kids are getting to me.

I teach final year - the big year - the one where they get the scores for university.

Some kids have given up - just before the end of the year - in fact one of my year 11 girls is coming in tomorrow - just two weeks before the end of school - to officially leave schoo. I'm heartbroken as she is quite a smart girl and has a lot going for her and another two weeks and she would have had a year 11 pass.

Back to the year 12s. They seem to have finished school about 2 weeks ago - they're well and truly over it and it's exhausting being their teacher. They no longer care - most of them are 18 now so they want to go out drinking etc. School officially ends for them at the end of next week but so many don't seem to be able to fathom the idea that their exams are the week after.

I have kids with grudges against me - cause we were meant to go somewhere and we didnt due to time and money restricitons - who are only doing a disservice to themselves by not attending the last few - exam preparation - classes. Well it's only one kid but it really does drive me insane.

You want to be treated like grown ups? Start acting like grown ups!

My daughter has a teaching assistantship, and she'd agree with you. This semester, she had a class filled with bright students, but half of them don't read the assignments, more than half scored poorly on their mid-terms, and she feels so sad about how they are wasting their time. Her first assistanceship was last spring's semester and she had a more studious bunch of kids, so her hopes were high this time.