From big'uns to little 'uns

My Year 11s have gone on study leave. I can do no more. One made a brief return to see me yesterday, and hugged me and said, 'I miss you!' which was nice.

And so I have rejigged my timetable with an assortment of Year 7 and Year 8 (that's 11 and 12 year olds to those of you who live by foreign currency). 

And I have to say ( and don't tell Year 11 I said this) that Year 7 and 8 are a lot of fun. And there is only one lad I think I may develop the urge to shake by the ears in due course, and that is because he is a moany, whingy, whiney pants. But for now I maintain a graceful patience and only occasionally tell him he sounds just like a petulant two year old.

I think this batch of students are more fun than the older ones mostly because they haven't yet properly discovered the opposite sex and they still think the word 'poo' is hilarious. They have a bigger sense of enthusiasm and joie de vivre, and they can build up enormous indignation to all sorts of little problems, which always makes me laugh. They are all so earnest, and when they tell you something, anything, it is like they are the first person ever in the world to have that experience, and their passion is such that you forget that you have heard similar tales a hundred times before and listen with eyes agog and breathless anticipation of what will happen next.

This week then, I have:

1) started projects including inventing a punctuation game, exploring the biology of the face, making origami and mosaics and creating an imaginary world with dragons and stuff

2) taught science and Maths using Maltesers

3) been into Art class and drawn an antelope head and a cuckoo

4) heard heart-rending stories about various home lives

5) sung 'If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands' in a spontaneous choral moment 

6) unscrambled some very peculiar spellings including 'yoused', 'maeij' and 'injoure' ( aka 'used', 'magic' and 'enjoy')

7) been mocked for my salad lunches/ being a vegetarian/ not knowing that Deadly Assassins 3 is the BEST X-box game EVER

8) sampled an apple crumble (very nice) and a spicy dip (very dubious) from Food Tech endeavours

9) listened to the story 'How I ripped my kidney open on a bicycle handle' being told with great relish without throwing up

10) laughed A LOT!!!

Many teachers I know aren't keen on teaching little 'uns. 

But I love it!