A teacher's lot

Nothing to do with an antique auction, although my students certainly think I should be an exhibit. I have received offers of bath chairs, walking sticks, pension books - you name it.
It's a great shame that they don't realise I am only 25. It's just that I have had a very hard life. In fact, I have led a sheltered life - bus shelters, air-raid shelters......

Sorry.....

The things we put up with (or the things up with which we put, for the English department)- students not listening, students screaming that you are not listening to them, even though you are conducting 4 different conversations at once; students leaving worksheets on the desk at the end of a lesson (even though you had told them to put the work in their folders); students who can't read the board even though you can without your glasses (and you REALLY need your glasses let me tell you); students who want the window open NOW!! ; students who want the toilet but really want to use their mobile phones; students who want to use their mobile phones URGENTLY (what can possibly be that urgent!); students who have to tell you how DESPERATE they are for the toilet rather than just asking if they can go to the toilet; students who think the lesson is 45 minutes long when they KNOW it is an hour; students who say THIS IS STUPID referring to the worksheet you spent HOURS developing (many of the students just do the work).

MIND YOU, there are students who say 'please' and 'thank you'; there are students who volunteer to collect teaching resources scattered around the class; there are students who say 'that went really quick today'; there are students who tell you they COULD get an exemption from the key skills test (and maybe the course) but they'll stay in your class anyway; and finally there are students who SMILE and just get on with the work.
Makes it all worhwhile, doesn't it?

I would't have it any other way.