30/09/10

I sat in on a colleague’s lesson today and he told the students who hadn’t done the homework to raise their hand. He then walked around to each of these students (7) and said “why didn’t you do the homework?!” while slapping them very hard a couple of times on the head. From the way everyone acted it was clear that this wasn’t just a show for my presence, but a regular occurrence. He wasn’t checking the notebooks or anything, only hitting the kids who offered themselves up for it by raising their hands. And I wanted to be like, kids! Please tell me you’re smarter than that! Just don’t raise your hand!
During my lessons the kids are to put all their pens and pencils while I am explaining a concept or we are working through an example problem together, then afterwards there is (always) time for them to copy. Despite this, students always try to copy when they think I can’t see them. But when I tell them it is impossible to listen and write at the same time they agree with me “no teacher, it is impossible.” Today I saw one boy in my peripheral vision writing when he thought I didn’t see so I broke off a little bit of chalk and kept talking. When I saw him pick up his pen again I turned and fired the piece of chalk at him, nailing him in the forehead. Problem solved.