Wednesdays are meant to be quiet, but they never are. Some top drama today.
I had been marking in the maths office periods 1 and 2. When I came back to the office at lunchtime after support teaching periods 3 and 4, I noticed that my pencil case was gone. Strange, I thought. In fact, I was quite cross, since I love my stationery, and I hate the idea of anyone daring to take anything of mine (I have just about accepted the fact that I will never see my USB stick again...as my mentor says "if it's not nailed down, the kids'll have it").
Anyway, looked around the office and couldn't find it, so did the responsible thing and went to eat lunch. In the staffroom, I mentioned my missing pencil case to another maths teacher, who helpfully pointed out that they had caught a "well known Year 10 kleptomaniac" wandering around the maths department during period 3. Interesting. I went back over to our block and looked through my bag. Shocker, my calculator had been nicked too! Now I was cross.
I went upstairs and spoke to yet another maths teacher about the "kleptomaniac" and she directed me to the Head of Year 11 (yes, another maths teacher). Now, this guy is amazing. There are a lot of people I could criticise with my meagre 5 months of teaching experience, but the Head of Year 11 is certainly not one of them. He's the kind of teacher I aspire to be. No messing, he gets the job done, he's strict but fair, the kids respect him, and he's always there when you need him. So straight away he leaves his office and marches over to the main school to find out where klepto is timetabled to be. As we're walking up to C5, we bump into the caretaker. When we tell him the story, he says that he found a calculator in the boys' toilet in the maths department. Hopeful that it is mine, we make a diversion to his office.
Alas, it's not mine. Worse, it is one of thirty unmarked school calculators, which are also kept in the maths office. We hurry back over to the maths block to check out the office again, and lo and behold, the entire crate of calculators has been nicked! Hahaha, no longer a case of petty theft but over £250 worth of stolen property. Now the chase is on to catch the culprits and recover the calculators.
To cut a looooong story short, we managed to get 22 back (from all corners of the school, literally). The kid who'd nicked stuff right outta my bag had his stuff searched and I got my calculator back. Sadly the amazing pencil case is still missing, including the magic pen with a highlighter on the end that said "congratulations, you made the effort" on the side (a gift from Walmer Science College in Kent, one of the first schools I taught in over the summer). And the saga isn't over yet, since the school is supposedly getting the police involved (yeah, likely. Not). Still, dramatastic.
In other news, two comedy events from the day:
Period 1, covering a Y8 English lesson for 5 mins:
Girl: Miss, I had a snowball fight at 6am.
Me: That's nice. I like snow, but mostly from the inside. I don't like to get my feet wet.
Girl: You don't like snowball fights? You adults need to learn to have some fun!
Hmmm, when did I become old and boring? And why do I try and share my thoughts with kids?
Tutor time in the afternoon:
Boy: Miss, can you put my interview sheet on Sir's desk?
Me: Ok.
[Boy takes sheet out of pocket. Condom falls out of pocket onto the floor]
Me: Errr, it's school-time, why have you got that in school?
Boy: It's not mine, Miss.
Me: Why do you have it then?
Boy: I dunno.
Me: (realising I should be promoting condoms) Good, well, better safe than sorry.
No school tomorrow, training day, yay!
I had been marking in the maths office periods 1 and 2. When I came back to the office at lunchtime after support teaching periods 3 and 4, I noticed that my pencil case was gone. Strange, I thought. In fact, I was quite cross, since I love my stationery, and I hate the idea of anyone daring to take anything of mine (I have just about accepted the fact that I will never see my USB stick again...as my mentor says "if it's not nailed down, the kids'll have it").
Anyway, looked around the office and couldn't find it, so did the responsible thing and went to eat lunch. In the staffroom, I mentioned my missing pencil case to another maths teacher, who helpfully pointed out that they had caught a "well known Year 10 kleptomaniac" wandering around the maths department during period 3. Interesting. I went back over to our block and looked through my bag. Shocker, my calculator had been nicked too! Now I was cross.
I went upstairs and spoke to yet another maths teacher about the "kleptomaniac" and she directed me to the Head of Year 11 (yes, another maths teacher). Now, this guy is amazing. There are a lot of people I could criticise with my meagre 5 months of teaching experience, but the Head of Year 11 is certainly not one of them. He's the kind of teacher I aspire to be. No messing, he gets the job done, he's strict but fair, the kids respect him, and he's always there when you need him. So straight away he leaves his office and marches over to the main school to find out where klepto is timetabled to be. As we're walking up to C5, we bump into the caretaker. When we tell him the story, he says that he found a calculator in the boys' toilet in the maths department. Hopeful that it is mine, we make a diversion to his office.
Alas, it's not mine. Worse, it is one of thirty unmarked school calculators, which are also kept in the maths office. We hurry back over to the maths block to check out the office again, and lo and behold, the entire crate of calculators has been nicked! Hahaha, no longer a case of petty theft but over £250 worth of stolen property. Now the chase is on to catch the culprits and recover the calculators.
To cut a looooong story short, we managed to get 22 back (from all corners of the school, literally). The kid who'd nicked stuff right outta my bag had his stuff searched and I got my calculator back. Sadly the amazing pencil case is still missing, including the magic pen with a highlighter on the end that said "congratulations, you made the effort" on the side (a gift from Walmer Science College in Kent, one of the first schools I taught in over the summer). And the saga isn't over yet, since the school is supposedly getting the police involved (yeah, likely. Not). Still, dramatastic.
In other news, two comedy events from the day:
Period 1, covering a Y8 English lesson for 5 mins:
Girl: Miss, I had a snowball fight at 6am.
Me: That's nice. I like snow, but mostly from the inside. I don't like to get my feet wet.
Girl: You don't like snowball fights? You adults need to learn to have some fun!
Hmmm, when did I become old and boring? And why do I try and share my thoughts with kids?
Tutor time in the afternoon:
Boy: Miss, can you put my interview sheet on Sir's desk?
Me: Ok.
[Boy takes sheet out of pocket. Condom falls out of pocket onto the floor]
Me: Errr, it's school-time, why have you got that in school?
Boy: It's not mine, Miss.
Me: Why do you have it then?
Boy: I dunno.
Me: (realising I should be promoting condoms) Good, well, better safe than sorry.
No school tomorrow, training day, yay!
