Practical

The kids love making things. They don't much like designing things. They HATE writing things. It's all about the making. Everything else is LONG.

In the DT department the kids swap between textiles, food, graphics and resistant materials (my specialism) every term. The kids move the teachers stay where they are. So the start of every rotation is hard work for everyone. Lots of writing and designing, no making and a hell of a lot of moaning.

From the first few lessons it's "sir are we doing practical today?" "Sir are we making things today?" ad nauseum.

I've got eleven key stage three classes a week so multiply that by twenty students and you can imagine the amount of times I get asked in the first four or so weeks of a rotation and then that every term.

So sometimes I answer correctly with explanation, sometimes I get a bit short, sometimes I get a bit cheeky or sometimes I get plain rude. Depends how my day/week is going. 

If they come into my room during the five mins I have at lunchtime to cram some food down my neck and ask me, then they ALWAYS get plain rude.

A simple "No" is one of my favourites.

Often they ask "Sir are we doing work today?" To this I always reply "Yes we ARE doing work today and we have been for the last two weeks."

That really annoys them.

My colleague (a Graphics teacher) gets the same thing but substitute 'making things' for 'going on the computers'. He writes on his whiteboard in big letters:

"Sir are we going on the computers today?"

"No we are not going on the computers today"

He then had to write a number of variations on the original question as they change the question.

I wonder what happens in maths?

Last week I got a new variation on the theme by a year seven class.

"Sir are we touching wood today?"

At first I thought they were on the wind up but no. They genuinely wanted to know if they could 'touch wood' that lesson.