Written by Paul Dix
You are not well. You knew it when you woke up but ignored it. Now you can feel the clammy palmed early signs of fever and the drums of relentless head pounding are marching towards you. All of this would be just a little annoying on a Sunday: you would pull over the duvet, send someone to the chemist and sleep it out. But it is not Sunday it is Tuesday and there are 30 faces looking at you with eager anticipation. You know what you should do. You know what any sensible colleague would advise you to do. But instead of going home, grabbing for the hot toddy and series 3 of the Wire you decide to stick it out. Your natural teacher guilt is enough to make you struggle through, you believe that chaos will ensue if you drop everything now.
The class are still ‘in training'. They have their good days (well, good mornings) and are certainly in better shape than they were 5 weeks ago. Yet you feel that the successes that you have are still reliant on the force of your personality rather than any real discipline on their part. Now that you have resolved to stay and try and see it through you have to make a choice about how to play it.
What should you do...
A. Carry on regardless - Pretend it isn't happening: deep breath, stiff upper lip, illness is for wimps.
B. Sympathy vote - Tell the class that you are not well and expect their sympathy
C. Sit in the corner - Share the load, ask for help from an LSA/Colleague and change your role. You need a different plan for today.
A. Carry on regardless
Summoning up all reserves of energy you launch into the first session at full pelt. It is going to be another good morning. You ‘double coffee' at break time and even squeeze in an emergency flapjack. If you are going to go down, you are going down fighting. It is all going swimmingly until William rips up Constantine's painting, Chelsea gets knocked in the kerfuffle and Chardonnay/Chablis and Rioja wade in on her behalf. From nowhere comes a volcano of temper and you find yourself standing in the middle of the room, holding two children aloft and screaming at full volume "THERE WILL BE NO PLAYTIME FOR ANYONE ANYMORE". Small sections of the class whisper to each other, ‘she's really lost it this time' and ‘do you think she will actually explode?'. At lunchtime you are found in the staff room, slumped on two library chairs pushed together in a makeshift bed, shaking involuntarily. The Head wisely and immediately sends you home.
It takes you a lot longer that usual to recover and a week later you return to find your class decimated by a nasty feverish, head aching flu bug that has gone round like wildfire. Even three of the staff have caught it. The Head is keen to speak to you about your attempt to martyr yourself for the cause. It seems that your well intentioned determination to stay at work for the sake of the children, may actually have been a more selfish act.
Key Questions:
- Can it ever be right to try and fight your way through an illness?
- How long should children be told to stay away from school after a sickness bug?
- How do you control your temper when you are really exhausted?
B. Sympathy vote
You gather the class on the carpet and explain that you are not feeling well. They listen intently with ‘Ooos' and ‘Ahhhs' as you explain that they are going to have to look after themselves for most of the day as you are not moving from your chair. Some children are sympathetic, a couple, go overboard, 'No I don't need a massage thank you Kaylea' and ‘Thomas, your mother may well demand ‘Gin and Benedict Cumberbatch' when she is feeling unwell but that is of no consequence here!' Other children immediately see that a large gap has just opened up in the classroom behaviour plan and they begin exploiting it fully. The far reaches of the classroom become a blur of Teaching Assistant chasing slippery boys. There are minor incidents throughout the morning and various children are brought to you for instant castigation. You go through the motions but no one really believes you will follow through on any of it. Sensing a steep decline in classroom expectations Tom decides to climb out of the window to fetch a pen that he threw out there himself. In the excitement he becomes wedged in the frame and dangles upside down. The class is in uproar and teachers from other classes come running in to find you behind you desk passively pleading with the group to stop and the rest of the class (including your heroic teaching assistant) trying to unwedge and upright an increasingly panicky 9 year old. The sympathy of your colleagues evaporates quickly. Letters from parents, endless meetings and negotiation with the LEA result in a rollocking and an extended Safeguarding refresher for your troubles. It seems that your attempts at instant emotional literacy have failed and the shallow well of sympathy has run dry.
Key Questions:
- Is it right to leave your Teaching Assistant to deal with behaviour issues while you try and teach?
- Should you tell the children if you are feeling unwell?
- How can you use colleagues to support your properly when you are feeling under the weather?
C. Sit in the corner
You are keenly aware that unless you protect the children (and colleagues) from your germs you will cause a wave of sickness. You need to make it to the end of the day and then you can collapse but pacing yourself is key. Quickly drawing support from your teaching assistant you contrive a plan. With you last reserves of energy you barricade yourself into the reading corner and start creating a ‘help desk' for the children. You surround yourself with resources that will help individuals if they get stuck and pass the instructions for the morning to the teaching assistant who will introduce tasks. Sitting silently in the reading corner gives you an interesting perspective on the lesson. Some children immediately thrive on the independent work they have been set, others immediately seek help, a few need a hard stare! Instead of spilling your germs on the children you communicate with a series of signs to redirect them ‘Ask 3B4Me', "'Think, Pair , Share', ‘Where else could you find help?' and a few arrows to point them to information that will be useful. The children enjoy the game and the teaching assistant enjoys the change in roles. Some behaviour is wobbly after lunch but those children are able to spend a few minutes calming down in your new lair. You feel awful but struggle through to the end of the day with the gentler rhythm. In fact it seems that you are needed less and less as the day goes on and you wonder why you haven't tried sitting in the corner before!
Key Questions:
- Where would you put an unmanned ‘unstuck corner' in your classroom?
- What would you do if the teaching assistant was not willing to lead the class?
- How do you create a classroom culture where children don't automatically seek support from an adult first?
Your style
A. Selfish bravery
Your decision to ignore the waring signs seems brave at the time but your actions have consequences for the children, parents and the school. Instead of a couple of days off you need a week, instead of protecting everyone from your germs you have exposed them involuntarily. Asking for help is not weakness, looking after yourself can never be the wrong decision.
B. Burning Martyr
Although your class can perform the pantomime of sympathy it is only a show. You cannot expect 30 nine year olds to extend that sympathy into how they behave and how they act towards you. You have a professional responsibility to keep the children safe and that cannot be executed slumped behind a desk.
C. Cunning fox
You have not created a permanent way of organising your teaching but it is enough to get you to the end of the day with least damage done. The greatest pleasure was to just to watch the children working. You have learned things that you didn't pick up on at the front of the class, seen new skills from your teaching assistant and now know just how much the children are capable of without constant adult interventions.