Over my years in education, I’ve liked most of the teachers I’ve had. Several teachers of mine were actually especially good and gave me some fantastic pieces of advice/help that were crucial in the development of my writing. But, sadly, there was one teacher in particular who was especially bad.
Back in 2009, I had a GCSE Media class, and the teacher for that class was quite nice, but a couple of times she was away and her replacement was the worst teacher I ever had. In one of the classes she covered we were all given the easy task of getting on with an essay that was due. I sat next to my good friend George Moore and, while we worked, we also happily chatted to one another. This was something she didn’t like, as she insisted we worked in silence, so we only talked quietly.
After a few minutes of silence George said quietly to me “Watch this.” He then pushed some buttons on the keyboard which did something strange and funny to my essay. Importantly, what he did was something which could easily be restored by pushing undo.
“What’re you doing?” she asked menacingly as she suddenly appeared behind us.
“Oh, it’s just a thing George was showing me,” I said.
“Well, clearly you haven’t been doing your work!” she said angrily. “You can go and sit at the table over there and write a report for your normal teacher to explain to her exactly what happened today!”
“Well, I should really be getting on with this essay,” I said.
“Get off the computer now!” she shouted.
So I left George and the computer and went over to one of the tables where she gave me a pen and a piece of paper to write my report.
“Today I was happily working on my essay while I sat next to George,” I wrote, “the pair of us were both getting on with our essays in a happy and relaxed atmosphere. After a while George showed me something funny that could be done to Word documents and the pair of us both enjoyed a small laugh about it. After this, we’d have both gotten back on with our essays but, sadly, the supply teacher came over and insisted I write this pointless report on what had happened. I’ve been put aside at a table with no computer and I have to stay here for the rest of the class. During the time that has been wasted by putting me here, I probably could have actually finished my essay.”
Towards the end of the lesson, the supply teacher came over and took my report.
She read it and then said to me, “And you’re sure you want me to show this to your normal teacher?”
“Oh yes,” I said with a smile, “it’s quite a fair assessment of what happened today, I think.”
Since I never heard anything about that report again, I’m assuming it wasn’t passed on. Unfortunately, however, it wasn’t the last I heard of this especially bad teacher; I had her for one more Media class, and my experiences with her only got worse. You’ll find out about that when I post another anecdote about her on Wednesday!
