Today’s theme is about learning and teaching.
My students sit up when I enter
I think to see what I am wearing
Rather than the teaching about to take place.
English in the senior years,
Jane Austen, Shakespeare,
The Romantics, Keats and his Grecian Urn.
Their eyes glaze over, here we go again
Flogging a dead horse, so to speak.
Minds switched off, pens doodling
I make all the sense I can
My mind struggling with Austen as much as theirs.
Then the crunch part, the word Assessment
Their eyes light up, some salivate, others sigh.
When?
Where?
Marks?
Question?
They demand the lesson notes,
Want study sheets
Guidance suddenly is requested
Marks are involved,
They get very serious
Heads down bums up
Diligence surfaces
Indifference vanishes.
Written for: https://new2writing.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/maydays-prompt-lessons-learnt/
Morpethroad 
You’re lucky. Most of mine don’t perk up or care about assessment grades either.
It’s what happens in a school where the academic aspect is exaggerated and they see themselves as future doctors, lawyers and pool cleaners.
Heads down bums up eh lol I wish I had done all my exams sitting like that, I might have got somewhere 🙂
I think we all say that Juls. I might have been a brain surgeon had I understood maths and science.
“Their eyes glaze over, here we go again…Flogging a dead horse, so to speak…Minds switched off, pens doodling…” Lol. Yep. That was me. Still is… 😀 It’s gotta be tough to be a teacher–especially if you don’t much care for Austen either. You created a great visual here, Michael.
Thank you Scout, it was tough some days but in between we found time to laugh otherwise I wouldn’t be the sane loveable character I am today.
lol well we have to be thankful for that 😂
I know I am😀😀
I laughed — yes out loud and everything when you mention Assessments and went on to describe your students’ behavioral changes. The word “Assessment” got my students excited because that was often the name given the two or three written/checked off assessments a student might do of each professor at the end of term/course. That definitely got a few salivating and sharpening their pencils. (And your description was quite humorous.)
Thank, its all truer than you think, they hated them but attacked them with so much vigor as it meant a lot in terms of their final result.
What a wonderful visual Michael! I think we all know students like this, the instant fear that flows through them with the word assessment – you captured it all so well. Thank you for taking part. KL ❤
Thank you KL it was a fun piece to write.
This is hilarious – exactly my thoughts at this time, a week before the final tests. I thought the apocalypse was coming when my students suddenly woke up in class and started to ask questions – all about the final test of course. It’s all fun and games, and then there’s the final test. Ha.
Kids are same all over I find. Bring on a test and suddenly they are awake. Good luck with it all. The marking I don’t envy though. Did you know that in Japan all the tests are multiple choice? They don’t do written expression.
Kids are the same everywhere, you’re right. Multiple choice is everyone’s preferred, I think, both for the teacher to mark and for the student to take (and guess, if necessary). I realise it doesn’t cover all the skills, to do just multiple choice, but it’s immense workload on the teacher to mark, say, essays, which is what I spent lots of time on. It made me prematurely old.
Yes I have been in the same position. We had 180+ in the senior years and at exam time we double marked them. Another teacher and I would have one question to mark and then compare marks to arrive at a result. We marked out of 20 and as it was an academic school I never gave a kid 19 because it meant having to explain endlessly why they didn’t get 20, often it was easier to give a 20…..I know a cheap way out but it did save a lot of anxiety on my part and in the grand scheme of things made no difference.