ESO 2, 3 & 4 Syllabus

ESO 2, 3 & 4 Students,

To access ESO 2 syllabus, click here.

To access ESO 3 syllabus, click here.

To access ESO 4 syllabus, click here.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Do you believe in superstitions?

Are you afraid of black cats? Would you open an umbrella indoors? How do you feel about the number 13? Would you walk under a ladder even if you had no other choice?

Whether or not you believe in them, you’re probably familiar with a few of these superstitions. But where did they come from? The narrator speaks about the weird and specific origins of some of our favorite superstitions.

Here is also a scene from a 3D animated movie about an unusual day in the life of a person who happens to be very superstitious.

 

Now it is time for you to test how superstitious you actually are! Click on the question below...

How Superstitious Are You?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

"To Parents", by Christine Jones

As a teacher, what are things you wish you could tell your students’ parents?

By Christine Jones, Middle School Science Teacher

(Reblogged from Quora)

I wish I could hand out the following wish list to parents of my middle school students:

1. PLEASE take the cell phone away after 9:00pm. They are texting and looking at YouTube all night long. They aren't getting enough sleep.
2. Please check your child's grades online, and look at the report cards. Don't ask what they can do to improve their grade the last week of school. It's too late.
3. Please return our phone calls. If we are calling, it's important. We don't have time to waste calling for no reason, and we need your help.
4. Please stop saying "my child would never lie to me". Kids lie. It's normal.
5. Please don't assume we dislike your child if they get reprimanded at school. If they fail a test, get a detention… we are trying to correct behaviour. It's not personal.
6. I am trying my best every day. I do this job because I love it, and I wouldn't want to do anything else. I would appreciate your support. Telling your child to respect their teachers is a great way to help.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Heartbreaking Notes from Third Graders

Retrieved at: http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/colorado-teacher-shares-heartbreaking-notes-graders/story?id=30368103

Colorado Teacher Shares Heartbreaking Notes From Third Graders

Kyle Schwartz teaches third grade at Doull Elementary in Denver.

Although she says her students are a pleasure to look after, the educator of three years adds that many of them come from underprivileged homes.

"Ninety-two percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch," Schwartz tells ABC News. "As a new teacher, I struggled to understand the reality of my students' lives and how to best support them. I just felt like there was something I didn't know about my students."

Kyle Schwartz

PHOTO: The students' notes sparked a social media movement on Twitter.

In a bid to build trust between her and her students, Schwartz thought up a lesson plan called "I Wish My Teacher Knew."

For the activity, Schwartz's third graders jot down a thought for their teacher, sharing something they'd like her to know about them.

"I let students determine if they would like to answer anonymously," she says. "I have found that most students are not only willing to include their name, but also enjoy sharing with the class. Even when what my students are sharing is sensitive in nature, most students want their classmates to know.

Kyle Schwartz

PHOTO: Schwartz was shocked by her students' honesty.

More than a Teacher

Found at: busyteacher.org

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non commercial purposes.

What Teachers Make, by Taylor Mali & Gavin Aung Than

Labor students,

Back in October 2010 we gave you the wonderful poem What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali. And now artist Gavin Aung Than has turned it into a brilliant comic:

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Message to a Graduate, by Grant Snider

(Reblogged from Incidental Comics)

Although this comic by Grand Snider was originally intended for graduates, as its heading states, at LEZ we find it so truly inspirational that we believe that every student at every level can benefit from it. Enjoy!

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Kids Don't Learn from People They Don't Like

Today we'd like you to have a look at one of those TED conferences we've already talked to you about on a previous post at LEZ.
The speaker this time is Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, who issues a call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.

Let's have a look at some of the points she discusses:

• All learning is understanding relationships.
• [To a colleague]: "you know, kids don't learn from people they don't like.  
• Tell a kid you're sorry, they're in shock.
• I wondered, how am I going to take this group in nine months from where they are to where they need to be?
• I gave a quiz, 20 questions. A student missed 18. I put a "+2" on his paper and a big smiley face. […] You see, "-18" sucks all the life out of you. "+2" , he said, "I ain't all bad."
• [A student to a former teacher]: “you made me feel like I was somebody, when I knew, at the bottom, I wasn't."
• Will you like all your children? Of course not. […]  the key is, they can never, ever know it. So teachers become great actors and great actresses.
• Teaching and learning should bring joy.
• Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.
• We can do this. We're educators. We're born to make a difference.

You can watch this clip without subtitles to improve your listening skills or make use of the transcript available below. We personally love this woman's energy and are sure it'd be a pleasure to have her in class.

You Are Not Alone

Dear students,

We spend a long time of our life in High School, and this is a hard period. However, that problem you have, that difficult stage you are going through, the pain you are struggling with… there was a time teachers also had to deal with that. Teachers are much more that walking books, they are human beings who have spent their time studying so they can now spend their time with you. Talk to your teachers. Don’t feel embarrassed or afraid. They will stop what they’re doing to listen to you and help you. Because you are our reason to be; here, now and always.

Remember: YOU ARE NOT ALONE. 

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non commercial purposes.

How to Care for Extroverts & Introverts

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Things Never To Say To A Teacher

(Reblogged from Singing Pigs)

A short little piece inspired by the tenth student in fifteen minutes to inquire about a test.

1. Have you graded our tests yet?

No. Contrary to popular belief, I am not a Scantron machine. Good thing, too, because to my knowledge, Scantron machines cannot grade short answer or essay questions which make up the bulk of your test. And while I do consider myself a reasonably intelligent human being I have not yet perfected my reading skills to complete ninety, four-page tests in one hour (which is exactly how long it has been since you walked out of my classroom) even if I weren’t teaching the rest of the day or preparing your classes for tomorrow. I reassure you that the second the tests are graded, the grades will be posted online because (also contrary to popular belief) I have better things to do than get my kicks by keeping already-graded-but-still-unentered exams around my house for added decor or extra toilet paper. Even though I’m paid peanuts, even I can afford toilet paper. So scoot your butt out of here and let me start digging through this pile o’ trees I just killed in the interest of furthering your education.

Dear Sir, I'm Sorry

Education Secretary Michael Gove has apologised to his former French teacher for misbehaving in class 30 years ago.

In a letter published in the Radio Times, he says he cringes when he remembers himself, aged 15, competing to ask "clever-dick questions" and indulging in "pathetic showing off".

He asks the teacher, Mr Montgomery, whom he refers to as Danny, to accept his apology.

Mr Gove goes on to pay tribute to the work of the teaching profession.

Continue reading the main story

The letter says: "It may be too late to say I'm sorry. Thirty years too late."

He adds: "When I look back at the 15-year-old I was, lurking at the back of your French class at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen, I cringe.

Blogs & Sites at Labor School

ESO Students,

As of today, your teachers at Labor School offer you up to 17 blogs and sites, 10 of them targeting ESO contents. 1 more blog (French Language) is soon to be published. Please visit them regularly and take advantage of all the hard, good work your teachers are carrying out for your benefit.

ESO Classroom Rules

1.Equipment.

You must bring your Textbook, Grammar Reference, Workbook, an A-4 sized notebook, a blue ball-pen, a pencil, a rubber, and a classroom diary everyday.

You cannot use books from older students. Students taking a grade for the second time must have a new Workbook or photocopies. You cannot write on your textbooks. You must only use a pencil to write in your workbooks.

Learning What Being a Teacher Is All About

Labor Students,

We would like to give you and your parents this article by Pam Platt published on Courier-Journal.com. We hope it will make you all think. By the way, this article is in direct connection with this other published on Sunday 24th October 2010including a video by Taylor Mali which you will find, again, at the end of this post.

Last fall, I went to Florida for a few days, to a place where my sisters and brother and I had grown up, and where my parents had worked hard to provide for our presents and our futures. Dad retired from his pilot duties in the Air Force, earned his master's degree in education and became an ROTC instructor at a private school. Mom taught sixth grade at the same public school for 24 years. 

On my trip back there, I spent a few hours in a museum dedicated to sunken treasure that had been lost and found along the coast over hundreds of years. I decided to buy a couple of books on the subject and gave my debit card to the park ranger, a guy who looked to be about my age, maybe a little younger, who also staffed the gift shop (everyone is multi-tasking these days). He looked at my name on the card and then asked if my mom was Mrs. Platt, who had been his teacher in a school not far away more than three decades ago. 

When I said yes, it was as if the sun decided to shine directly from his face. He beamed. He instantly summoned memories of my mom in the classroom, what kind of teacher she had been, and how she made learning so much fun. I got a little choked up, to tell you the truth. 

This chance meeting at a museum reminded me of the living legacy of a teacher. After I left, I couldn't get to my cellphone quickly enough to tell my mom that there was nothing retired about the impact she continued to have on her students, no matter how many years she had been out of the classroom. (And thank you again, and still, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Truex, the teachers from whom I still learn, almost 40 years after I sat in their classrooms.) 

I've thought about that encounter recently, and the powerful truth it tells about teachers, especially as I've listened to the rants against public education, and school teachers, and their mission in communities throughout our country. 

A month ago, The New York Times ran a piece titled, “Teachers wonder, why the scorn?” I wondered that, too. 

“Around the country, many teachers see demands to cut their income, benefits and say in how schools are run through collective bargaining as attacks not just on their livelihoods, but on their value to society,” the article stated. “Education experts say teachers have rarely been the targets of such scorn from politicians and voters.”

The story noted the pitch of battle around the stewards of our children's public education: attempts to roll back tenure and seniority protections in some states, threatened layoffs in major cities and throughout the country (in its most recent survey, the National Education Association says nine of 10 superintendents expect to lay off school personnel in the fall), slings and arrows at unions and union efforts, accountability measures and test scores measuring student achievements, top-down remedies with little teacher input, character impunities. Is it any wonder that the article also mentions the high attrition rate in the profession? 

No one gets rich off being a teacher. I know. I grew up in a home headed by two of them. I also watched how they worked in the evenings and on weekends. They didn't have the kind of job you could leave at the office. They also didn't earn the salaries commensurate with other professions that carry similar responsibilities. That's why I don't get the scorn that has been heaped upon teachers in recent days, and I don't feel like any of us should be putting up with it anymore. 

There are more than 3 million public school teachers for more than 49 million public school students. The average teacher salary in the U.S. is about $55,000. According to the NEA, the average salary of public school teachers is almost $50,000 in Indiana, and more than $49,000 in Kentucky. Over the past 10 years, average salaries for teachers increased about 3.5 percent. 

Most teachers have one or more advanced degrees — almost half hold at least a master's degree. Most of the nation's elementary and secondary teachers have an average of 13 years in the classroom. Most of them participate in professional development programs each year. Their average age is 42. The overwhelming majority are women. 

Teachers spend more than 52 hours a week on all teaching duties and spend their own money on school supplies for their classrooms, as well as instructional materials. One survey said teachers spent more than $900 of their own money in a school year on those items.

Most teachers enter the profession because they feel called to work with young people, and most stay in the profession because that feeling never goes away. Still, about 30 percent of teachers leave the profession in the first five years. 

Beyond those facts, what does it mean to be a teacher? 

Nancy Esarey, a teacher for 16 years who came from a family of teachers, parent and grandparent of public school students, now teaching science at Seneca High School: “Every day, when I think about what I am doing in my room, I think back on my own children and now on my grandchildren and ask to myself — would I be happy about what they did in this class today? If my students were my own children, would I teach them any differently? Or would I do just what I am doing? So I think of the parents of my students — am I doing the job you would want me to do for your child? 

“Teaching is taking students by the hand and trying to take them to a better and brighter future — to give them the chance to make it using their knowledge and confidence. It also means allowing for them to learn from stumbling. If you do not allow people to make mistakes, they can never learn from them.” 

Niki Ross, a teacher for 11 years, now a kindergarten teacher at McFerran Preparatory Academy: “To be a teacher means that I have been given the responsibility to encourage, educate and motivate my students to be able to reach for the stars regardless of their race, color, nationality or backgrounds. It means that I believe that each of my students deserves a great public education so that they can be successful in their lives.” 

What don't people understand about the job? 

Esarey: “I feel most people think they know a whole lot about education because they all went to school. All people have also gone to the doctor during their lifetime (probably many times), but this does not mean they know a whole lot about medicine. People think inside the box when it comes to their child. They do not think about the overall picture of one teacher with classes of 30 students five periods a day. That means we (teachers) are dealing with 150 little Johnny's every single day. 

“Trying to stay on top of teaching bell-to-bell, classroom management, grading, and noticing any changes from the norm in our students is challenging and exhausting. I want every child to have the same opportunity to learn, become engaged and see the importance of their education to their future. Sometimes it can be difficult because some of the 150 students are disruptive or plain just shut down. Trying to reach every student takes every bit of passion, determination and control a teacher can muster.” 

Ross: “I think some people forget that a child's first educational experience should start in the home, especially when it comes to appropriate behavior in an educational or social setting. I also think people fail to realize that teachers are part of the community, they have families to support and provide for, their children are students in the same schools, and teachers work hard to be able to provide a quality public education.” 

What about the difference in the way parents and students treat teachers now as opposed to five or 10 years ago? 

Esarey: “When I grew up, if my parents ever got a call from school about my behavior or academics, there would be no questions about who was in trouble — it would have been me. Today, when I contact some parents, it gets turned around to being the school's fault or my fault as a teacher. 

“Many students are from single parent homes. Many students that I have work 20 hours a week to help the family financially. Many students I have do not see their parents much because the parents work two or three jobs to make ends meet. And, lastly, some of my students are already parents themselves, several times over. “I do not think the difference is in the way parents and students treat teachers — it is in the way they see education as irrelevant to their child's future.” 

Re-read that last sentence. Is that what the scorn for teachers is all about? Chilling thought. 

I don't know about you, but I don't know that I could manage the energy, the inspiration, the idealism or the fortitude to do everything a teacher does for one day, let alone an entire school year. 

We need to retire the old saying, “Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.” It's hateful, it feeds corrosive stereotypes, and it's simply not true. 

And so, finally, I am reminded of a fellow pilot who retired from the Air Force along with my dad; both were war veterans. They earned their teaching credentials and did their classroom teaching internships around the same time. At the end of his assignment, the friend told my dad he was going to write a book and it was going to be titled: “I'd Rather Be a Fighter Pilot in Vietnam than Teach Junior High School.” 

In other words, those who can … teach.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

In Troubled Spain, Boom Times for Foreign Languages

Last Tuesday 30th March, The New York Times published an article by Raphael Minder about Spain's poor foreign-language skills, in particular a lack of English. This is what they published:

Facing high unemployment at home, more Spaniards are seeking work abroad. But they are confronting a significant hurdle: their poor foreign-language skills, in particular a lack of English.

With a 20 percent unemployment rate, twice the European average, labor mobility has become a burning issue in Spain, prompting some business leaders to call for an overhaul of the Spanish education system that would make better language training a priority.

Emilio Cuatrecasas, chairman of Cuatrecasas, one of the biggest Spanish law firms, said recently that “Spain has to take seriously the need to reform its education, particularly in terms of teaching English.”

There are early suggestions that the next generation will have sufficient communications skills to work outside Spain: More children are now being taught by English speakers as part of their regular class work. At the same time, more adults are playing catch-up, notably trying learn German to respond to employment offers in Germany, which has the largest economy in Europe.

One place where educational changes are under way is Madrid. A program run by the regional government has made about a third of primary state schools bilingual. The government expects to raise that proportion to half by 2015.

On a recent morning at the Rosa Luxemburgo school in the district of Moncloa-Aravaca, 10-year-olds were studying the human body in English, learning terms like “salivary glands” and “esophagus.” One of them, Macarena Ferrán, said that she also got to practice English regularly while vacationing abroad, last summer in the Netherlands. As to her long-term ambition, “I would like to live in New York because it looks like a very interesting city,” she said in almost flawless English.

For the current generation of Spanish job-seekers, however, working in New York might be more of a distant dream. While there are no reliable comparative statistics, language-school owners like Richard Vaughan even argue that “the level of English is lower than 15 years ago,” reflecting a general decline in education standards in Spain.

Mr. Vaughan, a Texan who moved to Spain in the 1970s, now runs Vaughan Systems, the largest English language teaching company in Spain. He estimated that “fewer than 5 percent of the students graduating from schools of engineering, law or business possess a working knowledge of English.”

Spanish politicians are also among the worst in western Europe in terms of English skills. Neither the head of the Socialist government, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, nor the leader of the main opposition Popular party, Mariano Rajoy, speaks English.

Madrid’s bilingual program, however, is giving the region’s politicians something to gloat about.

“This is a major step,” said Lucía Figar, who oversees the regional government’s education policy. “Until very recently, getting to a decent level of English was simply impossible for any child whose parents didn’t have the money to send their child abroad or to a private school.”

The bilingual schools rely largely on Spanish teachers who get a monthly bonus of €180, about $255, for making the language switch. The schools also have recruited assistants who are native English speakers — often Americans on an extended university break or sent to Spain through an education scholarship like the Fulbright program.

Between 30 percent and 50 percent of the class work is in English, including the science that was being taught last week at the Rosa Luxemburgo school.

In another classroom, Felipe Alejandro Luna Merlo, an 8-year-old whose parents emigrated from Bolivia, was finding it more difficult to assimilate human anatomy in English, and struggling to understand general questions about his upbringing. Still, he sounded eager to progress, saying that he was also teaching his father, a waiter, how to say “the numbers and the colors” in English because “I really want him to learn like me.”

One of the teachers, Fernando Azpeitia, had spent three years in Chicago at a transitional school teaching Latino children. He welcomed the enthusiasm among his Madrid pupils. “The big advantage here is that parents have chosen to have their children learn English,” he said, “while in Chicago it was kind of compulsory.”

Whether the children always get to hear the Queen’s English is debatable, however, and even Ms. Figar acknowledges that some teachers could improve their own English. Still, she said, more than 90 percent of the children have so far completed their bilingual primary school program by passing English language tests set by Cambridge University.

“These tests are the best way to measure our success, rather than discussing whether some teachers have good grammar but poor pronunciation,” she said.

Indeed, pronunciation is rarely a Spanish strong suit. Last month, during the televised ceremony for the Goyas, Spanish cinema’s version of the Oscars, participants insisted that one nominated movie, “Buried,” should be called “Bar-y-ed.”

Ms. Figar also described as “absurd” the criticism directed last year at a €1.8 million Madrid advertising campaign to promote bilingual education. English purists said the slogan for the campaign — “Yes, we want!” — amounted to a grammatical error because a direct object should have followed the verb. “This was only about powerful advertising,” Ms. Figar said. When Apple promotes its consumer electronics, she added, “nobody questions whether their slogan should be ‘Think positive’ or ‘Think positively.”’

In collaboration with the Spanish Education Ministry, the British Council, Britain’s cultural agency, also runs a bilingual project in more than 200 schools, alongside similar initiatives in Italy and Portugal. Raising English standards in Spain “isn’t an overnight happening,” said Teresa Reilly, a British Council official. Still, compared with Portugal and Italy, “Spain is considerably ahead in the introduction and development of solid subject-based teaching in English in the primary and secondary sectors,” she said.

The economic crisis is also forcing more adult Spaniards to return to the classroom — and not just to learn English. Applications to learn German this spring semester have risen 15 percent from a year ago, according to the Madrid office of the Goethe-Institut, which promotes German culture abroad. That follows a recent recruitment initiative by the German government to add about 500,000 engineers from other countries to keep its economy growing.

Meanwhile, Miguel Flor de Lima, who teaches the Portuguese language in Madrid, said that a growing number of multinational corporations were cutting back marketing and other activities in Spain and Portugal, two of the most crippled economies in Europe.

“The crisis means that more companies are treating Spain and Portugal as a single Iberian market and then asking their people to adjust to that,” he said. “And that leaves employees with no other option than trying to master both languages.”

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Phrase Mix - Learn REAL English with new English phrases every day!

PhraseMix.com is a site that helps you learn natural, native-like English. PhraseMix introduces new English phrases each day. These phrases are carefully chosen to be:

• Natural. 
• Useful.
• Memorable.

The idea behind PhraseMix is that people don't speak a language fluently just by learning single words and grammar to stick them together with. Instead, fluent speakers remember longer groups of words that often go together. Having these combinations memorized makes it easy to know what you're going to say next.

PhraseMix teaches NATURAL language

Most language classes and textbooks teach a formal style of English that isn't used in most real-world situations. That's why most students who have studied English for a long time in school have trouble. They complain that they don't understandwhat people are saying when they speak to native English speakers.

PhraseMix is organized around different situations that you might find yourself in. The phrases we teach are all realistic, natural responses to that situation. If the phrase doesn't fit into a common situation, we don't teach it. So you don't have to worry about learning English that sounds "strange".

PhraseMix only teaches the most USEFUL phrases

There are other websites and books that teach you English phrases, but a lot of them focus on phrases that are "interesting" to native English speakers, but might not actually be very common.

Other English learning sites which teach phrases focus on idioms, which are long phrases that have a different meaning than you'd expect from the meanings of each of the words. Common examples of idioms are:

• It's raining cats and dogs.
• The early bird gets the worm.
• I have two left feet.

But PhraseMix also teaches you common word collocations. Collocations are simply words that often come together. For example, people usually use the word "nice" before "day":

• It's such a nice day out.

People use the word "nice" more often than "fine" or "good", even though each of these words has a similar meaning.

PhraseMix makes it EASY to memorize phrases

PhraseMix explains each new word and grammar point, but what we really want you to do is to memorize the phrase at the top of each post. The sentences are shortand don't include too many difficult words. The situations are specific and easy to imagine. And once you've memorized the phrase, it should be easy to remember the words and phrases that are part of it.

There are some more tools coming in the near future that will help you memorize the phrases even better. Subscribe to the email newsletter to get a weekly summary of the phrases, and be one of the first to find out about new services.

Find PhraseMix on Facebook, Twitter, read their blog, or join their e-mail list, all of it for free.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Tackling bad behaviour 'is not our job', teachers claim

The following article by Graeme Paton, Education Editor for the British newspaper The Telegraph, was published yesterday, last 10th December.

Teachers are reluctant to tackle badly behaved children because it is “beyond their remit”, according to UK Government research.

Many teachers chose to refer unruly pupils to senior managers amid fears they could risk injury or lose their job by tackling troublemakers, it was claimed.

Some staff told researchers that imposing discipline was “out-dated, negative and punitive” and new powers to crackdown on classroom yobs were “too controlling”.

The disclosure comes despite warnings of a rise in bad behaviour in schools.

A study earlier this year found more than a quarter of teachers had been confronted with violent pupils in the last 12 months, with staff reportedly being threatened, pushed, scratched, punched, bitten, kicked and spat at.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, warned that teachers were “living in fear of breaking the rules while troublemaking students felt the law was on their side”.

Last month, he set out a series of reforms designed to give teachers new powers to discipline children in the classroom.

This includes the right to search pupils for any item they can use to cause disruption, more power to physically restrain troublemakers and allowing staff to impose “same day” detentions - scrapping rules requiring them to give parents 24 hours warning.

But a report commissioned by the Department for Education suggested many teachers were reluctant to use the new powers.

The study – based on 45 hours of interviews with teachers in London, Birmingham and Leeds – said staff felt a “huge sense of personal responsibility, pressure and expectations are placed upon them”.

“When it comes to behaviour, however, they often felt that this can quickly spiral out of their control,” said the study.

“Their biggest fear was that they may deal with/or be seen to deal with behaviour wrongly or inappropriately and that ensuing consequences will be very serious: damage a child or teacher, especially their career.”

The report, by marketing firm 2CV, tested the Government’s new proposals on staff.

But the study said teachers “claimed to find the powers disengaging”.

“Discipline’ was felt to be too out-dated, negative and punitive, and ‘powers’ too controlling and dominating,” it said.

One female teacher from a London comprehensive told researchers: “‘Powers’ sounds really antiquated and out of touch with the realities of what it’s like to be a teacher today. It reminds of the slipper and the cane; it’s certainly not aspirational for me as teacher.”

The report said there was a huge reluctance to physically search or restrain pupils for fear of being accused of assault. Many said this should only be carried out by trained specialists or senior staff.

A woman from a Leeds comprehensive said: “I don’t think we should have to risk our own personal safety, that’s not what I signed up for.”

One female teacher from a secondary grammar school in Birmingham said: “There’s a relationship you have to build up with pupils; you can’t just decide to search a pupil half-way through a lesson.

“It’s not something for the classroom teacher to deal with.”

A male teacher from a London boys’ secondary school added: “I don’t feel confident that the head would back me up if a student accused me of something while I was searching them or trying to break up a fight. I would get  automatically suspended and it could be the end of my career.”

Take a look at the readers' comments here.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Teachers given new powers to discipline pupils 

  20 Nov 2010

• Quarter of teachers 'facing violence at school' 

  29 Mar 2010

• Middle-class parents 'failing to impose good behaviour' 

  22 Mar 2010

• Police called to 40 violent school incidents a day 

  22 Dec 2008

• 1,500 children under five suspended from school in a year 

  06 Nov 2008

• Teachers threaten action over unruly children 

  04 Apr 2010

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Humour: "What teachers make", by Taylor Mali

What Teachers Make, or Objection Overruled, or If things don't work out, you can always go to law school, By Taylor Mali: www.taylormali.com

He says the problem with teachers is, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"
He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.
I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the other dinner guests
that it's also true what they say about lawyers.
Because we're eating, after all, and this is polite company.
"I mean, you¹re a teacher, Taylor," he says.
"Be honest. What do you make?"
And I wish he hadn't done that
(asked me to be honest)
because, you see, I have a policy
about honesty and ass-kicking:
if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall in absolute silence.

No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won't I let you get a drink of water?
Because you're not thirsty, you're bored, that's why.
I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
I hope I haven't called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today.
Billy said, "Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don't you?"
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.
I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful over and over and over again until they will never misspell either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains) then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make, you give them this (the finger).
Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only