Don't ask me how, but I survived the first term of teaching. And I managed to make enough of an impression to be asked to coordinate a new Level 1 (pre-GCSE) science course next term. I'll be branching out from Biology to teach general science (scientific units, method, how to draw apparatus etc) and a bit of Physics (space travel!), which I will thoroughly enjoy! Anyway, on with this half term's things I learned...
- Teenage boys are very often much better behaved than teenage girls.
- Not only does the word "dinosaur" have numerous different spellings, but my own name does too.
- There are some young people who have never heard of LOLcats.
- Younger students can easily be controlled by pointing to the lab skeleton and commenting that it was all that was left of the last student to answer me back.
- Hermaphrodites are the most fascinating subject ever.
- This is closely followed by brains.
- The precipitation on the day of the quadrat-throwing fieldwork is inversely proportional to the uptake of students for A-Level Biology.
- Some students know the most amazing facts, such as the ins and outs of the Battle of Thermopylae and the evolutionary history of the coelacanth (same student)!
- Kids of any age love playing "hangman" with new words.
- Dance music sounds just as dire in Korean as it does in English.
- Seeing my students get interviews and offers at universities fills me with more pride than I ever knew I was capable of.
- All the scientific literacy I embed in their brains will not stop them from genuinely believing the world will end in 2012.
- Apparently I get locked in the prep room overnight and at weekends.
- I am the only Biology lecturer who can identify blowflies.
- No teacher can compete with snow falling outside the lab window.
- It's probably just best if I don't tell the kids what is in haggis.
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