Anarchy in the Classroom

It was my fault, I suppose. I was desperate to tell the girls about my sister expecting another baby. They were working quietly, I broke the news and noise erupted. Everybody wanted to say something about babies. Everybody seemed to have something to say about babies. Aunties’ babies, the nanny’s baby, the guinea pig’s babies. So then came my incentive for quiet work again... they love this game... if they talked, they would have to write their name up on the board and then have to earn it off with exceptional behaviour by the end of the lesson.

Filled with excitement over her first beautifully drawn graph and the baby-chat, I reckon Ella had managed little more than three seconds of silence before words burst forth again.

“Oh, Ella, you know what that means! Name on the board please!” I feigned disappointment and she saw right through it. It is very difficult to be cross with Ella. With her red-bowed alice-band angled, as always, across her forehead like a tennis player, she got up with the smallest of huffs and moved to the board.

The lesson continued.

The silence stretched for another five minutes.

I marked their work over their shoulders. They had actually done very well. A few unlabelled axis, but no triangles which should have been hexagons.

I glanced up to look at Ella’s name on the board. Eyes darting. Where the hell was it?!

And then I moved close to scrutinise the tiniest blemish on the board in the corner. “It couldn’t be!” And oh yes it was. Ella had managed to fill no more than one centimetre square of space. I laughed aloud and asked her if the miniscule name was an attempt to be overlooked. She very quickly replied, “No, Miss Holmes, but I just didn’t want to write anything that would get in the way if you wanted to draw another graph on the board.” It was an answer that made me laugh even harder. There was little chance of that getting in the way of anything... other than concentrated work! The whole class was falling about at this point. It’s Friday after all... so why not!