Apathy Jack writes:
Student 1 "If I pass English this year, Mister's going to buy me a car."
Student 2 "Really? Sir's going to buy you a car?"
Me "Yeah hold on for a minute there..."
Student 1 "See, last year Mister told me that if I passed English he'd shout me McDonald's, which he did. So if I pass this year, he said he'd buy me a car."
Me "I'm pretty sure that last bit never actually happened."
Student 1 "Alright, but if we both pass this year, you have to shout us dinner at Valentine's."
Me "Okay."
Student 1 "And if we pass next year you have to take us to dinner at Sky City..."
Me "Sounds fair."
Student 1 "In the car you're buying me."
Me "See you're doing it again..."
6 comments:
Do your students actually call you 'Mister' and 'sir?' I used to hate it when mine did that.
Of course: That's what you call teachers.
None of them use my name, I'm either "Mister" or "Sir". It's interesting which students use which title - there's some personality test in there somewhere...
I suppose it does largely depend on the decile; I've been to (and taught at) schools where teachers are known by their first names. The schools I attended either used 'Mr. Blah (where blah is a surname)' or sometimes Blah's first name (depending on whether the teacher was 'hip' or not. Personally, I still get shudders when a pupil sends me an e-mail addressed to Mr. Dentith. I feel like I'm not doing my job properly when that happens. I'm Matthew the lecturer/tutor/teacher, not Mr. Dentith. He was probably my grandfather.
Surely there's a difference between the relationship between university students and their lecturers/tutors and the relationship between school pupils and their teachers?
When I were a lad, any teacher who let pupils call them by their first name instantly lost a ton of respect. (And if my 5th Form English teacher was anything to go by, letting kids call you by your first name was the first step towards going crazy and leaving the school after a nervous breakdown...)
Ah, but my initial point was about schools rather than universities. Also, I have taught at the secondary level (I've also adjucated speech competitions at the Primary; I need early education experience to complete the set).
You let the students call you by your first name, and you'll be calling them sir in a month.
Of course this doesn't apply to hippy schools, not to teachers who have nervious breakdowns and run screaming from school one windy lunchtime. Actually, it does apply to that last group...
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