A blog everyday in September: Day 5 Teachers' day

I follow a blog about motherhood and saw that the writer did a 'blog ever day in August' challenge and I really enjoyed reading it, so I have decided to take part in Chickywiggle's blog every day in September

Day five: Teachers' day

Now, I think this post is supposed to be something that inspired you...mine memory sort of is, and hope it is something that others can follow too...keep reading to the end - I'll get to the point!

As a teacher I have lots of memories of my time in school, that help me become a better teacher today. This is one I tell everyone - so apologies if you've heard it before

One day, in a Geography class, our teacher asked us to look at an ordnance survey map and work out which way the river was flowing, and explain how we knew. To my friend sat by me, I JOKINGLY said "well this map is just a flat version of the Earth. If it was the real thing it would look like this (here I held the map upright in front of me) so the river would be flowing downwards off the page". We giggled at my crap joke, however the teacher overheard me and ridiculed me in front of the rest of the class. It was simply light hearted humour on his part - he was a fabulous teacher and was one of those that inspired me to become a teacher myself.

HOWEVER - as a child I was humiliated. I was a keen sort of pupil and hated to get things wrong, or not understand things and I was embarrassed to think that he thought I was being serious. Still, to this day, I have no idea how to find out which was a river flows when looking at a ordnance survey map. I attribute this lack of knowledge to the fact that I must have switched off for the remained of the lesson.

That's the funny thing about memories - I can remember the classroom, where I was sat, the friend I was talking to, the teacher, the feeling, but I have no idea what we learnt that day.

Children are in fact just that - children. As teachers, parents, friends, people of the general public I think we often forget that children are children. As an adult, as well as a teacher, it is my responsibility to ensure they can learn - in all senses of that word - in a secure, free-to-make-mistakes world.

I strive for this as a teacher already, but will try as a parent too.