Allting

I find it funny that some phrases stay in primary school; like on Thursday a year 5 girl said to her friend "Oh my days Moesha, you're so extra." Yeah, she was really called Moesha. Mo to the, e to the, and so on... And 'you're so extra' is such a strange phrase. I tried explaining it to Tamsin, and the best I could do was "You go out of your way to do things that aren't strictly necessary."

I've finished placement now. It feels strange that it's all over; I didn't get a big farewell or anything - I bought a card and some herbal tea for the teachers and a box of chocolates for the children. Every Friday, a different child gets a little paper cut-out of a rocket; it's like the special thing, so that each child can feel special and stuff. Anyway, the TA made me one, which was nice.
Oh yeah, and child H left on Wednesday; she was this really cutesy little girl with chubby cheeks, and she left and no one told me. This upset me. But still, there were other nice kids; like Child S the Christian, who never spoke a word to me until week 4, when she suddenly started jabbering on about her sister. Or Child G, who smiles all the time, and points to his elbow when I say 'braps'. And Child I! Child I came to school straight from India, so didn't know a word of English. Spoke for the FIRST time this week - he said words like 'yes' and 'hello', and went up to a picture of a spider and said 'spider', which I thought was astounding. And I got him to answer the register as well. He said 'good afternoon', instead of just nodding.

Ooh random thing - they have some children's books on tape in a little basket. I looked at the back of Roald Dahl's 'Revolting Rhymes', and it said "Now you can enjoy your favourite stories anywhere!" which I thought was strange, because being on tape actually places far more restrictions on it than just having the book.
I think I'll keep writing the little random things that I've been forgetting to say. For example, there's a pub next to where I got the bus home from school. And it had a little board, saying things that were on over the weekend, but in sexualised ways. Like, it said:
Fired Up Friday - Karaoke
Sexy Saturday - Live Music
Sensual Sunday - Quiz
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe quizzes are sensual.

Earlier this week was mad as well, cos Child R threw up ALL over the computer. The keyboard had to be thrown away. It was quite nasty. It was that day when it was REALLY windy and cold, and we had to spend most of the day doing lessons outside, which was quite good. We went and collected minibeasts, and Child S kept taking my hand and saying "Come on Mr Ruffer, let's look over here". Oh yeah, that's another thing - Child B learnt how to spell my name. I was pleased and impressed with that, he can just write it without having to look at anything.

I talk a lot about all the nice children, but I always seem to leave out the ones I don't like. Like Child K, who is ALWAYS trying to get someone else in trouble, or trying to complain that he is unfairly treated - "Mr Ruffer, she's being naughty", "Mr Ruffer, I'm sitting nicely", or my favourite: "Mr Ruffer, why are we here?" I never know what to say to that; I don't even know if I should consider it a philosophical question and talk about God, meaning and purpose, or just say "to learn". He said it during the first lesson I taught, which was quite disheartening.
And Child A is quite naughty, and also quite incapable of an original thought. For instance, we just read 'Shark in the Park'.
And I said: "Now we don't normally see a shark in the park, do we? What do you see in the park? What do we normally see when we go to the park? Yes Child A?"
Child A: "A shark."
Me: "No, what do we actually see?"
Child S: "A dog."
Me: "Yes, good, you might see a dog in the park. What else?"
Child A: "A dog."