You know I'm strict, but I'll run over the exam rules again, for the record.

Let us continue with the exam theme in this gloriously slow revolving door that is Novemeber in teacherland.

Today Sir had the pleasure of supervising younger ones in smaller exam rooms. Better? Nup. Stuck with one of Sir's fave mysogynist hairys' in the morning and a surprising lack of supervising teachers in the afternoon. Mysogynist hairy will often broach the topic of sexuality with Sir. Cool and trendy perhaps in the small world of Nick Cave groupie art teacher and poker playing mathematical grumps in the corner of the staffroom. But Sir is happy to be boxed at work and is, frankly, sick of the conversation.

Picture that teacher that doesn't teach. Every school and every school department has one... everyone knows who this is. The one that makes a connection with the kiddies by relating to them on their own level by talking to them about sex and taking drugs. Being open minded about things like interpreting the meaning of Uniform do black shoes include 12 up Docs? and the actual origins of language why it is not really degrading to call someone 'retarded' or 'gay' because of the evolution of slang in popular culture, especially rap music. No pedagodical critique, no structure, no lesson plan.

Teaching is an intrinsicly private practice. Yes, we are immersed in a classroom with 26 young people that we hope will be engaged in open learning activities in the earlier part of the day and structured student centred activities after lunch lunch? I use the term loosley and the positive correlation between poor food and poor behaviour is already well known. Yet, as adults and professionals, we are alone in this enviornment. The snatched glimpses into classroom control, lesson planning and the appearance of a student engaged is often a facade that covers up poor teaching practice and bored students.

Today Sir had a private chuckle at the sincere and earnest effort that mysogynist hairy did put into his exam rule speech. So did the students. None of us were fooled.