Open Classes.................................

I’ve been blabbing onto a few of you about my open classes for the last couple of weeks. For those of you in the unknown zone, it’s an opportunity for the parents to come and watch a class and then pass their judgements on every aspect of the day. Judgements can range from the amount of hair on my face to the crease in my show laces, oh and the way I teach of course. So from this you can imagine the kind of pressure that is apparent.

So I had two classes to present.

Red was first. My four year olds. I chose the lesson plan of “Ok, Kids, today we’re going to have a birthday party” (cue over the top enthusiasm in order to encourage the kids and get the parents off on the right foot). It worked. A few rye smiles from the parents as the kids don’t really respond as one would hope. Nevertheless I carry on. All goes well with the gentle introduction, touching on a familiar ground to get the kids relaxed. Then I begin the body of the lesson.

Before I carry on I just want to set the scene. We are all situated in a smallish classroom, no bigger than three Ford Galaxy’s (interior, with the seats down). There are 11 of us. 5 Kids, 5 parents (all Mum’s) and little old me. The kids are placed in front of me whilst mummies (one or two of them being yummy mummies) are in a military style curved line to my immediate right.

Ok, so I begin with a few key phrases and actions, again to get the kids active, all in aid of “baking a cake”. So far, so good. Then we come to the picture game, which is cleverly titled ‘The Picture Game’. I draw, they guess, they get it right, they get a sticker. At this point I now have a further three people watching from the door. One being my Boss, two being the school principal and thirdly the scheduler. The scheduler has a hand held camera and it seems to get bigger every time I turn around.

My drawings were comical, but clinical, to start with. Then Sean thought that a birthday hat was an upside down ice-cream. This sent the entire classroom into fits of laughter and sent me completely of course. I managed to salvage some dignity by making a fool out of myself by imitating what would happen if I wore an ice-cream on my head. Once this minor blip levelled itself out I realised I was sweating horribly from the tip of my hairline down to my top lip. The kind of sweat you know that other people can see it because you can see their reflection in the sweat drip as it goes past your eye – trust me look next time!!!! And we all know what happens when you know that they know that you’re sweating! You sweat more!!!!!

Nay bother though there was only as few minutes left. Just enough time to give them their cookies and stickers and get the hell out of there.....

Pink class was good, but not as interesting.