Ep 158: Elf on the Shelf Nightmare, Mythical Creature TAs & Gross Classroom Stories!

0:00 Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Teach the Repeat. My name is Dylan. And my name is Hayden. And this week, yeah, it's Monday, but guess what? We're swapping the order. We're going to go for the. Q&A what today? Do you know why? Tell me. Because we've been recording it first this whole time and having to pretend that there was no SO before anyway, because we batch record. Yeah, both episodes at once. But the other thing is it's it's more sharp, it's more quick and it gives you more time then because we tend to do something more of a deep dive on a Monday, it gives you more time to actually listen to that then yeah, if we just released that on the Wednesday. So you're still getting you 2. Episodes a week, don't you worry, don't you panic. Makes a lot of sense. One change at a time though, right? Because we we tried changing the intro that one time and that didn't go down well with you. We're not changing the intro. Ever. But you're OK with it. This change is all right.

0:40 This change is all right because I thought of it. Yeah, all right. OK, yeah, my change, but which means I got my head around. It and by you thought of it what it means is someone suggested and our WhatsApp community first and Dylan thought it was his idea this. Is hilarious because if you go back, I literally suggested that did you yes go back and find it and you can back me up If you're in the WhatsApp community, which you can join down below get involved in all of the chit chat. There's a great group of people. It's a good laugh. Why not join down below? It's free and guess what they can put their submissions in to the form get priority access. We actually have one from Instagram as well today. Without further ado, though, Hayden, go on. Well, we had a very fantastic range of questions. Very fantastic. Who is? Who is from our WhatsApp community and he's submitted a lot of questions so I've got a few from Tom today I'll be a bit running joke and. I sprinkle them in, aren't we?

1:25 Yeah. Sprinkle them in, he's got some quite good ones. Do you tend to say something it's a running joke before you do it. Is that is that? I like to, I like to ruin the joke by saying it's running joke. Fair enough. So cheers, Tom, keep it up. Here's your first question. What's the grossest thing that's ever happened to you in class? I once had a class of year one children and everyone was constantly having colds and illnesses. Understandable. It turns out that they all thought the box of tissues were reusable and kept stuffing them back into the box. I also once found a box of teeth. Must have been about 30 of them. Apparently a previous teacher would collect them for science experiments about tooth decay and had lost them all. I don't know how to. We can't talk. That's the end of the.

2:06 Question. There's nothing that's happened to me that's more gross than that. How eerie would it be to just be like rumbling, rumbling through your cupboard trying to find something and just a box of teeth? Yeah, that's like something out of a horror. Film. I think I'd be more scared than anything. I mean, like, am I? Is this a setup? Yeah, like it's like a trophy of a serial, like 1-2, three. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I kind of like a great way of doing a science experiment, getting real teeth, it's true. And whacking them in like a Coke for a week and see what happens to. Them. Not sure about the science experiment where we we use tissues though. That's the one that's not that hit me and when I was thinking about what the grossest thing happened to me, it's all about snot because it just is. It's insane. Like you just get kids who just have it on their nose constantly. And me personally, my friends found this out. You I I like, I gag.

2:52 Yeah, you hate snot, don't you? You're like super super phobia it. It's not like I don't like phobia, I'm not scared of it, but it just makes me throw up. But you're. Beyond like the normal range? No one likes snot. No, you're way beyond that. Oh, you like gag at the? Sound of the World. You're like struggling now I can see I'm. Just talking about if someone if someone, no, no. There's little sound effects, so it's like he's getting really cool. If it's when someone says that they are, if they oh God if they got phlegm or something. Yeah, can't wait. Spit it out. No, spit out. It's not. Come on, don't. Because if if someone says it, I'm oh, it's disgusting. And then I carry on. My friends found this out. They made I was I was in Asda car park and they oh God, one of my friends obviously had a phlegmy throat. Yeah, I was getting and it they did it until I threw up in a Bush.

3:40 Oh. My God, they. Were all like laughing, obviously hilarious and I I had to go to a Bush and it was too much for me and I can't deal with it. So like anything to do with that? Oh God, I've had it before in class. I'm going to try to get free. To throw up on the pod. Come on guys, throw up on the pod. They can't hear me. I can't hear them. I've had it before in class where I've, you know, when you like cough or just sniff too much and it goes to the back of your throat and it goes into your mouth. Horrible. But I've had to stop teaching because I had to go into the cupboard and find something somewhere and there was no tissue in the cupboard, so I had to get a scrap bit of paper. I scrunched up a scrap bit of paper and I got rid of my phlegm into it. Your.

4:22 Guys are watering. I am really struggling to like not I need to stop out there and I have to leave it in there and come back out and so anything to do is not when kids habits I can't deal with it. It's actually pathetic. I reckon knowing you as well, there's A at least 80% chance that's still in that cupboard. You know, there's no way you went back in there like in the market. I'll get rid of that snotty little scrap paper. When I first started my new school, my most recent school and I was quite new and people didn't know me that well. And there was some point towards the end of the year where one that the the assistant head teacher went into my cupboard for something and was like something stinks. And it was like this old mouldy sandwich that I'd forgotten about half eaten was in the corner and it stunk.

5:06 And then so from then on, I was known as a sandwich boy. Yeah, I'm just not remotely surprised. Well, I'll leave you with my story, which you're going to love then, after all of that context about you and your love for snot. I had a child once, and you might have even taught this child, I don't know, but I had a child once. Who constantly had a snotty nose for some reason and would always wipe it across their sleeve. And I remember one time, I remember one time it just annoyed me a little bit because I was like, why? Why? Why can't they just use the tissue? I have tissues on them. I said, do you want a tissue? And it just went, they just went, no, I'm all right, let's just watch them like wipe a big line of snot across their arm on their jumper like for the fifth time. And it's like, what do you mean you don't need a tissue? Define. All right, Yeah, because I don't think the snail trail is up and down. Yeah, absolutely disgusting.

5:48 Absolutely. Disgusting. But reusing the tissues is. It's hilarious. Like it's just so funny. The kids probably think that they're being sustainable and. Helpful. Let's put that. Back in there for Johnny after Oh my God. But on on the note of this, by the way, I'm sorry. Anyone who's out there uses handkerchiefs are mental. You're going to swear? I was going to swear. They're mental. Aren't they handkerchiefs? Why? Tell me why. Handkerchiefs, I think I've had, I think I've said it's not. We have a long time. Because I can't believe that it's a thing where you blow your nose and you're like, cool, I could even get rid of this. Or I could shove it in my pocket and blow my nose into it again later. Yeah, we think something is in my pocket and I'll get the crusty, snotty handkerchief out later and blow my nose into it again. What on earth are you? Get what?

6:29 Let us know if you have a handkerchief in your pocket right now. I don't think it's that bad because you fold it. Sorry, all these kids, Yeah, they fold it before they put it back in the box. How many times can you fold a handkerchief before you have to wash it and get rid of it again? What are you on about at? Least once like you can definitely get away with your nose on a handkerchief, which is thicker than I can understand a tissue because they're just paper and they you know, right, right, right, right. Handkerchief is a piece of material. You can snot on it, fold it in half, maybe you fold it in half again for extra measure and you can put it in your pocket. Use that again. This guy you could do. It's not great, but you can. You could. You know what your calls do? Gob in your hand and put that in your pocket. You could do. Yeah, could do. You could do. My hand is not a perfectly wrapped. Handkerchief could do, could do. It's not the, it's not the, it's not the logic. I'm not having it. Oh God.

7:10 Famously, I think you can only fold things seven times. Yeah, and then you reach the moon, something like that, right? I think that's it, yeah. There's some odd episode of Mythbusters. Yeah, they. Fold a piece of paper 7 times and you'll reach the moon. That's that's what we teach our kids next generation, right? Come on next. Question Next question This is anonymous submission. Our SLT have introduced the Teaching and Learning initiative for the month of December. ATNLA Teaching and Learning Elf on the Shelf Each morning the elf is put in a teacher's classroom in some sort of scene or pose. Lol I've added that with a teaching and learning thank. God, the the the people listening weren't sure when to. Laugh out loud, I just thought. You said a lot. I want to stop this person. I think they put a lol in it with a teaching and learning tip next to it.

7:54 How? How nice is that, right? Whoever ends up with the elf has to hide it in another teacher's classroom for the following day, blah blah blah and so on. When you discover the elf in the morning you have to take a picture of it and send it to all staff. SLT have announced a prize will be given to the most funny slash creative elf. Right, this is just context at this point. Am I being too miserable about this as I think this is a complete burden on staff? I made the mistake of leaving early last year and came back the next day to find the elf in my room. So nobody wants to leave early in case they get the elf. I felt terrible this like you think this is bad? I felt terrible as I hid the elf in my colleagues room and she burst out crying and she already felt burnt out and this finished her off SLT laughed it off as this should be light heartened fun in quotation marks. Sorry light hearted.

8:43 Yeah, light hearted. Light hearted. Fun, light hearted fun. Honest to God, you're not reading another bloody question. I'm saying God. Dare you make a mistake one time one make one mistake one. For context, this is the school where we were doing 8 duties a week with the headteachers saying never to query management. I think we had this. Doesn't. Yeah. Doesn't that sum up? Isn't it? I find it all. I always find it so funny when you find out a toxic, horrible managers version of fun. Yeah. This is fun. What? Is it fun? Is any part of this? You're telling me this is fun in the context of me telling you that they're crying. So like, I just don't think this is the time to tell me that's fun. It doesn't. Like, come on. I think you might be wrong. I think you think you might actually be.

9:26 Don't query management love. Yeah, that's TNL Health on the shelf. They're having a meltdown over there. Well, where's that picture? What? Don't query management. Here's my tea now. Pinnacle G Yeah, it's like, it's insane. It screams, you know, we talk about like well-being initiatives like 4 slides. It's like got yo club. It's like they've decided what everyone's what's good for everyone's well-being and it's doing Elf on a Shelf for staff. They've taken something which is barely fun in the 1st place, which is Elf on a Shelf, which I already think is just ridiculous. But you know what? There's a lot of really nice people out there who just want to make something fun for their kids and want to do that kids. I think it's important, yeah. Barely fun for kids. Exactly that, yeah. Maybe it's a bit of extra workload. Maybe it's like there's a question in mind. Do you? Want to do that way again where you just burped into the mic whilst you were talking?

10:13 Wow, our standards? Really. Don't want to edit anything post production. That's so funny. There's Tie Sweeney. Tie Sweeney. What is going on? Everybody can't. Tight, chilly, sweet sensation. So, yeah. Chilly, sweet. I don't know if it's the right way around. This is so lighthearted. We're losing. This is so lighthearted. It's such lighthearted fun. We've lost it. I was. Trying to talk about Alfred, Michelle. Yeah. Where I just think it's, it's a waste of time. But yeah, this, this is insane. Like, you're not miserable. This is what winds me up as well. And people end up saying you're miserable because you disagree with something that someone else has decided is good. Like you saying it's not good or fun for me doesn't mean it's miserable exactly.

10:56 It just means that you have a different definition of fun. Which by the way, I don't think anyones definition of fun is a teaching of learning off on the shelf. I never ever ever sat there thinking I could bloody do right Now we're a bit of fun a teaching and learning off on the shelf where I put it in someones classroom. Imagine. You know what? Ditto there. There are a few teachers who I would definitely put the alpha in their classroom. Just a one and they'll be meet you. I just few teachers. I feel like even like even on this right, we're still forgetting the bit that I think is hilarious, which is that they have to give a teaching a learning tip. Would it like that if we were doing that? I could not take the piss. No, I you would be leaving the most sarcastic or silly or ridiculous outrageous comments, wouldn't you? Tip #1 Don't do teaching on any off on the shelf I.

11:37 Think why you're too nice. I'll be straight in with. How about you try being a good teacher? Like really horrible over the top comments because they know I'm taking the Mick. Do what you should do. If you have that in your school, you should put it in SLT's office and just be. Don't be passive aggressive. Just be aggressive. Just write in the notes saying this is wasting my time, Just put it. Just put it on the desk. No attempts to do a silly pose, it's just chucked on the floor with a note next to. It I know that I know that the teachers can't query it, but maybe elves can. No, the elves smashed all of your things. He's broken all of your toxic observations that you do 5 * a year and staff all of them be. Deleted from the file. Your PCs in shambles.

12:21 Someone said a whistle blank form to the governors. Your house brought your P-45, silly little elf. Buddy else put an advert on can't teach you again for a new SL team member and it's your job. That blasted elf. It's a little rascally. Anyway, stuffs in the box, securities on the way. See you later. Madness. OK, bring it back. Calming down. Calming down a little bit. Toxic asity have gone, the elves have taken over schools in a bad place. Yeah, I think this person is wrong. This sounds hilarious. This sounds great.

13:02 This sounds fun as anything. What do you mean this is a burden? You're just doing it wrong. Oh. My gosh, should we move on to the next? Question. Yeah, OK, yeah, but but just don't want to finish off by saying that is insane. Yeah, yeah. If if I found the elf in my room, it would find its way to the bin. Oh God. That was supposed to be the I put. I labelled it as like a serious one. I love. Yeah, I can see how you've. Tried to alter the ultimate. Yeah, Silly one. Serious one. Well, we're back to a silly one now. Did that what a burp part went through. Yeah, that did set the tone. Really. So back to Tom. What everyday classroom item holds the most untapped power? That's such a good one. Yeah, I'm, I'm struggling with that. I I always think about this isn't necessarily everyday and for some reason I'm going more serious now. On this question, yeah, it's not. Necessarily an everyday item, but the thing that genuinely transformed how I teach the most was a clicker. A clicker button.

13:51 I hate you. Why? Because that was mine. I'm pre loaded in my head. Sorry, I'll. Let you talk about them. It's not necessarily every day, but can you explain them? What do we even mean by a clicker and why was it a genuinely transfer? And I'll add slightly to it, a clicker with a laser go on a laser pointer clickers because it meant you can be anywhere in the. What does it do then? What do we mean as it literally, as in like a left literally has like a left and right button. So you can be anywhere in the classroom and move through your slides. So it's Bluetooth business. Yeah, it's Bluetooth to your laptop or whatever it is so that you don't have to go to the board to press next. If you're working on a PowerPoint or smart notebook, whatever it is you do, you can be somewhere else and just click it, you know it's in your pocket, whatever. And it was particularly great because I had a laser pointer version for years, and it didn't work anymore because we got new screens at our school and the laser pointer didn't work on it anymore. But when I had a laser pointer, I could sit at the back of the classroom if I need their attention on a particular thing on the screen, bam, laser points. And they loved it.

14:39 I like cats. I was getting my tennis swift tickets at the back. Have a. Look, next slide, please. I had a kid at the front, you know, telling me when to go to the next slide. Another kid telling me what to. Look at. I get the front pressing the button anyway. The laser didn't work yeah, but that that to me was like absolute staple. I had that all everyone teaching career and when we got those screens, this is how I know it's so good because when we got those screens and more like TV screens and the laser pointer just like evaporated into it didn't work anymore. Yeah, I was gutted because I was like it made me realised how evaporated made me realised how much I I liked being able to be anywhere and like reference. Oh, look at that exact thing that helped me going to the ball it. Was really good, wasn't it? It was like it was more dynamic teaching. You could be where you wanted to be. How many times when you're teaching would you actually just rather be stood next to a certain person that you just want to make sure they know? Go there, go around the room, see what you're doing it. It felt so much more seamless.

15:24 I felt like such a better teacher. Yeah, because of it. I was thinking of some more as well. Unless you've got anything to add. No, no. Good point. A few other things because a big thing for me that improved my teaching was anything that allowed me to model more effectively. Because I, I, I found that my best teaching was when I wasn't just working off slides I'd been given or planned previously and just reading through text and doing stuff like that. I found my best, best teaching was always when I was modelling how to do something, you know, doing something myself, doing something to together I do, we do you do. I actually really like that as a pedagogy tool and and I think it was really useful in my teaching when things in my classroom aided me to do that. So to add to this list, I'd put something like a really good visualizer, like having a quality visualizer that I don't necessarily use all the time, but the amount of times I'd want to just click on quick, have some math manipulatives in front of me.

16:10 The kids had it in front of them. They could look at the board and what I was doing. They could match it. And then we could try some questions, etcetera, whether it was layout of how I wanted something to look like. If such video like a newspaper report or something, I might think, well, actually this what we're going to do, It's going to look like this modelling writing like literally you could do on the whiteboard, obviously, but you can do on paper in front of. You. Yeah, that's good. And can I tell you something wild? Go on. I never use the visualizer. Yeah, it's like ever. Yeah, it's interesting because, because you're a strange one. I'm going to say right now because there's a lot of stuff you're the ultimate version genuinely of if something's different, you're quite reluctant to do. Stuck in my ways. Yeah. And like, there are lots of what? Lots of times where it's a good thing, honestly, where you say no to stuff, sure, but I've genuinely fought quite a few times. There's stuff where I'm like, why aren't you doing that? I think that as well, genuinely.

16:54 Visualizers that visualizers really, really useful. Like again, I, I, I would have hated it if it was mandated and it was like, you need 5 minutes visualizer every time because we've decided it's a good thing. My, my push back is always stuff can be good, but you can still let me decide as a professional when to do it. I think it's a middle ground. Can I tell you why? Because there is a bit of reason, even though I don't think it's the best answer. I just didn't have one or it didn't work for like a solid five years of my career. And then I got used to never using it and it never crossed my mind. But then but then the last like 3 years of my career, I had a working visualizer in my room and I just didn't use it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I think what I'd say to that is that is a separate point like the faultiness of the tech or not working properly, that's separate in terms of that's still a problem. I can see why it might foster an an idea of, well, I don't need this then, so I'll never do it.

17:37 But there's definitely points where it's like OK, but something can be introduced. To you exactly. I kind of. I did just start using it again, so like modelling stuff and, and I think if I look back in my career, I did one year in year 3 and it was post COVID and we went back to very much basics and I, I actually think it was some of my best ever teaching. What with the visualizer? No, no, no, not this for my next thing as well with that as well. Yeah, helped. But that we've also, I had a flip chart. I had, I had like a flip trial. I can move around, obviously the board's fine, but the board's static and still some children around the room. I had AI had a clipboard that was really easy to move, had paper so I could flick forward and backwards and stuff. And we could like have the journey of the lesson almost like a working wall. But then if I'd got the whole pad up, it had a whiteboard as well.

18:18 And I would like, I would almost like exclusively use that when I was doing my lessons. Like I would literally like I'd have my plan. I'd still make a smart notebook, but but every single lesson I'd be like, right, I'd be dragging it along, put it in front of the kids, come, I'm doing that. Oh, I'm going to work for a group, drag it to my group, I'm modelling to the group. And I found my best teaching was always when I was doing something, modelling it with them, showing them how to do it, then practise themselves, bringing it back to them, showing anything that increased the amount of those doing that in the classroom made me a better teacher. They're just the most enjoyable lessons though, aren't they? Like you're absolutely right. Like my favourite lessons ever were the ones where on the spot I was analysing and adapting constantly and just thinking I was just, you're just in flow state.

18:59 I know it sounds really corny in flow state, but you are though. Yeah. Like the ones where I have to just teach my PowerPoint, that even worse someone else has planned. It's not even my, like, exact thought train going into it. They're the worst lessons. I want the one where it's OK. Give me an hour. I know the objective. I've been teaching for 10 years now. I know the objective inside and out. I will adapt to these kids on the spot. Give me a flip chart and I'll teach the best lesson I've ever taught. Yeah, it's true. It's just you get to that point. That's where there's like three options, right? So and I can see why people end up going down the route of meticulously planning something themselves because you have the one you talked about there where it's like shared planning and you just said how that's annoying and it's never as good, but it does really lighten your workload when you don't have to. It's essential, right? So it is essential to do. There's two prongs to go off this right?

19:41 When you when you realise it's bad, you want to improve your teaching, right? You're like, this is just, this is just clunky. I don't feel it. I don't feel that spark. I get it saved me hours and hours, which is really important. It's annoying. One way to go down is going down the route of so I need to plan everything myself from scratch for me, for the kids, do my do my smart, do my notebook. And when you're a less experienced teacher? There's some way indefinitely going through stuff and replanning it and just getting your way and and knowing what works for you. But in general, it's just adding workload. It's not reasonable, but people go down that route because of what you just said. They want the best for the kids and it ends up ploughing into their burnout basically and just making them rinse themselves. Yeah, the other option, which I felt like I got to burned in my career was I was more experienced. So the option I ran down was cool. That's my baseline. I understand where I'm starting.

20:23 I understand where the end goal of this lesson is all. The shared planning. Exactly shared planning still I'm still I'm still using that shared planning, but where I think if I just use this slide by slide, lesson by lesson, line by line really to the script, it wouldn't be perfect for my class. As an experienced teacher, I'm higher up on the pay scale because of that, because I'm a better at adapting on the spot and giving the kids what they need. That's it. So that is what I said I always would advocate in this to any experienced teacher. I was like, don't sit and complain to me that something's not on the smart. You're a teacher of 10 years yeah, do something different now. And if your kids, it's your kids. And our head teacher was always saying that, always saying that and really backed our staff to do that. And but they'd still be a lot of people who'd be like, oh, but but the smart notebook looks quite wrong. And there's all this and all that. Don't worry, you're a teacher of 12 years. Just do what you need to do for your kids. And that, that is when I had the best version of my teaching was when I was confident enough to do that. I still came away from the script. I think that's why I go after that kind of prescriptive lessons where you got to the exact same thing all of the time.

21:21 You walk into every classroom. I think that's nonsense. I think that is just away from the top down to go down that first route I spoke about where, Oh no, you've got to be exactly the same. Have an exact line for the kids, and then you can kind of go through the smart yourself and maybe adapt it a little bit. But it's gotta be on the smart. We gotta make sure everything is OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give your professionals some leeway because that's when my kids got the most. Well, that trust is what's been Rd, isn't it? That trust for the professionals is really to me what contributes to the entire when we talk about toxic culture and toxic practises across teaching, that's it. It all boils down to no one trusts the teachers anymore. We can't have that trust. We haven't. Everything has to be perfect from the outset and I have to be able to evidence and see that it's perfect straight away. And if it's not, then I can't possibly trust that you could. You might be able to adapt and teach a good lesson on the spot.

22:02 I don't want to leave that to chance. It needs to be perfect straight away. You know you can see what happens. Everything needs to be on this exact pro forma for the worksheet. You do every single lesson. Does it? Does it? Are you insane? Are you mad? Do you think that because something doesn't look exactly like the pro forma you've given it for the task they've got to do in that lesson compared to the next day, that learning can't possibly have happened? Or do you trust me as a professional more to have decided that there was a different way to do this which didn't involve doing that, but the kids still learned? Like, what do you think I'm doing? Is there not a point in my career where you can just go, ah, do you know what? That's not the kind of thing I need to manage The macro stuff, the outcomes, the kids happiness, all that kind of stuff. That's really important. I'm going to make sure I'm on top of that, how something looks slide to slide. If something's slightly different or you decide to this out for your task, you know what, I trust you. You've got a track record.

22:50 Doesn't really matter, yeah. Especially when you're getting results. Madness. It's a passion and I'm sure a lot of people agree and are nodding along. And that was that. That was a jovial question. I know. Yeah, I know. It's funny, isn't it? We're just. There's no rules here. We we, we we adapt on a Monday now. Yeah, it's a Monday. It's all changed. You know, we adapt on the spot. Teacher standard, right? Next question. This one's from Instagram. How would you deal with staff meetings consistently running over time? Is it rude to walk out? So kind of A2 prong question there go. On OK is OK? I'm going to start with the second part. Is it rude to walk out? I would say back to you, is it rude to constantly waste your time? And the answer is yes to both. That's what I mean, I think. No, that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying fight fire with fire is always the best thing to do. I'm just saying like please don't always just put it on yourself.

23:33 Like, oh, am I being rude? Well, just think they're being rude. So it is like a tit for tat kind of situation here where it won't necessarily solve the problem that you necessarily just stand up and get out. There are ways to do things. I think do 4 things before that. Yeah. If nothing was ever changed, it would get to the point of like, OK, well I'm going to walk out now because I have actually raised this. That's fine. I think that's important and we should probably keep going into that context a bit more. I think. I think the idea of being rude, I think it's a scale at the end of the day. Like I do actually think it is more objective. Actually, from an optics perspective, it is more rude to just get up and walk out of a staff meeting and everyone would be like, it's like shock factor rude than it is the kind of passive rudeness of your staff meeting going over by 10 minutes. But. Is it more rude? I think again from from literally a perspective of looking at it feels more rude.

24:18 Like people would be in shock at one and not in shock at the other. But is it more rude? I don't know that's it. Depends if you value that opinion or not like it's I'm. Saying I think you're right, yeah, but I'm just I'm that's a separate thing. I'm almost. Is it more rude? Yeah, I don't know. And that scale, yes, Yeah, objectively, I don't know if there is a possible way of saying saying that, but I think if it looks more rude, then I guess that's kind of how we define what rude point. So yeah, I guess in that perspective it is more rude. You're putting optics on a higher scale, Yeah. Because realistically, in real life, yeah, the reaction would be that more people have featured. The reaction kind of determines how rude something is. It is. I mean, it should, but yeah, yeah. But rudeness is based on, like, a society, isn't it? Like some things that, you know, people always say, you're right, you're right, you go to a different culture and it's not rude to be late or whatever.

24:58 Do you know what I mean? Like, hope it's not rude on a podcast. Yeah. But then people say that sort of stuff. I'm like OK, Rudeness is defined by people, but. We had on that very quickly. I remember when I played football every week on a weekend, a bunch of our team were from like African descent and they have big African families who'd migrated over here and their whole culture really wasn't like time. Being on time wasn't a thing that was rude or not. So it's like it wasn't rude to be late to something. It was like, well, when I turn up is the time I turn up. It's not even about being rude like, so this is what why I'm making this point because on an optics point of view, when we were turning up to training at 10 for the game at 11 and we wanted to turn up at 10 because we had a training routine to do to me, my first thought was it was quite rude to time at 20, like 20 part.

25:44 We've got drills to do like yeah, yeah, you're that's we've agreed this time. We've agreed this time. But then on the on the other level is they weren't actually being rude because to them it was just a, oh, you said 10, so I'm here at 20 past just like if I say 10 and I turn up at 22. In some other cultures that would be rude. But to me it's just organised. Yeah. It's all relative. It's all perspective based. Exactly that. And I'm just like, OK, so sometimes I don't think the optics necessarily translate to if something is actually rude or not, is all I'm saying. I think there's there's more deeper issues going on there. And what I would like to highlight more is the perception that it's less rude to overrun a meeting every week compared to getting up and leaving the meeting when we all agreed it would end. Yeah, yeah.

26:27 I think that's something we should address before we just say it's less or more rude. Yeah, that's, that's absolutely fine. So going back to this question then I think, yeah, if we go to the scenario where the meet staff meetings have consistently run over time and nothing has been addressed about that before. And the first thing that ever happens is you just decide one day I'm going to get up and just leave at 5:00, right? Because that's when it's agreed. I think that comes across quite rude. I don't think that's like the optimal outcome. I think like you sort of quickly glossed over, there should be some things you do before that. Like realistically, if this happens more than once, the first point of call is firstly, I think just even just talk to other staff and have you noticed it's going over? It's going over time, isn't it? Checking it and then going to SLT and saying, I've noticed this thing in a very polite manner, doesn't need to be aggressive and like, oh, it's going to be a horrible conversation.

27:08 Just saying, I've noticed our staff meetings have overrun for four weeks in a row now. Is, is there any, any chance we could just keep it back? Because obviously we've got other commitments to do and just complete this job and just take it from there. And if that, you know, if that conversation goes badly or they say you just get over it, then you get, you're working up to the point where I'd say it's completely acceptable to, to say, look, this is the contract at the end of the day, you want to ignore it, that's fine. But I'm not going to, I'm walking out of this meeting now. It's 5:00, then it's acceptable. I just feel like you need to address that. Middle yeah, that's fine. I, I, I think, and also quite often delivering after school meetings are your colleagues who are your mates exactly. And things like that. And like, if I've ever overran, I've really, really this is what I mean though I have always tried to not overrun. I do think it is within within your control. I'm burping again, it is within your control whether or not you do that.

27:50 But yeah, it's like your mate, you don't want to you don't want to be annoying for the sake of being annoying exactly. But I do think it is important to just back your corner and like you said, do it in the right way. Yeah, definitely. Let's move on to the next question. That's an anonymous submission here. What did you tell your classes when you were quitting teaching? Was it different to what you'd said when you were just moving schools in the past? Yeah, I said I'm quitting, and last time I said I'm moving. And one of them, in fact, both of them, I never came back. I must say one of them I came back obviously. Not. Never went back. No. Jokes aside, it's really interesting actually, how you approach that with the children. Yeah. Because I don't know about you and I see a lot of stuff online. It just cringes me out a bit. People post about it and make themselves the main character of that happening. I, I, I didn't when when we were quitting teaching, we didn't tell the kids for ageing after because it was just not not it's irrelevant.

28:41 The kid doesn't need to know that. The only time I told the kids we were leaving was just getting like half a day or a day ahead of the curve when the new teachers were announced for next year. Because obviously a transition day. The kids aren't daft. They're like, they'll realise they're going somewhere, but they'll look where all the other teachers are, where we used to are on transition day. Oh, I'm not in here actually. Oh, you're leaving school. And that's when I just said to them I was like, I'm not teaching anymore. I was very honest with them. I said yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to do something else. Not in the classroom, still be in education. You might see me at some point. Is it because of me, Sir? Yes, it is. Is actually just because of you? Yeah. Really, really annoying. My kids asked that the idea 6 is they genuinely said, oh, is it because you don't like teaching our class?

29:21 And I felt I couldn't have felt worse in that moment because that that's where they went. So I had to really explain. They thought you didn't. Yeah, I don't know if they necessarily thought that or just trying to be a bit provocative in terms of like, they just asked that question just, you know, kids are quite point blank, they don't hold anything back, do they? But yeah, they just said, oh, is it like, is it because you haven't enjoyed teaching our class? And I was, I was like heartbroken at that question because obviously it wasn't. And I really, because they're year six, you can just have that bit more nuance. I just had a whole conversation about, yeah, why I'm quitting teaching and I wasn't. Too. It's a system, kids. Yeah, I didn't sit there and say you're screwed. Yeah, I did. Obviously I had limits, but I did try to explain it to them in sort of adult terms as much as possible and just be honest with them. Why? And made it really clear that I was not quitting teaching because I had such a horrible year with them. Like there was such a nice class as well. Yeah, I just use ways of doing it. Where yeah, it doesn't.

30:06 There's no point. It would be for my ego to tell them earlier and make a big thing of it. And I always, I said this a million times, even on transition day when they were moving class, if they really didn't want to, I would always frame it. Always frame it as it's better where you're going. Yeah, definitely. I'm glad you had the best time with me in the world. But I'm never going, oh, going to miss me. Are you kids? And some teachers are like, that's really cringy. I don't like it. Oh, going to miss me, going to come back and see me. Like, it's not good for them. It's nice. But like in the moment where they're transitioning, you need to aid that transition as much as possible. Yeah. And make it even if even if it is or it isn't is irrelevant. It's what's happening next year. Hype up the next teacher. You have to, you have to do that. You have to say, oh, no, no good. You're gonna have the best time because this teacher does this, this and this. They're the best in the world at that. You're gonna smash it, guys.

30:47 You've had a good time in Year 4. God, you're so lucky. You have a better time in Year 5. Like, I promise you, yeah. It's not about you as an individual. So I can see why maybe this question comes from like, is it relevant to the kids that you're quitting or moving school? Like, yeah, yeah. Do you make it a thing? I would say the only, the only difference, the only reason I said I was quitting is because I was. And I didn't see a problem with that. Yeah. I didn't think saying quitting was in that situation. I said before about how it's all about me now. No, no, it's just, oh, I'm quitting. Yeah, because I'm doing this because they're. Gonna have the same reactions, really. If I'd said, oh, I'm moving schools, they would still have said, oh, is it because you didn't like teaching this class? Like, you know, I mean, it's not like it's going to be that different. So, yeah, to answer that question, I'd say that pretty much identical other than like the literal semantics, Yeah, between saying quitting versus moving schools, it was very much the same process, I'd say with the kids.

31:30 Definitely. Right. Next question. Ready. Yeah, back to Tom. He's It's the running joke you've explained at the start. The running joke guys, this is the running joke that's so funny because I explained it. Such a good joke. I love that the joke is that Tom's asking another question. Tom's asking another question. Yeah, we put the effort in and I thought, you know, you know, put the effort in. But he did so many I thought I can't not use some of these. That's fine. And then being it explains how it's a running joke, but that's fine. Whatever. Dylan. Wait. It's Tom again. It's Yeah. Thank you. That's the reaction I was over before that's. A funny running. Joke. So Tom said Shut up, Dylan. He didn't. Which mythical creature would make the most effective TA and why? Aslan, Aslan, the line. As what? From Narnia. Ultimate wisdom, Yeah. Representing Jesus Christ, our Saviour.

32:11 Oh Lord, Yeah, Aslan would be. Imagine having Aslan. Hello, get on with your work you. Thought I'm I'm more shocked at how quickly you came up with. I admire him, I admire he's firm, he's fair. I reckon he have a stern word with a kid and the baby manager would be sick. Imagine, imagine being in a class trying to teach and they're being a bit noisy, a bit chatty. You go class, just look at Aslan, a massive liar. I think you should be quite a kid because and Aslan's just they're going. Jaws and Godzilla are doing. That they're fighting, but Aslan's just in the corner going silence. They'd be quiet immediately. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if it tops Medusa because that's where I was going. Right, OK, right.

32:53 Go on. Think about it. They're not. They're not on the same level. But go on, are they not? Because one of them, one of them's a lion and a little bit scary, one of them can literally turn you into stone if you're doing the wrong thing. Yeah. So that only worked once, wouldn't it? Well, it only worked once. Turn them back. That's not I turn them. Sorry, that's not famously part of Medusa's skills that you've made that bit. Up. We need another mythical creature. In this example, the teacher can turn them back if they could, yeah. Fall apart, isn't it? Yeah, on the pile immediately. Good threat though, isn't it? Is it a good threat? Yeah. Is it a good threat that you either never, ever follow through with so it would immediately say yeah, or you do? Yeah. And you've got a real safeguard. Make sure. Yeah, you you permanently turn a child. Family child into stone. Yeah, maybe doing it once you get the class. Yeah, Aslan's a good idea, I reckon as a Yeah, you know, but juice is a stupid suggestion. I don't know.

33:37 That wasn't me. It was Tom that thought, that one. Yeah, How good is that though? I I challenge anyone, it's kind of better as a Aslan. A mythical creature. Unbelievable. Who's your teaching assistant? Miss Jones. Who's yours? As Lander Lion. Like come. There's no better. He knows everything. He's the ultimate moral judge of character. He's fair, he's firm. He sacrifices himself. He would take with the the SLT walked in and the kids were off task. It was me and he'd sacrificed himself. He'd still come back. Comes back later on. Brilliant. The ultimate teaching assistant. It's even him or the goat boy. Yeah, keep trying to say yeah, the goat. The goat, the goat, the Tumnus. The Tumnus, I said. Why was he better than us?

34:18 Oh, he's a goat boy, He. Sum that up, he'd bring the bands like Mr Poppy and Nativity. Imagine Aslan and Mr Tumnus running a class. Oh God. It's me and you, isn't it really? Yeah, it is. Yeah. I'm. I'm Aslan. Aslan, I'm Aslam. You're a little goat boy. Yeah, sure. Goat boy can't do anything right. Next one, back to a serious one. Not sure anything he's been that serious but here we go from Tegan. Best advice for trainee teachers. I'm third year of four at NTU and panicking ahead of a 12 week placement in January. OK, let's do 1 clear, concise one each. We've talked about this a lot before. If I had a student teacher in front of me, Tegan, if you were still there and you're saying what's my advice, I would say plunge. Oh, this is hard to put into one.

34:59 I'm going to trump it into one sentence. Go for it. Know your rights and give exactly what you want to above that without doing my sentence. OK so just to just to really clarify, no one understand exactly what your working rights literally are as a teacher because that's important. And then whatever you are willing to plunge yourself into and do extra and go up and beyond whilst you're still training and learning and getting to getting used to it, do that as well. Yeah, basically just being aware of the difference between you're not just being coerced into doing tonnes of things. You have no idea why you're doing it. You just seem to be working 15 hours a day. Yeah, you're actively saying this is what I'm doing as part of the agreement. Yeah. And this is what I'm doing extra because I want to develop.

35:40 And, and I think that's really important, especially early in your career, because I would never, ever, ever say to someone early in their career not to throw themselves into something because I think it's a really good way of learning the ropes. And it helped me immensely. It made me a better teacher quickly. And at the time I wanted to do it, it was the perfect combination of of of putting in all those extra hours, wanting to go above and beyond. I didn't quite know my rights. And that took me a while to learn. And I kind of got used to the point I was like, actually, wait a minute, This is just taking the Mick a little bit because there are points where I want to maybe pull something back that I felt like I couldn't, but I absolutely could. But I still wanted to go to the cross countries at the weekend. I still wanted to run a football team. I still wanted to leave maths. I still want to do all this stuff, not necessarily getting the monetary payment for it right there and then, but I wanted to do at the time and it helped my career in the long run. So that's all I would say to people is go have your eyes wide open.

36:24 You've got a placement. Yeah, You're not being paid. You're there to learn, know what you need to do, and should be entitled to. Yeah. Well, you get 30% non contact time. That's vital. Non contact time doesn't mean you go home. Non contact time means that you can go and watch other teachers go and do that, utilise it, know your rights, know what you need to do to get better. Enjoy it, throw yourself into it. It's going to be tough, but give it a go. And if you don't like it after a year, go into a different profession. Yeah, but it sounds like, you know, 3-3 years into a four year course, you kind of know what you're doing. You're a bit nervous. Throw yourself into it. Yeah. What about you? Good advice. I think mine's along the lines of like you're when you're training to be a teacher and even the first few years after that, you're very much bombarded with here's 900 things you need to do to be a really good teacher and you're with the idea of like you're going to master this.

37:10 Firstly, no one masters teaching ever really, but certainly Dylan did. After as I master. One week of first place as I was, as I was in the background, doing it all for you. Probably. Lazy, lazy goat boy. But know that you're bombarded, right? What you My tip to you is to prioritise what you actually want to work on. You can sit there. I would do this. I would write down the 10 things that I feel like I'm being bombarded with. I need to work on this behaviour management. I need to work on how I develop relationships with the children. I need to work on my curriculum. I need to work on all of these things. Basically all of teaching. All of teaching, right? But don't overwhelm yourself with this ideal expectation of I'm going to do all these things by the end of my placement because that's what I have to do to be a good teacher. Now. You don't work on one thing at a time. Write it down, say this is my priority. Maybe even for this whole placement, you have like a list of three, your top priority.

37:55 And if you met you feel that you've done that, you'll work on these other two things because you will continue working on these for years and years and years in your actual career. There's definitely a feeling when you're training of I need to be completely done and ready by the time my training is finished. No, you don't. You need to be at a certain threshold where you can maintain and teach a class by yourself and do the job appropriately. But you always work on things. So just prioritise, calm yourself down a little. If you're anything like me, I just overwhelmed myself all the time and think of what you'd like to prioritise. Work on that alone. Yeah, that's good. And, and, and what I'll add to your point is to work with your mentor on that. Your mentor's usually in a really good position to say sure, they might think of seven things you could work on, but talk to your mentor about what your priorities then.

38:37 For sure. Yeah, definitely. Right, Dylan, we're going to do one last question. I'm going to wrap this up with a final one from can you guess who it's from? Oh, is. That bloody running. It's a running joke. Don't make me laugh. It's a running joke. Come on. Can you get? It's Tom. It's Tom. It's a bloody Tom. That running joke is so. Funny. Oh dear. So here. We go. How do you come up with? Them I honestly, honestly, yeah, I think you need to leave me to write these episodes a bit more, he said. If Teach Fleet Repeat was made into a film, who would be cast to play you guys? Obviously, because it mine's easy, isn't it? Yeah. Top cruise because it. Oh yeah, I was thinking Vin Diesel. No. Woody Harrelson. Woody Harrelson? That's brilliant. It would be. That is so funny it. Would be I've I've been told so if you're a man with quite short dark hair and a bit of a beard, OK, go on.

39:23 You get told that you look like a million different. Consideries go on, who's the best? One, the main one, doesn't even have a beard. Who is it? Who do you think? What would you say? Matt Damon? Matt Damon? I've. Been told you look nothing like Matt Damon, no. You've been I've been told, Mike. Short, short brown hair. What? Yep, literally been told in my use. I was told you're like Chris Pine the the Christian star. Trek you are. When when that person said that I was like, I'm clinging on to that. Take it for the rest of my. Life. I would have said someone like Anne Hathaway for you. You know, I think it's more appropriate. Christian. More hair. Christian Bale. Yeah. Christian Bale? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. Anne Hathaway and Tom Hanks. Yeah. tom-tom.

40:03 Tom Hanks is a good one, Tom. I'd be honoured. Tom Hanks and Woody Harrelson. Tom Hanks and Woody Harrelson doing the teaching podcast. Matthew McConaughey. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Because they're friends anyway. True Detective there. You go. Yeah. OK, Matthew. McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, yeah. I was going to try and do Matthew McConaughey impression, but I can't. I can just do it from from before. Yeah, OK. Leonardo DiCaprio, then in your dreams. Big upgrade. Yeah, I. Think your girlfriend older than 25? That's hilarious. You can't. Yeah, but yeah. Was glossing over the fact if Teach City was made into a film box office flop. Yeah. What develop? I'm Hayden. I've got an idea. We're going to save education one episode of a podcast at a time.

40:44 Yeah, what? What is the film? What happens in this film? It's it's just all the 160 episodes of this podcast back-to-back one big show, 5 episode 30 odd when I have a child and we go insane. Anyway, should we wrap that up? Let's wrap it up. OK, cool guys. Thanks for watching, listening, whatever it is you're doing and whatever platform you're on. Do you know what you could do? Just leave as a review for gods? Honestly, I've asked nicely so much and they go up. Oh, thousands of listeners, but hundreds of reviews. Does that make sense to you? No. It doesn't. If you don't, you keep burping in the bloody mic. No one wants that. Do you want that? Keep burping anyway, see ya.