44ktgold's Blog

Over the last few days my mind has been quite squarely on how as a society, we do not spend the time to actually look at each other as we interact. Okay yes, it’s great that technology speeds everything up and more can be done through a computer or smart phone but I honestly believe that so much is being missed because of this. It became even clearer in an English lesson I was teaching, these kids have their exams approaching rapidly and are quite stressed. I asked a young lady to read out her answer to a question and she refused. Now I always have confidence in my students so I took her book and started to read it out. She was so upset and stood up and shouted ‘I said no! ‘ . This was new to me because we don’t have those reactions in my classroom as a norm. I asked her to step outside.

This request was not to tell her off but in that moment, when she shouted, I caught a look in her eyes and she was scared. When I took her outside of the room, I spoke to her of the need for her to have confidence in herself. It’s so important, if she has no confidence then she would struggle to get her answers down. She said she knows but was afraid of everyone laughing at her, I gave her a hug and reassured her that that would not happen because she showed courage in writing an answer. There were people in the room who had not even done that. By the end of that few minutes, it became more apparent that somehow, somewhere the emotional needs of this child had been ignored. She came back though, I even got a smile before the end of the lesson.

Perhaps there is a message in education because Anti Bullying Campaigns and policies only seem to scratch the surface of the problem. To a large extent, reporting has gotten in the way of actually getting to know students personalities, looking in their faces, helping them recognise their strengths and being proud of what they can do. That little bit of extra confidence and positivity can work wonders in their outcomes. In reality too, this will be one more adult ultimately walking tall, confident, smiling, spreading love and spreading the message to future generations that they can do anything if they do it with love and confidence.

I think that this will be my opening message in the upcoming GCSE Revision Day. Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen. Feel happy and enjoy the ride because you have it within you to achieve anything, one of the central themes of Codey Learns (www.codey-learns.co.uk). I love what we do so much. I really feel like there is nothing better than those faces on results day.

But when I think about that student this week and the tears in her eyes, I know that I will always work towards drying those tears wherever they appear. Happiness will lead to success and everyone deserves this. Everyone has a battle that we may not know about, a smile will take them one step towards winning.

See you next week 😀

Tags: #antibullying, #bullying, #codeylearns, #confidence, #education, #GCSE, #happiness, #love, #peace, #Revision, #success, #sunshine, #teaching