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Showing posts from January, 2015

Chalkboard Charlie

Imagine a school classroom: an old school one before the days of a smart board and ipads. this one has a chalkboard dominating and contaminating the teaching space. A lot of people think its obsolete and unnecessary but there it sits, a home for wisdom and feedback; for instruction and rebuke. In one particular class a kerfuffle broke out one day: as a student, invited to the front to write some feedback on the board, clips its surface with the edge of a watch (it could equally have been a nail or an especially squeaky piece of chalk). The sound, familiar to many and almost universally uncomfortable, resounded through the classroom and before anyone could notice, a previously quiet and serious child in the class sprang to their feet shouting “I’ll kill you!”. As you can imagine it took some time to restore order into the room. The scribe seemed shaken- but defiant that all he was doing was writing. Later at the staff meeting, teachers gave a variety of responses. The senior lead