I am a Pathetic Little Boy

I set a year 10 class of mine a practice exam paper to do in the lesson so I could see what needed to be revised in the run up to the real thing. Naturally I wanted it to reflect their ability at that point and so I said it was to be done in exam conditions. Thankfully it was small group so I could easily split the students up so they had a full desk each. No opportunity for the shifty yawn/stretch/glance at the next student’s answers routine. During the second-long run through in my head of what I wanted to happen in this lesson this simple process took two minutes. In the real thing however it was proving much more difficult.

I asked one female student to move to a free table. Please bear in mind she wasn’t the first to move and she had already had ever conceivable question answered for her... “Why?” She said. I repeated the reasons... “Why?” She said again. She’s not getting this, I thought. I repeated the reasons for a third time… She stood up, “You are,” she paused, and thought carefully for a moment “a pathetic little boy.” And she walked out.