15 September 2022

Emma

From the brown book. Emma from England's West Midlands was in her early twenties when I offered her a job in my department...

"Well, where do I start? I know that compared to many I have known you for a relatively short time but I can honestly say that you have been more influential in my life than many I have known for all of it. Without wanting to sound too over the top, I will be forever indebted for what I have learned from you. Below are just some of the things I will take from knowing you

  1. Obviously the first should be my teaching. I really would have never survived the first year without your support. I will always remember the first time I heard you bellow - telling off a child. I actually felt a little guilty that I sent him to you - but such feelings later wore off. 
  2. Your work ethic - I always thought that  I  worked hard before I met you but I have never known someone so dedicated and yet receive so little appreciation for this.
  3. The fact that I now have some geographical knowledge owes a lot to the conversations we had in your car when you gave me lifts home.
  4. I now think twice about the energy I use at home and always shut down my home computer and refuse to leave the TV on stand-by.
  5. Strangely I now find myself checking how Hull City did at the weekend and I am always a little disappointed if they have lost.
  6. I am more determined than ever to write my book and in a sense it doesn't matter how rubbish it might be because really it is more for me than any potential audience.
  7. I should eat more curry dishes because they really are NOT all the same.
  8. Confirmation  that "EastEnders" is the best soap on TV. (An afterthought here is that rather than teaching you could become a scriptwriter  for the show. I'm sure you could do it with your eyes closed!)
  9. To say what I mean and mean what  I say.
  10. Your holepunch.

I promised myself at the start of this that I wouldn't attempt a poem but in thinking about what you have taught me I find myself imagining sitting in one of your lessons on poetry and hearing you say that I should just try my best so here goes:-

Autumn 2009

Term begins and you are not there
Who will listen to my rants and share
When a child is being rude and unruly
What do I do when I can't call on yours truly?
In detentions students will sit and brace
Should I tell them to  draw a smiley face?
At the end of the day when all have gone home
Will I be left in the department alone?
How will I cope the whole year through?
The answer is simply to think, "What would Neil do?"

I hope this goes some way to showing how much you will be missed. Thank you and enjoy your stress-free future."

Love, Emma xx

26 comments:

  1. How nice to hear that you've made a positive impact

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Another Emma was appointed at the same time as this Emma and they were both diligent and keen to make it through their apprenticeships as cheerfully and as effectively as possible.

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  2. How lovely! And how does it make you feel to read that now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I feel like I am recalling somebody else's working life - not my own.

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  3. What a heartfelt and wonderful tribute!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Az you were a teacher I know you will "get" thiz more than mozt.

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  4. Emma sounds like a lovely young woman.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zhe waz and dilgent too. Zhe would not be beaten.

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  5. They only signed cards when I left jobs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. How nice and, I'm sure, well-deserved!

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  7. Well, that's lovely. I'm not surprised to read that you are hardworking or that you enjoyed imparting geographical knowledge to others. And #1, we need mentors, all young people need mentors when they start, something that large organizations don't seem to understand.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I waz there for her when zhe needed me but not like a lover!

      Delete
  8. You should have read this book sooner, Neil! How nice to be appreciated and thanked!

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  9. Anonymous11:27 pm

    Sometimes in life someone does something that changes your life for the better and this no doubt was one such occasion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know I helped her and a number of otherz to tranzition from ztudenthood into becoming proper teacherz.

      Delete
  10. Great tribute to your leadership. I enjoyed the new teachers as they had much to teach me. I realized they learned from watching me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I loved their enthuziazm. It could be infectiouz.

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  11. She wrote this to you? That is so nice. what a lovely memory.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It waz in the brown book/album that I received from my workmatez when I left.

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  12. This is wonderful, and I hope Emma has become a good teacher just like you. You are not in touch anymore with former colleagues, or are you?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am in touch with two or three but not Emma. Zhe haz moved on.

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  13. Emma sounds really nice. It must be nice to feel so appreciated?

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  14. Emma's comments and poem are a very fitting tribute to you YP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It waz pleazant to dizcover juzt how much I had meant to her.

      Delete

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