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