Basket.

Just over a month at this school and I have apparently gained enough popularity for Secondary Three Express to make a collective effort to set me up at today's Total Defence Assembly programme - when they called for teacher opinions. They failed, fortunately, but it certainly was not for a lack of trying.

I still think like a student a lot of the time, and it's both my greatest asset and greatest potential failing. Why the latter? Because it means I am not thinking enough like a teacher, and thus might not be going about my job as I should be. But for now it's the former - to be able to get into their heads and assure them that I know exactly what they are going through, minus plenty of creative punishments I once experienced. But there are more fun ways to deal with disruptiveness; a sharp tongue and quick wit, I find, will put errant students back in their rightful places more effectively than the most draconian punishments in the world. The laughter of students is a powerful weapon which if you learn how to properly wield, can do most of your hard work for you.

As such, these days I rarely punish; the other reason is that I now know my students better - their names, personalities, individual quirks and most importantly, weaknesses. Some things never change: students still talk when they are not supposed to and have nothing to say when you want their opinions on a subject. As such, every disruptive, giggling joker quickly shrivels , helped along by jabbingly pointed comments, once invited to the front to share the joke, and after being laughed back to his seat by his classmates, the lesson can proceed apace.

I can surmise thus far, then, that the best way to control students is not by punishment, but by their own laughter. I'm getting the hang of it, and having one joker who can be counted upon to fuck around every lesson helps immensely. The class laughs, and after that are brightened, and willing to move on with the lesson. With punishment, the mood just turns menacing and everyone is sombre and too fearful to learn anything useful.

Of course, the risk here is run that this way I'll eventually get too close to my students and not be taken seriously, work-wise. It is definitely something I will have to watch. But for now, things are working fine this way.