Today’s level meeting was novel. It involved all the form and subject teachers who were teaching the sixth graders coming together to discuss how to connect with their charges.

The Vice-principal was there as well, so the mood was a bit solemn, as you can imagine. Anyway, so three key personnel were tasked to act out a scenario. Forum theatre is akin to improvisation, in which the spectactor takes over one role and tries to work things out on the spot. Guess who was the lucky first teacher asked to step up to the occasion?

Yours truly. I did the best I could. My mind raced feverishly for a solution to appease the two upset students who were involved. My ‘performance’ was critiqued. My colleagues mentioned that while it was great that I had acknowledged that both students had valid yet contradictory truths, I might have needed to push the brakes and not have insisted that they apologise to each other. It was a humbling and illuminating experience for me!

I also got to observe how two of my colleagues handled this situation. So it was cool to witness different folks, different strokes. How different teachers handled the situation with the same intentions but in different ways!