What did that teacher just say!?

What did that teacher just say!?

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Amely, 4 years old

My teacher is lovely. You can see her reading a book. Every student sits on a small stool.The teacher told us a story and after we sang a song. You can also see a tap who the pupils need to use after they eat and have dirty hands. There’s nothing I don’t like about my teacher.

1

Paul, 60 years old

Once I was being punished. I had to watch a dot on the schoolboard for a very long time. I don’t even remember why. During this my classmates could go outside and play duing the break. It’s almost my only memory from my time at school.

2

Mattheu, 5 years old

This is my teacher, she’s sitting in the front of the classroom. The class is listening to my classmates telling little stories. Then I told my teacher a story and she stuck her tongue out at me. I really didn’t like that at all!

3

Paula, 48 years old

When I was young I had trouble learning. Every week my teacher brought a bouquet of flowers into the classroom. She would ask me what kind of flowers they where. After three weeks I remembered! It was a nice way to boost my confidence, show me I’m able to learn.

The flowers carry the name Fresia’s.

4

Gideon, 7 years old

You can see my teacher standing in front of the class. It was her birthday that day, so she played games with the class. In the front you see a little hand pointing to something. The teacher walks to that something and hit her head, because she didn’t had her glasses on. At the end of the day the class gets a little bag with candy to take home.

5

Maria, 36 years old

When I was younger we had knit lesson in class. Well only the girls had. The teacher gave us an insane difficult excersice, most of the girls couldn’t make it. I went to my grandma to teach me how to knit it. And after a while I made it so beautiful, my mom and grandma where very proud. So I went to school to show my teacher, but the only thing she said was, ‘You washed it, I don’t want that’. She didn’t tell me: ‘Well done, so good you could manage the excersice!’. I was so disappointed. Good thing, I still knit almost every day and make the most difficult patterns.

6

Bert, 31 years old

I had a teacher in class 5 who didn’t liked me at all. Whatever I did, once in a while he looked at me and hold his fingers under his eyes, just to let me know that he was watching me all day long.

7

Marcus, 9 years old

I waved at my teacher. She started yelling at me and got really mad. She gave me a punishment. I don’t understand why. I just waved.

8

Ruben, 27 years old

I hated my teacher. He was my teacher for two years in a row and that was horror. It was snowing, and I trew a snowball at the face of teacher Dan. My heart was racing of excitement and for a reason because it made him furious. I didn’t think it through that well, I just hated him. He tried to catch me by tracing me, but I was way quicker on the feet. I hid myself because I was so afraid but had to go back inside at some point. He still hadn’t given up his search for me and found out where I was hidden. He dragged me along inside.

9

Wessel, 10 years old

I drew myself shocked. The teacher was teaching history and told a story about WW2. It was a story about a man saving a Jewish girl but when the Germans find out thy shoot him.

It was not fair! He saved that girl. I think they should’ve given him a pie instead!

10

Constantijn, 9 years old

I really like my teacher. She makes the classroom a cosy place and she always asks me how I’m doing.

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Justus, 16 years old

Once I was in class and made an amazing sailing boat. All the girls where standing next to my table and said, ‘It’s beautiful! Wow, you made this perfectly.’ Another boy in class yelled: ‘Girls attention seeker!’. The teacher looked at him and said: ‘Shut up you are just jealous!’

Those words made me very happy.

12

Niels, 36 year old

When I was around 10 years old my teacher did something I will never forget. I had a boy in my class, he was very agressive. One day it made the teacher crazy so he grabbed the boy and dragged him to the front of the class. The entire class was shocked.

13

Gijs, 70 year old

My teacher was always smoking. Every day the classroom was filled with smoke. I was a very sweet boy but I didn’t made my homework. So after class the teacher said: ‘Sit down!’

He looked at me and said:‘Is your work done, Gijs?’ I said, with my head down: ‘No sir, not done.’. He said: ‘Well, thats writing for more than 3 periods.’ I was scared of the teacher, but at the same time I still didn’t make my homework. So I needed to do it after class, every day.

14

Wilma, 52 years old

My friend didn’t have her eyes closed during prayer at school. The headmaster came by and saw her eyes open, when he looked thought the window. He made her come in early the next morning. As punishment, Corrie had to sit there with her eye’s closed. It was hilarious, all around her kids were moving around doing their homework. And in the middle of that, Corrie sat there with her eye’s closed. I stood outside peeking through the window and couldn’t stop laughing.

15

Frank, 22 years old

My teacher gave me guitar lessons after school. It was very difficult. But he was my favorite teacher. He made me feel like a real person. I felt like I could achieve anything. I felt so strong because of him, as if I could take on the world. When something didn’t work out, he tried to teach me in a positive way.

16

Laurens, 55 years old

When I was in high school i liked doing things outside. such as racing or playing outside.

I was racing once before I went to school. When I arrived at school I still had dirty hands because my chain was off my bike. I was not allowed to enter the class until my hands were clean. So the bottom line was that I was not allowed to go to class. Because my hands could no longer be cleaned. That was the only reason why I was not allowed to take class. I thought that was so strange.

17

Yvonne, 52 years old

I never really learned how to apply the Dutch teaching methods in primary school. When I went to high school I still didn’t get it. I was the only one in my class that couldn’t. When a teacher noticed this, he sat down with me very quietly. We really talked about it for hours and suddenly I got it. He took his time for me. Something they never did for me in elementary school.

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Sieger, 13 years old

My teacher is horrible. One time she told me off for interrupting her class. She saw me talking during her teaching, but I wasn’t. I told her so, but she was convinced. After discussing, she sent me to the headmaster. I explained the situation, in the end, she had to say sorry for being unfair. After that, she still gave me a punishment because I didn’t cooperate.

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Anne-Wieke, 17 year old

This teacher I don’t even know started screaming at me in the hallway. I had done a dyslexia test and I still had to do a second one. She had sent me an email about this, and I’d ignored those. I’ve only had contact via email with this teacher and she started yelling at me. I felt very uncomfortable.

20

Donny, 13 years old

I have a teacher who talks a lot, she tells stories all the time. I like her very much. But always at the end of the class she says: ‘Now everyone shut up and work!’.

21

Elisabeth, 26 years old

After I raised my hand to ask a question, my teacher would come up to me. He always touched my back with his hands while he was standing behind me. I felt so uncomfortable around him.

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Yorick, 23 years old

I’ve always had trouble writing. I just can’t write properly. This started already in primary school and was not over in secondary school. During German lessons we had an writing excercise. When we handed it in, she couldn’t read mine properly. She also showed this clearly to me and the rest of the class. She shouted angry at me: ‘Can’t you buy a laptop!?’

This sentence is still in my head because I felt so belittled.

23

Ellen, 22 years old

When I was in the second year of secondary school, we had to choose our exam subjects.

What did I want to graduate in? I was a girl who worked hard for school, but certain factors made it impossible to succeed. Basically, I was no higher than a 6 for each subject.

When I asked the biology teacher if biology was for me, I quickly got the answer. ‘No, not for you! Do you actually thinking about picking this subject!?’ This sentence has always stayed with me. The teacher never even gave me a chance.

24

Anne, 22 years old

I walked into school this one morning. The headmaster was standing next to the entrance. He was checking on the girl’s skirts, to see if they’re of a decent length. My skirt wasn’t decently enough, and he send me to his office. There was a row of girls in front of his office waiting. After he’d collected enough girls, we had to come in one by one. He closed the door behind me. He stood in front of me and stared at my legs and skirt. I’ve been sent to his office for like 3 times for this reason. Sometimes I had to sit on my knees to see if my skirt would reach the floor.

25

Madeleine, 20 years old

I wasn’t feeling very well during her class. My teacher noticed it. I was struggling quite a bit during that time. She came up to me. She wasn’t the type of teacher to make a personal connection. She’s quite strict. I wasn’t expecting her to come up to me. She told me; ‘The biggest life lesson I’ve learned so far is that life has its all-time lows. For a little while it will be better, but you’ll move back to a low again. It will always swing in between. But when you look at that line, you’ll see that your lows will be less low every single time!’ I still think of this a lot! .

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Britt, 20 years old

Room 130 was our French room. The French teacher had never taught the 3rd years before. Only to 5th and 6th grade. So she didn’t like the third grade. She made us feel like we were nothing. She only spoke in French. We just didn’t understand that. It was too high a level. When we walked to the classroom, we called room 130 the room of the devil. At first everyone was very optimistic and cheerful, but as soon as we passed the classroom, there was a complete change. Everyone was afraid of her. She was so strict because she thought we could do better. But we couldn’t. She got angry and always yelling at us.

27

Eva, 23 years old

One time in high school we went with the entrire class to the parlementbuilding in The Hague. We saw Jesse Klaver walking by. My teacher just called his name! Waved to him like a friend. He came over and talked with us teenagers! It was a very cool experince.

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Rosa, 24 years old

I started having English lessons in year 7. Those where very rear. My teacher was good at teaching, and I started loving the English language. He saw my fascination as well. It was the first time that I liked a subject, I usually was always looking for a way out of theory lessons.

He was excited for me and started encouraging me on learning English. I loved it. Later in secondary school he moved jobs and became my English teacher again. I liked it so much.

And because of him encouraging me, my love for England started to grow. He has definitely played a role in me moving to England for 1,5 year.

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Arthur, 24 years old

When I was younger and went to school the teachers always gave me grades. But it was always good or not good. I didn’t liked that at all. I wanted to make things and learn stuff without getting a grade for it.

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Eva, 23 years old

It was right after the American election in 2016. The day after Donald Trump became president. Instead of the regular class, our teacher told us there are more important things going on in the world right now! He just cancelled the regular class! Our teacher explained the election proces in America. We learned a lot. The rest of the class hour we where able to voice our opinions and talk with one another.

30

David, 23 years old

My civics teacher in 4th year secondary school was always a very modest, serious teacher and not a single trace of expression visual at all time. This one time we we’re playing around during class and it made him furious. He couldn’t control his feelings anymore and trew his book away in the face of a girl on the first row. He was always in control, what made this happening very fascinating. Everyone made fun of him afterwards, but I thought it was quite amazing. I understood his frustration and him setting his boundaries was very inspiring.

31

Bart, 21 years old

My teacher was amazing because she made me travelled to a different world by her teaching. She taught French, but she triggered my creativity the most with her exercises. I loved her, she inspired her profession. She spoke French at all time to everyone. The exercises she came up with where amazing. For example, she transformed the classroom to a French camping where we pretended to be on holiday. Also, she made my class pretend to live in a flat together and we had to write a diary. When we had to make a test, she would come walking by with a banquette and spread and handed these out. I loved it. She was always beaming positive energy.

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Sanne, 19 years old

I had problems with a collaboration assignment. My teacher was really involved and really wanted to help me, he listened really well. Something I can very well remember what he said was: ‘Yes I completely understand!’.

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As teachers of the future we see each story as a lesson to become a better teacher. These stories made us aware of both the beauty and danger in the power we hold in our hands while practicing our profession.

big thank you to Amely Paul Mattheu Paula Gideon Maria Bert Marcus Ruben Wessel Constantijn

Justus Niels Gijs Wilma Frank Laurens Yvonne Sieger Anne-Wieke Donny Sander

for sharing your story

Yorick Anne Madeleine Britt Eva Rosa Arthur Eva David Bart Sanne

Ellen Besselink

Julia Clements

Anna-Louise Heetebrij

Maaike Pluijmers