Can I help you, Damien?

At my school, all teachers are assigned 80 minutes of supervision a week. This can be before school, during breaks (indoor or outdoor) or at the end of the day on bus duty.

A couple of years ago, I was on bus duty at the end of the second day of school in September.

A lot of the grade sevens were wandering around looking like deer in the headlights, not quite knowing which of the three buses was theirs. Life in a senior school is a big adjustment for them.

I spotted one small boy who was looking more lost than the others. I had met him once that day, briefly, as all of the students rotated through a mock timetable to come and meet their teachers.

I was pretty sure that his name was Damien but I had met almost 200 kids in the first two days of school so I was not 100% sure.

However, I wanted him to feel welcome and comfortable in his new school so I went over and made an effort to do just that. I thought I would address him by name, help him find his bus and maybe start to build a positive relationship with him.

Here is how it went down:

Me: Hi Damien. How was your day? Can I help you find your bus?

He looked at me and said : My fucking name isn’t Damien! and walked away.

Lesson learned: Don’t fucking talk to kids if you don’t know their name!