I found myself standing at the top of the stairs as the kids left school today. I mean I was standing at the top of the stairs at the school I work in, watching the students leave. I wasn't standing at the top of my house stairs peering through a window with a telescope at the nearest school.  That would just have been weird.

A whole bunch of my Year 7s walked past, several cheerily saying hello, which was very lovely, and I found myself grinning back and waving.  Some of the were so joyful (I am thinking more at the fact it was the end of the school day than at the fact their English teacher was loose on the corridors) that my cheeks were starting to feel the strain of returning a similar wattage of smile.

Then, a girl walked past with a can of some energy drink in her hand.  Daft move with four teachers all standing there.  Clearly, she was not expecting us.  We were out of our natural habitat.  She, as a student, has obviously studied the hunting patterns of the average educator, and knew that at 3.30 we should be found in our rooms, picking up bits of paper and muttering about essays deadlines and why that one kid at the back of the room think 'take your book home' means 'shove your book down the back of the radiator'.  Instead, we were there, right in her path.

My face dropped into 'frown number four - disproving with a side order or not-quite-able-to-believe-you-are-doing-that' in a second.

Moments later, I had to switch back to 'dear student - how I adore your very presence' as another lovely young learner walked past and waved at me.

It can give you facial-expression whiplash, this teaching thing.

People talk about the stress, and that is true.  Very, very stressful.  It is more of a constant, low-grade pressure with peaks of more intense stress than it is anything else, but that takes its slow and steady toll.  Then, there are the colds and stomach bugs which you get every term, whenever the little darlings come back from their holidays.  Those are not to be underestimated.  The exhaustion tends to set in on day two of the autumn term and only wane by week three of the summer.  I think that one is largely due to trying to be energetic enough for 30+ people at a time, six times a day plus breaks and lunches.

People do not give enough thought to the dangers of the tone-changes, though.

It isn't just the smiling to frowning shift, or other expressions of the face.  It is also the tone of voice, body language and so on.  Being able to go from hard edged and stern to happy and encouraging as you turn your head from one kid to the next is fun, but tiring.  Sometimes, I forget which emotion I am supposed to be showing and end up giggling to myself.  Often whilst having to look serious.

Sometimes I even get mixed up and look like I am enjoying a joke when I am actually cross.  That one confused me, too.

They do say most of human communication is non-verbal, and I am often having five or six non-verbal conversation at once, sometimes with a seventh, verbal one going on, too.

Not that I am complaining.  I rather enjoy seeing how much I can communicate to the class without having to say it out loud.  It can be a bit of a mime show, at times.

I just need to remember not to speak to my family that way.  They tend to get a bit annoyed if I just stare at them until they get back on with their work.