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Niente senza gioia – nothing without joy

Do you love teaching? But what do you do to ensure that you enjoy your lessons and your subject? Remember, says Martin Matthews, enjoyment is catching…

I found myself standing on a chair: ‘‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

I boomed at the top of my voice.

My year 10s looked at me with a mixture of the sort of distain they would reserve for a parent who has decided to hit the dance floor at a wedding and bewildered awe at the nerve of me getting up on the chair.

I had leapt up after putting down my collection of Shelley’s poetry in mock disgust as one of my students informed me that literature was “pointless”.

I was having a great time as I took on Shelley’s Ozymandias with my “sneer of cold command” and year 10 seemed to actually start to get the poem.

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