I had a heart stopper today.<\/p>\n
I was on a lesson with a pupil who has her test booked in about a month\u2019s time. She\u2019s a good driver, and we\u2019d done a two-hour motorway session in heavy traffic, road works, and rain. We were on our way back to her house, and I\u2019d asked her to follow the signs towards Nottingham. She\u2019d done really well, successfully interpreting signs saying \u201call routes\u201d as we passed through Loughborough, as well as those specifically referring to Nottingham. Apart from Q&A and chit-chat, I wasn\u2019t having to say much at all.<\/p>\n
We approached a dual carriageway from a side road (T-junction) with Nottingham to the right, and it looked like she\u2019d checked and decided it was safe to move into the central reservation. I know I would have gone if I was driving. Suddenly, she braked, stopping right in the middle of the carriageway closest to us. Cars travelling along the 50mph dual carriageway were forced to stop.<\/p>\n
I got her moving, and when there was finally a chance to pull over I asked her why she had done what she did. Then it dawned on me, and I asked \u201cdid you realise it was a junction?\u201d<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t. She\u2019d just driven straight out on to a 50mph road without realising it was there!<\/p>\n
We all make mistakes, and this one was mine. Many of my pupils are occasionally freaked out by the fact that it seems I can read their minds. Obviously, I can\u2019t. But what I can do is pick up on the smallest twitches, eye movements, inappropriate speed or acceleration,and so on, and realise what they\u2019re thinking (or not) before they do something. In this case, I\u2019d committed the cardinal sin and been complacent. I didn\u2019t expect my pupil to make such a mistake and so wasn\u2019t looking for it to happen \u2013 when usually, I am. But it did<\/strong> happen, and I wasn\u2019t prepared for it.<\/p>\n We were lucky not to be involved in a pile-up, and I\u2019m kicking myself for letting it get to that stage.<\/p>\n I would have liked to have apologised to the woman who had to stop, but obviously on a dual carriageway that\u2019s not an option. In fact, it wasn\u2019t for another few miles that we had the chance to stop to discuss it ourselves, and I was careful not to mention it until we did.<\/p>\n Anyway, if my hard lesson helps anyone else, that\u2019s good. Just remember: never forget that your learners are learners all<\/strong> the time they\u2019re with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had a heart stopper today. I was on a lesson with a pupil who has her test booked in about a month\u2019s time. She\u2019s a good driver, and we\u2019d done a two-hour motorway session in heavy traffic, road works, and rain. We were on our way back to her house, and I\u2019d asked her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adi-related"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t