Maxine Blake: Sheffield teacher is back with her second rib-tickling book of true classroom stories

Some questions are so strange you will only hear them from the front of a classroom.

For example: "Miss, isn't it true when pigeons fart they become pregnant?"

These are the sorts of curveballs Maxine Blake had to knock aside or take in her stride in her 35 years as a teacher across Sheffield and Northampton and led to the success of her first memoir from her schooling career - 'Don't Poo in the Pudding Bowl.'

Now, Maxine, 63, is back with her second book - 'Teacher Bloopers & Potty Mouth Stories' - filled with odd questions, strange sights, and near misses that can only come out of the mouths of teens navigating the world altogether.

"I think sometimes people don't know what's coming out of their mouths until it happens," said Maxine.

"And it's not like they were 10, my students were 16.

"You're left stood there, taking it in, thinking 'is this really happening?' With experience, you learn to nip it in the bud or steer it until it's part of the lesson.

"But we all make mistakes. As teachers, lots of things happen to us that are confined to the classroom and sometimes you have to confess what happened. Teachers are so often absolutely exhausted and this might give them and others something to have a laugh at."

In her books, Maxine draws on over three decades of stories she says just don't stop bubbling to the surface as she enjoys her retirement, with memories of tough questions and odd situations no amount of training can prepare you for.

Following the success of her first book, Maxine, who has been teaching since 1983, was stunned to find people walking up to her in the street and saying they were fans - or even former pupils of hers from decades ago.

Maxine said: "I was in Atkinson's when a lady came up to me and said 'Miss Blake?' I couldn't believe it - she was from my first form ever.

"She still knew some of her class from her childhood and I got to meet so many of them again, but now as professionals and middle-aged adults and even grandparents.

"There's a chapter dedicated to them all in the new book. They helped me remember so many stories.

"We still meet up sometimes. It's so lovely to have that connection."

Maxine says she has taken to carrying a recording device everywhere she goes in case more memories starring her pupils resurface as she goes about her day.

Her newest book has a chapter dedicated to the naughty kids of her career who were always "a little on the edge with a twinkle in their eye but were the ones that come back to you time and time again."

There's the story of how she ended up losing her skirt while in charge of a group of 17-year-old boys, dozens of unbelievable curveball questions, and how she dealt with all of that while still building a relationship with her students.

'Teacher Bloopers & Potty Mouth Stories,' as well as 'Don't Poo in the Pudding Bowl', are available from such Sheffield stores as Juno Books on Chapel Walk and Wickwire in Nether Edge Road.