Something I should probably mention: I’m a teacher.
The thing is though, I know that immediately your eyes are rolling and you want to close this tab down but it’s not like that. I guess I enjoy it and maybe it’s what I’m meant to do, but often I’m not convinced. You see, I went straight into an English degree from school, straight into a year long teaching qualification and straight into my first school. So, I’m only 4 years older than my form class and it’s weird. I’m not sure I’ve made the transition yet from being a young eejit to teaching young eejits (Note: where I come from ‘eejit’ is a friendly term for someone who acts immaturely).
Part of me feels much too young to be in this role, and most of me still hates the fact that I can’t go anywhere near my house without seeing people I teach in school. Most of the time it’s ok because the pupils come up and say hello and ask who the tall, handsome guy is that I’m holding hands with. Sometimes though you see them do the same thing I would have done 4 years ago; pretend you need to go into the nearest shop for something and mouth to your friend, ‘what is Miss doing here? Isn’t she meant to be in school?’
It’s an odd school too: 11-18 year olds from a very prejudiced and sectarian area in Northern Ireland. There’s a lot of drug misuse and many of the kids come from very unstable home situations. All these things together creates a very volatile situation, so it’s not uncommon for me to be the one who breaks up a boxing session in the playground or confiscate sex/drug related contraband.
So yeah, this has been my life for the last year! But anyway, back to the real theme of this post – Tuesdays. For me, Tuesdays are the spawn of Satan. Tuesday is that day that seems so far away from the last weekend and too far from the coming one. Also it’s my day with a full teaching timetable and a lot of hyper kids. To illustrate, here’s a look at today so far:
9AM – Confronted by teacher to say I haven’t completed an voluntary online survey about staff well-being. I didn’t complete because I didn’t feel I could be honest and I don’t want to be rude. I guess I thought voluntary meant you could choose but it seems not.
9:45AM – A pupil called me the ‘C’ word. And to make it worse, I like this pupil so it pains me to punish her so severely for bad language.
10:50 AM – I can’t stop sneezing because of hay fever. I’m reading out loud in class and it’s a bit ridiculous. Pretty wasted lesson because we were all in stitches laughing.
12 PM – I have a coursework moderation to make sure I’m marking GCSE (16 year olds finals) appropriately. I’m scared.
1:30 PM – Just went into the bathroom and realised that I forgot to put on make-up today. I look rough.
2PM – I have not stopped shouting today because the sudden sunshine has made all our ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) kids go haywire, and we have a lot of them. I really hate shouting.
3PM – I brought a piece of my friend’s birthday cake with me as an after school treat to cheer me up because I felt sad this morning. Now I feel sad because I entered the calories on my new fitness app ( a lot of butter and chocolate!!)
I know those are all trivial things, but when they add up it sort of ticks me off. Here’s to a better Wednesday!
A Shelter from the Rain 