Putting my foot down
I went into work today to find out that a teachers' meeting has been scheduled for Thursday at 16h45. Since our daytime classes are still on Easter hols, that means I only have to teach a class 15h- 16h30 outside of the school and then cycle to the school for a meeting (the business I have to teach at is closer to my house than the school). Also, I'm pretty sure I can predict what'll happen: Pompous Ponce and New Girl are going to complain about everything under the sun while Clown sits there quietly and Smileroid gets his knickers in a twist over everthing PP and NG say.
So, I talked to Bossman and told him that unless it's imperative that I attend, I would like to be excused from the meeting. He asked why, and I said, 'I need a bit more time away from this place,' to which he replied, 'I understand. You don't have to attend, it's just going to be a lot of organisational things.'
New Girl is annoying
She’s an arrogant braggart. Everything at our school is wrong and needs to be corrected, and she’s going to be the one to do it because the rest of us are lazy sods. Right. Like I haven’t tried?
She whinges too. She can go out hiking all weekend, but HAS TO have a school car to take home every night because it’s too far to walk from the school to her flat. Granted, it’s a thirty-minute walk but it’s safe the entire way. If she can spend ‘many hours’ at weekends walking in the woods, surely she can walk to her flat. Plus, I’m sure that if anyone tried anything with her, she’d just open her mouth and bore them into a coma by talking about herself. In the past, she’s only had the best jobs, driven the best cars, been the best at everything she’s done, been respected by everyone she’s met, etc. All at the ripe old age of 24.
It gets worse: she’s told me that she plans on staying in our town and at our school for years to come.
Closing time at the call centre
Call Centre Confidential has closed for the Easter break never to reopen. I'd like to personally thank Wrapstar for his inspiration, as his was one of the two blogs that encouraged me to start mine, and wish him all the best for the future.
Bugger, somebody’s awake
Bossman asked me about the schedule for Easter and I told him that my holiday had been approved back in January for that time (I’m taking a total of six days off). He then went about rescheduling the classes that I’d be away for, and I was a bit disappointed. I had planned on not reminding anyone (Old Secretary and I both had copies of the paperwork, so I would have been absolved of any responsibility) and waiting for the impending disaster.
Score one for Bossman.
Photo Friday: 'Glow'
My entry for this week's photo Friday is up. Subject: 'Glow'.
As predicted
Smileroid asked me about Student today, like he had been told to do by Young Secretary. Luckily, Correspondence Teacher rushed into the room and needed to talk to me about a few things, so I didn't have to talk to him about Student. SR and I are meeting for beer this evening and if he asks me, I'll tell him I prefer not to talk about business on my personal time.
More than a bit annoyed
As I was leaving the school today, Student came up to me and said he’d see me on Tuesday. I asked him what he was talking about because our daytime classes start their two-week Easter holiday on Monday, and he said it’d be for his extra grammar lessons. He then told me the time of the lesson and I told him that that would be impossible because I teach in a town 45 km away from ours at that time. I took him back into the school and we went up to talk to Young Secretary, who of course new nothing about it. Luckily, Bossman came back into the office right after I had asked her.
MrT: ‘BM, there must be some kind of mistake with the time of Student’s extra lessons’
BM: ‘I’m giving him to Smileroid’.
MrT: ‘Oh?’
BM: ‘Yes, sorry’.
Bossman and Bosswoman then left the office for an appointment.
Let’s look at this logically:- Student is my student. I teach the grammar class he attends three times a week.
- Student is only getting these extra lessons because I brought the fact that he was far behind his class to BM’s attention.
- Student has a grammar exam in his grammar class (that I teach) the second day back from holiday.
- Student will be getting extra French lessons from his French grammar teacher.
- I will be losing 12 hours a week for the next two weeks while the daytime classes are on holiday. Smileroid doesn’t teach any of the daytime classes that will be on holiday and will not be losing any money during that time.
- Smileroid has no idea Student even exists, let alone what his strengths and weaknesses are and what he needs to focus on.
- Smileroid has no idea what will be on Student’s grammar exam.
- Pompous Ponce brought the same situation of a couple of his students to BM’s attention a while back and is giving them extra lessons.
What frustrates me even more is that I’m almost certain that Smileroid will be told (by BM or YS) to ask me for information on what Student needs to work on due to the fact that I am his grammar teacher.
Is it just me, or does the fact that Smileroid will be teaching Student next week sound illogical to anyone else? If not, could you please explain it to me?
This is the kind of thanks I get for all the hard work I do and all the crap I put up with!
Tired of PP
Pompous Ponce and I were in the teachers’ room yesterday when I realised that I had forgotten to correct a couple of essays a student had given me last week after promising to have them corrected by the next class. Noticing that I only had 5 minutes before the class started, I said, ‘Oh shit.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You’re so low-classed.’
Perhaps I am, but I’m not a pretentious twat and wannabe-Londoner like he is.
To give you another idea of how nice he is, here’s how a conversation went last week when he filled in for Clown’s 7h30 class (Clown was ill):
MrT: ‘Welcome to the Tuesday early shift’ [friendly smile on my face and outstretched hand waiting to be shaken.]
Pompous Ponce: ‘MrT, go fuck yourself.’
MrT: ‘I was being friendly. See if that ever happens again.’
PP: ‘Right, mate.’ [in a 'fuck off' tone of voice]
Then there’s the time PP was ill in December and came back and said, ‘I don’t know what the rest of you have done to class P, but I got a standing ovation when I walked in their classroom this morning.’
Could he be anymore arrogant and pompous?
I did get a good one in on him on Monday:
MrT: ‘You should talk to Part Time Colleague about that’
PP: ‘PTC won’t talk to me.’
MrT: ‘I see your popularity is increasing’.
Finally, many of us are sick and tired of hearing his CD over and over again in the teachers’ room while we’re preparing lessons.
The problem? Bossman still thinks the sun shines out PP's arse and he can do no wrong.
Congratulations, Zoe
Cheers go out to Zoe for winning the 2005 Bloggie for the Best European Weblogger.
*Opens a bottle of red*
From the teachers’ room yesterday:
New Girl: ‘I really like this book.’
Clown: ‘The one that uses ‘will’ to talk about the past?’
MrT: ‘What?’
Clown: ‘It uses ‘will’ to talk about the past.’
MrT: ‘Give me an example, please.’
*Clown takes the book from NG*
Clown: ‘By now you may have noticed...’
New Girl: ‘That must be something very advanced.’
MrT: ‘That’s the Future Perfect tense.’
*they both walk out of the room*
Hiring these two has been a good idea - they make me look a lot more valuable to the bosses.
Making even more friends
Correspondence teacher is mad at me because she has to teach Cambridge correspondence along with whatever else she teaches (no one’s really sure). She was told this at our teachers’ meeting in September, but conveniently forgot. Bossman reminded her once in Dec, once in Jan and once in Feb before his stronger reminder a few days ago got her to actually do it. She gave me the look of death yesterday when I said to her, ‘I’d help you, but I don’t have time to correct that many essays,’ to which she responded, ‘AND I DO?’
It was pointless to argue with her about it, but yes she actually does. She’s only works eight hours a week!
Photo Friday
My entry for this week's photo Friday is up. Subject: 'Obsession'.
This was a very difficult one for me. I viewed many of my old photos but couldn't find one that I thought portrayed 'Obsession', so I decided to post a photo of something that obsesses me.
Schedule Change
Young Secretary just called to inform me that the daytime schedule has been completely redone and goes into effect on Monday. Only my school would be so dense as to redo a schedule on a Friday afternoon and then H O P E they could get in touch with all the teachers to let them know. I knew I should have left my mobile off. Plus, the students won't have the correct books with them!
She also asked me about the schedule of a student that I handle the scheduling for (to assure that it doesn't get messed up), so I told her I had emailed her that information (as I always do).
Three hours ago.
Another one bites the dust?
It's come to light that New Girl will be travelling home for a week or two in April for a wedding (not hers). The timing is suspicious, as that's when her two month probationary period finishes.
Think she'll actually return?
Surprise part 97
New Girl is taking over one of my classes next week, but apparently only Bossman and I know about it. It's not on next week's schedule and NG doesn't even know about it...well, she sort of does now. She looked a quite puzzled when I asked her if she wanted my past lesson plans for the class, and that turned into amazement when I mentioned that she'd be taking it over. Apparently BM hadn't told her yet (I had been informed two weeks ago).
Surprise!
