Congratulations to HR Mommy,

Mr HR Mommy and Big Brother on the addition to their family. Pop over and leave them a few kind words if you have a minute.

A question I'm glad I didn't get

An adult (female) student came up to Smileroid today and asked (in all seriousness), 'What's a cunt?' What did he do? He said he explained it in a diplomatic way.

What's that?

I walked into work yesterday and Old Secretary asked me if I could email my timesheet to the school's email address. I told her that I emailed it a while back and she said that Secretary from Hell (on hols) had told her it had arrived, but OS couldn’t find it in my email. No problem, I emailed it again when I went home for lunch.

A few hours later, I asked Young Secretary if it had been received and she confirmed that it had (both times). I told her that OS hadn’t been able to find it before, and she looked at me and said, ‘OS didn’t know what an attachment was.’

How to mortify your boss

Schedule a doctor’s appointment to have stitches removed during your 1-½ hour break between your afternoon and evening classes, and after he says, ‘Are you sure you’ll be back to teach your evening classes?’ reply, ‘Perhaps.’

Computer follies

Our school uses a web based email that all three of the secretaries have access to. Despite being told about it and shown how to do it, Old Secretary has no idea that she can access it from her computer (all the office computers have internet access). She constantly runs over to Young Secretary’s computer to send an email.

Back to work

Right, I’m back to work this week and what’s the first thing I come across? You’ve guessed it, a scheduling conflict. It appears that my 15h class had been forgotten about when they made the schedule, and I’ve been scheduled a completely different 14h30 – 16h class instead. I was nice enough to point this out, and it’s been entertaining watching them scramble around in search of a teacher for the 14h30 class.

Scheduling really isn't all that difficult, is it?

An ill holiday?

After a doctor’s appointment last Monday, I returned to the school and told Bossman that I needed the following Tuesday (today) off for medical reasons. He said I could have the time off and would rework the schedule to accommodate that. I reminded him again on both Thursday and Friday of last week, foolishly thinking that something would actually be done.

I arrived at work yesterday and found out that none of my classes had been reassigned and I was still scheduled to work. Young Secretary was back from hols, so I asked her if Bossman had told her about the day off I needed. Unsurprisingly, he hadn’t.

I told her that I had been reminding BM about it, but she didn’t seem to be all that interested. I finally said (in a frustrated tone of voice), ‘I will not be in tomorrow. When my students arrive to be taught at 7:30, I won’t be here. Same with my other classes. I won’t be here. BM approved that last week, whether he remembers it or not.’

Just after that, BM walked in and YS said to me, ‘He’s here, you can remind him,’ to which I replied, ‘I’m not reminding him again,’ and walked out of the office.

A couple hours later, I noticed that the schedule had been rearranged (I assume YS had reminded BM). Checking the ‘official’ schedule in the computer, I noticed that BM had put ‘Holiday’ next to my name.

Holiday? I don’t think so!

MrT: ‘Bossman, you have me on holiday tomorrow.’
BM: ‘Right, and?’
MrT: ‘This is for medical reasons, so it should be a sick day.’
BM: ‘What are you doing again?’
MrT: ‘I’m having [insert reason] done.’
BM: ‘The whole day?’ [translation – you can work tomorrow afternoon]
MrT: ‘I am not coming into work tomorrow after having [whatever] done!’
BM: ‘Okay, I’ll change it to a sick day. Same thing, really.’
MrT: ‘A world of difference to me.’

I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to think I would come in after being reminded (again) of the reason I needed the day off. I might take a sickie on Wednesday (if I don’t actually need to take one) out of spite.

My colleagues, part 1

I teach most of the high level classes at our school, and that requires making lots of extra exams, quizzes, etc. It’s a lot of work, but I totally love teaching advanced levels.

A few weeks ago, Smileroid asked me if he could have a copy of one of my exams so that he could use part of it for one of his classes. His classes are in the lower and middle level ranges so he most likely wouldn't be able to use it with them, but I still gave it to him. A few days later, he asked me to look at his answers to it and see if I agree with them. HE HAD QUITE A FEW MISTAKES! Easy things, like missing definite time signals for the past simple tense, etc.

For once, I was almost speechless.