What annoyed me last week, part 1

Young Secretary apparently lost the grades I submitted in October and accused me of never having given them to her. I pulled my records that proved I had turned them in and made photocopies of them for her.

I then turned in my participation/attendance/attitude grades (all are combined into one) and oral abilities grades for my grammar and correspondence classes (they weren’t due til last Friday), which she rejected. She told me that there’s no way that the same students can have the same participation/attendance/attitude grades and oral abilities grades for grammar and correspondence classes and that I’d have to submit new ones for the correspondence class.

Right. Like the SAME students participate differently, don’t attend class and have different attitudes and oral abilities when we change from grammar class to correspondence class? Very unlikely.

So, I made more photocopies of those grades and turned them in. She came up to me later and said, ‘They look like photocopies of the same grades,’ to which I said, ‘They are and that’s all you’re getting.’ She grudgingly accepted them.

Not on my number!

Since the beginning of the year, my school has issued each teacher their own photocopier code number in order to keep track of the number of copies we use. I have no problem with that, as it’s done by many schools and companies to help control costs.

The school also has a standardised lesson plan form that all teachers must fill in prior to each lesson. I have no problem with that either, as it’s a way for the admin to know that we are actually planning lessons.

The standardised lesson plan forms are kept in the teachers’ room, and until we started using photocopier code numbers, when we were running low on lesson plan forms, we’d just pop one into the photocopier and make one hundred or so.

Smileroid was talked to on Tuesday about the number of photocopies he’s made since the beginning of the year, so we know that Bossman is keeping track. When we were almost out of lesson plan forms yesterday, I told Pompous Ponce that I wasn’t going to use my photocopy allotment for a form that our administrative staff should provide for us, and that I was going to the office to use their photocopier to make copies of it.

After starting one hundred photocopies, Secretary from Hell asked me if the photocopier in the teachers’ room was broken. I assured her that it wasn’t. She went on to say, in a condescending tone, that the office photocopier was not to be used by teachers when our copier was working. I took one of the forms off the copier and told her that I was doing this because we were almost out of forms. She looked puzzled as to what the form was for, so I explained it to her and told we were required, by the office, to use them. She repeated her previous statement about the office’s copier not being used by teachers, which was the wrong thing to do.

I’ve not been having a good week for various work related reasons, and that set me off. ‘SfH, THIS IS NOT ONLY FOR ME IT IS FOR ALL THE TEACHERS, AND I’M NOT GOING TO USE MY BLOODY PHOTOCOPY ALLOTMENT FOR SOMETHING THAT THE OFFICE REQUIRES US TO FILL IN! IF YOU HAD PROVIDED US WITH THE TOOLS NECESSARY TO DO OUR JOBS IN THE FIRST PLACE, THEN I WOULDN'T BE IN HERE COPYING THE BLOODY THING!’

She took the hint and left me alone. I’m sure she’ll complain to Bossman about it and he’ll want a word with me my attitude towards the office sometime soon (another 'be nicer to the office' chat).

Next time, I’m just going to use the last lesson plan form and not worry about running out of them instead of going through all this hassle again.

It's amazing what you learn about yourself

when you come back from hols.

Smileroid pulled me into a classroom today and said, 'Is it true?' to which I told him I had no clue as to what he was on about. He went on to say that Young Secretary had told him that I'd be (voluntarily) leaving the school in a few month's time.

That was news to me too.

Returned

I've returned to a lot of the same crap that I left. Smileroid whinging about working on Saturdays, WhingeBag complaining about anything and everything, etc. However, there has been one saving grace: apparently, Pompous Ponce is getting fed up and has threatened to start looking for a new job.

I've offered to help him find one.