Tuesday, July 25, 2006

A new record has been set

Last Monday had to be a new record for the most stupidity that has happened in the shortest amount of time. Three incidents in about fifty seconds (luckily, only two of them happened to me).

One of my daytime classes graduated a while back and the only other class I have on Mondays is an evening class. So, I turned up 15 minutes before the class started to attend to the formality of filling in a proper lesson plan form (I had planned the lesson at home). I walked into the office and was instantly accosted by Young Secretary.

Young Secretary: 'Do you know you're teaching Student X tomorrow?'
MrT: 'No, how would I?'
YS: 'Well, you are.'
MrT: 'Right, so I have fifteen minutes to fill in my lesson plan form and plan an additional lesson?' [I leave immediately after that class every Monday evening]
YS: 'Yes.'
MrT: 'Who usually teaches Student X?'
YS: 'Clown.'
MrT: 'Why isn't he teaching him tomorrow?'

*YS spouts off an irrelevant reason.*

*I go into Bossman's office.*

MrT: 'Giving me basically no notice before having me teach Student X isn't fair.'
Bossman: 'We changed this on Friday.'
MrT: 'It wasn't that way when I left' [I had printed my schedule out]
BM: 'It changed after. You can teach him, can't you?'
MrT [realised I was fighting a losing battle]: 'Yes. I've taught him before and have no problem teaching him.'

*I storm off to the teachers' room*

MrT: 'Hi Fun Colleague, I bloody hate this place some days, and this is one of them.'
*I tell her what happened and notice that she's not her usual jovial mood*
FC: 'My class was cancelled and they didn't call me and inform me that I didn't have to come in today.'
*I'm even more amazed at the stupidity (this is mishap number 2)*
MrT: 'Make sure they pay you for it. It's their error.'
FC: 'I will.'

*Clown comes in*

MrT: 'Hi Clown, by any chance have you made a lesson plan for Student X tomorrow?' [I asked hopefully]
Clown: 'No, you're teaching him.'
MrT: 'When did you find that out?'
Clown: 'On Friday.'
MrT: 'I found out about three minutes ago and am not happy about it.'
*Clown tells me what he'd been doing with the student to help my lesson planning and I plan the lesson*

Had Clown been ill or had it been some kind of emergency, I wouldn't have complained. However, it wasn't. They easily could have had him teach the lesson today (he was available and would have had no problem doing it) and told me that I'd have Student X for a while starting on Thursday and this would not have been an issue. However, that kind of logic doesn't happen in my school due to the fact that it might actually make the teachers happy.