i'm a mAkeshift teacher

I tried doing the blog thing a few years ago. I think my livejournal ended up with two entries. However, since I started supply teaching a few weeks back, I've found that I come home and prattle on to my partner for well over an hour without taking a breath. So when every single day is just a wealth of stories waiting to be shared with people over the age of ten, a blog seemed to be the next logical step. We'll see how long this one lasts.

So I guess technically I'm new to this world. I finished teacher's college at home in Toronto in June and moved to London (UK) in September. Since then, I've technically only done - hmmm, let me just count up the time sheets neatly tucked in my brand new file folder - eight days of supply work. I know, two months and only eight days of work, I swear I'm not shit, we just had issues with living arrangements, then I got sick, then it was half term, then we decided to hop on the back of a friend's truck and drove through France for a bit. But now I'm properly committed.

And so we begin.

With so many thoughts swimming through my head, I hardly even know where to start. But I would like to start by being a bit cliched and saying that karma is a fucking bastard. I don't have a fantastic memory for things that happened in the past, in fact many would say I have absolutely no memory what so ever. One thing I do remember however, is that I wasn't a particularly shit-raising child in class during my early years (bar eighth grade...I was a wicked little bitch that year). I'd like to think I was fairly well behaved all the time. Except, (I would say with confidence that this applies to absolutely everyone), when there was a supply teacher in the room.

And things haven't changed much in twenty years. Not that I expected them to. An unfamiliar teacher in the room has meant, and will always mean, through the eyes of a child, that you have a free day. The teacher doesn't know your name, doesn't know how things work and technically can't really do all that much to you if you decide to hold a social party in the middle of mathematics.

Now I have willingly come into this job knowing all of this. What shits me though, is when I arrive at a school and the teacher I am going to cover is in the class, and s/he tells me that her kids are really absolutely fantastic and that there really isn't even one of them that will cause me any trouble. Now this absolutely shits me, not because s/he is talking rubbish, but because for some unknown reason I actually believe them!! I actually fall for it every time, and I think, wow, maybe today will go smoothly. Maybe today, I will leave for home without a sore throat from 'talking' over kids. Maybe today I will have a class full of kids who will beg me to stay because they love me so much. Maybe today...maybe today...and that is when the classroom door flies open, Liam or Kaito or Aaron runs in, and in a matter of minutes, 36 rulers are scattered across the floor, six books have been knocked over, three chairs have been flung around and I've been given the finger.


That happened this morning. Welcome to my world.