It was somehow another busy day today. I hardly got a break :(

I had my lesson this morning, then had to make some of the students stay back during recess to finish their work, which meant that i had to stay back with them too, cutting short the break i had between classes. The break was entirely foregone when i had to go find some cable for another group of students so that they could upload their project work files, which, as it turned out, they didn't need in the end.

I suddenly also had to find out the escape route cos there was going to be a fire drill later on, but no one seemed to have the evacuation route plan, so i didn't find out anything in the end and had to rush off to relieve a class.

Thankfully, the fire drill didn't happen while i was relieving the class cos i had no idea what the evacuation route is. It happened shortly after i got back to the staff room. So i had to go down to the field with everyone else and stand in the blistering sun while the drill procedures were being carried out. Then they decided that it was too hot in the field (it was!) and moved everyone to the hall for a debrief, which honestly was not worth the time wasted in moving the whole school from one location to another. It was like 5 minutes long? And could actually be cut down to a minute if summarised.

So after getting baked and wasting my time, i finally got back to the staff room and settled down to eat my recess and do my work, but i was interrupted halfway through by the neighbouring teacher who needed to meet with me and give me instructions cos i have to take over some of his classes next week cos he's going for reservist.

Since there was really no better time to meet with him, i abandoned my half eaten recess for the meeting. It turned out to be quite short and straightforward, but then the level coordinator came by and saw us and then wanted to talk to us about some other thing regarding project work. So, once again, i had to listen to her long windedness and listen to her repeat the same story she told us in the first week again.

We had more or less settled what we needed to settle by the time the bell rang for the end of school, but she was going on about her stories and stuff that i didn't know how to get away, which i needed to cos i had to look for students. It was the whole 'everyone knows this meeting is over but you're still talking so i can't leave even though we're all already standing up' kind of situation. In the end, while she was talking to the other teacher, i just left.

I rushed up to the naughty class again to catch those who escaped me during recess and thank goodness their teacher ended class late. But those irritating kids kept giving me stupid excuses and wheedled their way out of staying back to do their work. How is it fair that their classmates had to do it in 1 hour and they get the whole weekend? They promised to hand all their homework in (they owe me 4 pieces of work!) and i promised to give them detention if they didn't, as if that really fazes them.

Them not staying back meant that i had a bit of extra time, so i was able to go back and finish my recess (although it was already 1pm by then) and do a bit of marking before going off to the computer lab at 1.30 to meet another group of students who need to use some computer programme to film for their project work.

That took an hour, during which we were constantly interrupted by a stream of students entering the lab for some CCA that was happening at 2.30. And that was despite me having booked the lab! And you can imagine that having 20 kids in the lab does not make for a quiet filming environment, so i had to keep reminding them to keep quiet. Well, they could be worse, i guess.

Even though i had so much activity going on today, i wasn't as tired as i was yesterday, mainly cos the mental strain was much less. But having such a busy Friday is really an anomaly. And it was quite a bad time too cos i've got so much marking to do! And i anticipate that as the end of the term approaches, it will keep being this busy cos i've got to clear everything before i leave. That means i've got to collect all the homework that's not been handed in, finish marking everything and settle everything that i need to pass to the teacher when she comes back, all in 2 weeks. And this is on top of the continuing lessons.

But it's the home stretch, i guess. 2 more weeks to go.

Happy thing for the day: I managed to get most of the naughty class to do their work in class and hand it in.

Thankful for: Even though i was so busy today, the busyness somehow made me feel more useful.