What a day!

Crikey Mikey! has it been a day? Yes it has and it will continue to do so until later this evening! Got a supply job this morning at a less than scintillating school (won't name names - never know who's reading!) to take a P5/6 class. First impression? My God! They've been burgled! No timetable, forward plan or weekly diary evident. Couldn't find jotters, textbooks, paper. Kids did not know which groups they were in (some didn't even know there were groups!) Some jotters were missing, there was no note of where the homework spelling was generated from, how the reading groups operated, the room was a tip and the kids were not exactly setting the heather alight with intelligence! Or enthusiasm! Sick teacher had taken the class laptop home and so I couldn't access the smartboard, couldn't access the internet, couldn't sign on as a teacher to the system, so it was all systems hang on a wee minute there, maybe you'll just have to do it the old fashioned way! Had to give the whiteboard a thorough clean tonite before I came home as it was nearly as black as the chalk boards! and I'm going in again tomorrow (with a vague chance of a few more days - it's all money!)
When you walk into another teacher's classroom and find this level of mess - nothing labelled clearly, subject books in one place , tidy shelves etc. it makes you look at your own classroom ethos. I always felt my class was not as tidy as it could have been and spent a long time trying to get it sorted. However in comparison to what I spent today in, mine was just fine. At least I had all my language and maths textboks and jotters together in labelled areas. My Forward plan was always on my desk and the diary page for the week on my desk. There is a chance I might get a few more days work in this school, if so I will have to get a large box and put all her stuff in for her to sort out when she comes back - I know I'm not the tidiest person on the planet, but I really cannot work in this kind of mess! In the meantime I must go and get a diary page photocopied up so I can leave a note of what I've done this week for her. Sorry to use this space to pour out my woes, but the teaching community is such that one really can't trash another teachers' rep. or one disnae get any other offers of work!
That said, I'm off to get something to eat and to get ready to have all the hair ripped off my legs and from under my eyebrows. Who says I don't know how to enjoy myself?
Till next time...