So much for the busy schedule…

I haven’t really written anything for the past few weeks, and I know you can clearly see that. I haven’t got time to comb my hair or to powder my nose… the only thing that I get to powder my nose with is chalk dust. Heck.

Things have been really busy since the start of classes. Right after the week that classes have started, we have to rush to compute the students’ grades so we can put them in their report cards. Unfortunately, the Fourth Year students (my section with the other one) had to be the last one to submit again. This time, the other adviser and I had everything ready, not unlike before when we really had to cram, letting teachers fill up behavioral forms. One of their teachers had to cram for their grades so we had to wait for her to actually compute for their grades on some subjects… After she passed their grades, we have to cram with the list of honor students and all. Talk about being pressured.

After that, we have to serve as proctors for the National Career Assessment Exam (January 17). I, with other teachers, had to go to another school (that is, Saint Mary Magdalene in Kawit) and administer the exam there. What’s really annoying is that A____ didn’t even use the school bus to drive us there. Good thing that we teachers have agreed to meet at McDonald’s N_____ and go there together… Or else, we’d look like we’re on a seperate, personal business venture. Just imagine us, arriving one by one, saying:

A____ teacher: Uh… I’m the proctor for the NCAE.

Saint Mary Principal: Ah, yes, do come in. (and then she explains what to do)

Then, all of a sudden, another A____ teacher comes in, and another. Watak-watak. It’s like we’re pursuing a personal business with the school.

What’s even funny is that we didn’t know where the entrance of Saint Mary was. I felt like we were in a maze. Remember those little boardgames that you used to play when you were young? We’re like in a larger than life boardgame entitled, “Help the A____ teachers find the Saint Mary Magdalene Principal.” Tamang-tama. Four players each. Parang Dora the Explorer.

Anyway, it was really such a drag for me to administer the test. I wasn’t able to read the examiner’s handbook quite thoroughly (What an idiotic move, Darth Anne) so I was quite in a daze. When the examiners were already inside the room, they already knew where to sit, and I was like, “That’s not where you’re supposed to sit,” and the students were all wondering why did I let them sit the way I wanted them to. It turned out that their first seating arrrangement was really correct, and I had to let them go back again. This is an apt blooper for Bitoy’s funniest videos.

The students were quite helpful, actually. They already know what to do that you can practically be out of the room because they don’t need your assistance. More importantly, they are quite behaved and tamed, unlike the students in A____ (no offense intended). But at that moment, I also wondered on what was happening to my students. I was wondering whether they were as clueless as I am - I am clueless about proctoring the exam, and they are clueless about answering the descriptive questionnaire.

After the exam proper, we teachers had to go to the principal’s office. This was the longest part of it all. We had to tear the answer sheet on the perforated line one by one. We also had to write a narrative report (and I didn’t think that I wrote what I supposed to write), and we had to fill up sooooooooo many things. Only one expression was evident in our faces. WE WANT TO GO HOME. A____ teachers were already tired, but there was still so many things to do…

Of all the A___ teachers who proctored the exam, I was the most unlucky. I had to proctor Room # 4, and one of the students there was absent. Our Division Head told us that whenever a student is absent, we have to leave a designated answer sheet and exam booklet for him, so that was exactly what I did. Turned out that the principal in Saint Mary didn’t know what to do as well, so we waited for a confirmation about it. I was stuck there for one and a half hour in front of the principal, while the other teachers were there, waiting. After a half an hour, the teachers of Saint Mary who proctored our students arrived. I was really annoyed of one of their teachers who was leading their group. He was talking behind me (good thing I didn’t see who he was or else I could’ve done something violent), explaining what to do for students who were absent during the exam, and when he was able to know why I did what I did, he was like, “Bakit mo ginawa yun, papahirapan mo lang si ma’am (the principal).” I got so annoyed that I was on the verge of standing up and giving him a piece of my mind, when thankfully, Sir E____ said that it was clearly our Division Head’s instruction, and he explained everything about it. It was a real drag, I tell you. A real drag. That particular teacher from Saint Mary had a very condesending tone, and it was very irksome.

Back in school, I was able to know that the very same teacher who felt very superior over us said something very tactless with our students as well. Instead of helping our students to answer the Descriptive Questionnaire part, he made fun of them when he knew they didn’t know how to answer them. The thing is, both Saint Mary and A____ had some wrong points. Yes, it really was evident that the folks from Saint Mary are more behaved than our students, but it was just plain wrong for that teacher to refuse to offer assistance whenever our students need it. It was wrong for him to tell them some comments which will make them feel bad about themselves. For A___, it was wrong for the administration not to let their teachers attend a seminar for NCAE proctors. If that happened, we could’ve done more to help our students so they wouldn’t be clueless about the exam. Second is that it was wrong for the students to act “just as they are” during the exam. There were reports that they had piggyback rides during the break, and that most of them didn’t bring their lunch when they were told to bring one. They told me that they were just letting the teachers from Saint Mary know what they are in real life, but I think they equated the idea of being open to other people with being rude to the visitors. I told them that people, for everyone they know, have different personalities to show. I may not be the Ms. Anne that my students know in this blog, but this is the Anne that my friends know. And for those Saint Mary teachers, since they are visitors, A___ students could’ve exhibited courteousness towards them.

And some of them weren’t able to do that. Just imagine - one of my students actually ate the sandwich of that Saint Mary teacher with a condescending tone!

Anyway, at least I was able to get back at him through that. =)

P.S. I’ll write again soon… we’re so busy working with the students about the cheerdance competition…

Yay! I have stuck to my decision not to blog the entire week… yes, I admit that I did check my account two weeks ago, but what the heck. I just checked if somebody actually bothered to leave me a message, and there was one of my friends who remembered.

The first week of school has already passed. I admit that it has been a drag for me again to wake up so early for work. My body clock has been used to sleeping late (late, as in 2am) and wake up moderately early (uh… around 8am?), but unfortunately, it’s back to my real life again. Life as a high school teacher is indeed more challenging than being in a clerical job, but the pressure of understanding your lesson and letting yourself appear like you have studied the lesson for a week or so (but actually, all you need to learn, you’ve only learned this morning) is a gargantuan task. The nasty kids are in school again. Back to the normal "Shhhhhh"s and the normal QUIET!! statement every day. That is a reality which is really hard to accept, but heck, life’s like that.

Three more months, the Seniors will be out of the school, and a lot of events are coming up soon. Two of the most awaited events will be the cheering competition and the (ano pa ba?) Junior and Senior prom. On Monday, my "industrious" students are going to start practicing for the competition. Unfortunately, the Senior class holds the title for the contest, and they are not giving up the title. Perhaps this whole thing has been influenced by the contest in UAAP, in which all of the schools are vying for the title. It’s okay for me to have the cheering competition because the kids like it anyway, but the problem posed for this situation is for us teachers. We have to monitor their practice every damn day. Both of the advisers have to be in school while the kids do their stunts ala the "Bring it On" movie.

Great. Just great. Isn’t it really neat for you to wake up around 5am, have work from 7:45am to 4pm, then have a unpaid overtime for two hours?

THOSE DAYS WILL BE THE GREATEST DAYS OF MY LIFE.

At this point, you know for sure that I am being sarcastic.

Another much-awaited event is the Junior-Senior prom.

The costume’s easy. I’ll just contact the nearest funeral homes. They have a package deal which consists of the get-up, the transportation and the "mukhang natutulog" look. Tamang-tamang pang-gabi.

hehehehe…

I’ll write again sometime. I am quite disoriented.

It’s the second day of 2007, and so far, all that I have been doing is computing grades. Anak ng tokwa, ang corny ko. I should be enjoying my two-week vacation, but instead, I am working on the grades of six high school sections of seniors, juniors and sophomores.

Ugh.

But at least I am through with that now. What I am not through with is the exam that I have to furnish for our project in PNU. Oh, the agony! Yahoo mail has been down for a while, at least on this laptop, and I am really getting annoyed with the server. Prepaid lang kasi, walang pera pang-broadband.hehe.

Anyway, three months to go and my students will march out of the school and in comes the new batch of seniors again. 2006 has been memorable because of those kids, and as well as the juniors and the sophomores, but I gotta admit that my advisory section (since it’s my first time to actually handle kids and serve as their surrogate mother… ugh. not mother, but sister. I am too young to have 16-year-old kids) has made me real happy the previous year. It was as if I had instant brothers and sisters altogether, and they really make me glad… except for the occasional bouts of naughtiness and querulousness, though… but all in all, it’s still bearable.

I am planning to change the name of this blog… hopefully a different, positive one… Just wait and see. hehe.

Just dropped by… I still have to refresh my memory on "The Merchant of Venice." I’ll be discussing it with the Seniors next week.

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope we will have a better year ahead. Ü