A Day in the Life of a Teacher on Prescription Painkillers

I have a bad back. It hurts. The NHS physio isn't sure what is wrong with it, so is referring me to a back/spine specialist. That appointment is on the 23rd July. Until then I am stuck trying to do stuff on co-codomol painkillers.

Or, as the box clearly states: "Omg Caplets".



I had a day teaching today. I haven't done a great deal of teaching recently due to it being the end of term and year 11 having left for their exams - thus not many supply staff needed. This is probably a good thing, as too many days like today would be bad for me.

The basic outlook for today was fairly straightforwards:

Yr10 French (top set, small and nice group. Enjoyable lesson.)
Yr7 English (large set, no work left, but enjoyable blagged lesson.)
Yr7 French (low ability, real headache of a lesson)
Yr7 French (higher ability, enjoyable lesson)
Yr8 French (top set, nice group, fun stuff)

Not too bad a day. My french is hella rusty, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was the atrocious year 7 group. It's the kind of group that there's just no recovering from. As a supply teacher, its difficult to know what to do in awkward situations, and the one thing I've noticed about the school is that it has narrow corridors and you can't leave kids out there if they're being pricks. So I had to put up with two obnoxious HORRIBLE children for almost the entire lesson.

The lad was a pain in the arse, rude, disruptive, and had the misfortune to be caught out in the corridor by a senior member of staff on call. Therefore he got taken away with little fuss. Turns out that he wasn't the main problem I was going to have that lesson.

The girl, on the other hand.... NEVER have I actually physically wanted to strangle a kid before. Sure, I might have moaned that I wanted to, but it was only through intensive physical restraint that I actually managed not to shout in her face and physically push her out of the classroom and slam the door on her. She was so utterly putrid in terms of her attitude and outlook. She had to be the centre of attention, and was so disruptive that she simply couldn't be ignored. She moaned when I wasn't paying attention to her. She called people names. She lead the class in some bullying. She threw pencil crayons. She called one girl a "fucking bitch" right under my nose. She insulted me. I sent her out several times but she kept coming back in when my back was turned, then offering a pathetic "I'm sorry. I won't do it again." each time. It made my skin crawl, she was truly horrible.

Eventually she was caught outside by another member of staff as I tried to keep her away from this other girl she was bullying as well as deal with the rest of the class as well as organise the lesson. Said member of staff thankfully said she'd take the girl for a walk until the end of the lesson. I was relieved, said many thank yous, and closed the door on the kid.

For sixty seconds I was free to get on with teaching French.

Only who should turn up at the door but the girl again, barging in, grabbing crayons, and going outside to work in the corridor...

I could have stabbed her eyes out with them... There was just nothing I could do. I don't know the name of the teacher that took her away, but I'm really not impressed. :(

By the time I'd got home, I'd got through 6 co-codamol tablets. That's 6 out of my 8 total for 24 hours. That's quite a lot in a short space of time. I was actually rather dizzy and feeling a bit out of it by the time I got back, and went pretty much straight to the bed for a lie down. I dunno if I fell asleep or what, but it was suddenly an hour and a half later and Mother was asking if I wanted dinner...

Sweet and sour chicken with light and fluffy rice. At least SOMEONE knows how to cheer me up ^_^

Sat at the PC typing this blog I can't really feel my back now. Can't really feel my fingers hitting the keys either, so please excuse any spelling mistakes.

That was my day on prescription meds. How's your day been loyal reader?