TGIF

Today was... interesting to say the least. We were in bed early last night to get proper sleep for work in the morning. We woke up to a very loud buzzing noise which at first I attributed to Matt's alarm but soon realized that was not the case, it was a fire alarm. We jumped out of bed, grabbed our money and phone and rushed out the door only to find the beeping had stopped. Interesting. We went back to sleep.

Upon proper morning, we got up and went on with our routines getting ready for Matt to work and me to phone and find out if I had work. Matt took off and I called. No work. I went online for a bit looking for some rental properties, intending to make some more viewing appointments, apply for a credit card, do some banking, check out the rates for the hotel down the street since tonight will be our last night here, etc. I put on my jeans and went down for breakfast. Had about 4 bites of my eggs when my cell phone rang. Adam from TimePlan asking me to leave for work, right that instant. I said no problem, ran into the room to put on dress clothes and ran out the door hoping I understood his instructions for directions. Fortunately, he text them to me as an added reminder. Off to the bus I went.

I got to the school about 10 minutes into the day. My class was at an assembly and I wasn't quite sure which one it was. About 4 teachers, plus the headmaster, pulled me out into the hall and told me they were giving me a year 6 class who happened to be the worst class in the school. Apparently the day before, the class was horrible to the supply teacher. They gave me this class instead of the one I was originally going to be in because I arrived before the other supply teacher and they wanted someone watching this class ASAP. Apparently about 20 minutes before I arrived, one of my students was on the roof of the school. Also, the teacher left me no notes so I had to make sense of the handouts on his desk and figure out how to teach them. Lucky me.

The rest of the day was, as I expected, a little bit rough. It went by somewhat alright although they were a bit noisy and didn't care to listen to their instructions all the way through. The end of the day was the biggest challenge. We were doing guided reading and I couldn't focus on my group because the rest of the class was talking so loudly. The last 20 minutes of the day was "Golden Time" where students had 20 minutes of free time outside, provided they didn't lose all of their minutes throughout the week. The class as a whole lost about 5 and individuals lost up to 8 more. We were late getting outside because I was waiting for quiet from the class, which didn't happen until 10 minutes in. When I asked them to come inside to prepare for the end of the day, they got very upset that they didn't have their full 20 minutes and started yelling and shouting at me and at one another. The Headmaster came in just as the bell rang and students were headed for the door. She apologized for the class and told me she hopes I'll be back sometime in a better classroom.

I went back to the hotel to find Matt who had lost his Oyster Pass (Underground and bus pass). We got that sorted with the store who had credit for losses and went for pizza. We had intended to go to the social near the opposite end of London to have a couple drinks and meet the other TimePlan employees, however we had things to sort regarding visitation of possible places to live tomorrow and headed back to the hotel, which is where I am blogging from now, having concluded the discussion.

By the way, I know people are reading these things, why are there never any comments? :P

~Tracey