Monday, May 13, 2013

The Relief After The Relief Class

Star Q

If you are not a teacher, you will not know what I am talking about.  Only a teacher will understand how it feels being given a relief class to enter because one of the teachers have either gone on maternity leave or gone for a course or taken annual leave or what have you.  Only a teacher can feel the pain!

There is always two sides to a coin and where relief classes are concerned the side that is related to them is always the negative side.  I mean, try to consider this.  There are always the same teachers who have to go into relief classes because either they have never been called for courses or very seldom take medical leave.  The argument presented by the powers-that-be is that one day other teachers will relief us as well.  Heck no!  Not if you are a senior teacher, and the admin doesn't find it beneficial or productive to send you for courses!  And so. you have to contend with taking care of other people's classes besides your own.

The other negative side to this relief class business is that, for whatever God forsaken reason, you seem to be given the same block of classes to relief.  It's always the same group of teachers who get these same group of classes.  I mean, it is mind boggling enough that you get relief classes every week; at times two per day and back to back.  As if that doesn't make you feel like retaliating and throwing somebody off the third floor balcony, when you are given the last group of classes all the time.

Ideally, when I am given a relief class, I always prepare myself with a simple lesson plan that I can conduct in that relief class.  But having given all the end classes, I find myself throwing away my teacher's hat and as a replacement to it, I put on the cap of a zoo-keeper; because, in a mean sort of way, I think I am given these classes just to look after the students in the class.  At least a real zoo-keeper can sedate the animals in the zoo by giving them food or in case of emergency, some tranquilizer!   

Having said that, maybe it is the teacher who needs to be sedated to forget about the stress before and after entering these classes!




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