It's the 2nd week into my invigilation duties. Who says that teachers have the best life of all because we get school holidays? Non-teachers just don't have a clue how much work there is still to be done even after school officially closes.

There is so much admin work to be done to tie up this year as well as in preparation for next year. PW for 2003 is finally over (at least it is for me). Last week my days were spent at VJC invigilating the A Levels, and most evenings back at TJC getting my students ready for their oral presentations. As if my brain was willing to do anything after a whole day of doing nothing besides making sure people don't cheat, that they have enough paper or bits of string to tie up their answers with.

These days I'm so tired that even when I do have some time to myself to do whatever I want I'm too tired to do anything. I just hope that come December things will die down a bit and I'll finally have some days where I can sleep in and not worry about people calling me to hassle me about things. I think one of these days I'll just turn off my phone and not care about anything else apart from what I want to do. The world can go collapse around me - I don't care. I think enough is enough.

I just told off a student of sending me a text message late at night on official business and expecting me to reply. What do you think I am, a 24-hour teacher? That's the last thing I want to be and I'm trying my best to make sure that doesn't happen. I want to be a teacher in school ONLY and once I step out of school all official stuff is left in school too. Outside you either call me as a friend for whatever or don't call me at all. I know what hasn't been done/needs to be done. Hasseling me about it during the day and even after 'office hours' only puts me in a bloddy foul mood and things will probably get done even slower.

I'm just like that. The more someone nags at me to do something, the more I delay it on purpose, especially if it's something I personally don't want to do.

Well, invigilation sucks. You get paid peanuts to do peanuts. Honestly I'd rather not get paid to not do it. I know, 10 or 11 days, $25 each day adds up to a nice little sum but still. I'd rather be stress-free and have the time to myself to do whatever I want.

If you're thinking of becoming a teacher, let me burst your bubble for you. Only 50% of your time or energy or less is actually spent teaching. The rest of the time you're chasing after people, students, bits of paper or doing stupid admin errands just because. If not, you're being chased after for information or bits of paper. And all that about 'Make a difference, teach' and 'Change lives' is half bullshit. Perhaps those things wouldn't seem like idealistic dreams if teachers were actually give the space, time, energy and freedom to do what they're supposed to - TEACH. Duh.

I'm really starting to feel that it's the system here. Do I really want to send my kids through this education system? I'm starting to think not. Migrating seems more and more appealing as time passes. And thankfully, John is starting to agree with me more and more about this. We'll see.

glittermissy @ 3:42 PM + + Permalink