Plot Twists

I’ve had a shitty week.  No two ways about it. Generally I'm pretty good at being a positive and optimistic person, even in challenging situations but to be honest, this week has tested me.  It’s always hard coming back from school holidays - there’s usually a significant mourning period after a blissful, prolonged freedom from work that can manifest in a number of ways.  Regularly, it’s a lengthy period of sitting on the bed, in a towel, aimlessly staring at a wall in my bedroom in real denial about having to leave the house and make my way to the tube.  Sometimes it’s a complete loss of any type of sense of humour in any and all situations involving colleagues. On occasion (and this is the one that I hate the most) I take it out on the kids and find myself snapping at them over very minor things, or worse still, just being totally disinterested in and very unimpressed by anything that they have to say.   (Despite my all bad teacher aspirations, if you hadn’t guessed it yet I really do love my students). These symptoms usually last for about a week and this week was tough for a number of reasons. Oh the first world problems! Firstly, the clocks went back on Sunday which, whilst is great during the initial excitement of an extra hour in bed on the last day of the holiday, actually leaves you ending up quite frankly feeling jet lagged.  And, as you would expect with the shift in time, it started getting dark before we left work at the end of the day which, for an SAD sufferer like me, is dreadfully depressing. It was also FREEZING cold all week both in and out of the school building which never fails to put me in a mood. And the final straw was that staff absence this week was excessive to say the least, as teachers have been gradually dropping like flies which left me covering lessons in virtually all of my free periods.  It’s safe to say that I’m now pretty behind on my work, one week into term and a new personal best. To be completely honest, I really wasn’t sure how I was going to save this week, I’d be lucky if I made it to the end of the day without pulling a Michael Douglas in Falling Down in the staff room. But yesterday, just as I had almost admitted defeat, I experienced my very own plot twist. In the final few minutes of extra time, just as I’d written the week off, the last person I would ever have expected to turn it around did just that.  I’ll start with some context. The student I’m about to tell you about was one of my biggest headaches last year. Not in the same blatant way as drummer boy who I described in New Classes and Old Faces but in a quieter but equally infuriating way. This was a boy who, no exaggeration, probably completed about 10 percent of his lessons over the whole year (he might have been present in body for slightly more than that but that’s where it ended). He refused to complete his assignments or attend intervention (I could regularly be seen tailing him in the corridor in a desperate attempt to get him to do his work) and I’d say his efficiency rating remained at a stable 5 percent.  But it wasn’t just last year. Only on Monday he missed my lesson because (in his own words) he went to McDonald’s on his free period and “fell asleep”. Frustrating. But yesterday, and I couldn’t tell you why, something felt a little different. Things started to look up when he was the first to arrive to my classroom for the afternoon’s lesson, and early. Although I didn’t want to get too excited by this as last week he also arrived 5 minutes early, asked if he could go to the toilet, which I granted him permission for based on his good time keeping and then I didn’t see him for a further 25 minutes when he appeared back to class like nothing had happened. Had he gone back to use the Mcdonalds toilet?! Anyway no requests yesterday - all good so far.  I also think for your visual reference it’s important to tell you that when he came into the classroom he was covered in fake blood. I mean it was Halloween which would have explained it, but there was no costume in sight. Just the blood. Sure. I think it’s also important to tell you that this boy hardly speaks. Even when you ask him a direct question it feels as though he wants to end the chat as soon as you’ve started it. But he’s always ever so slightly smiling when you speak to him. Strange chap. Nonetheless a strange chap who I am weirdly fond of and despite my frustrations with his disengagement I do want him to do well. Well yesterday something happened. Something so unusual I almost assumed it was a Halloween prank. The boy engaged entirely in the lesson, he didn’t get his phone out, he actually asked me for help and he completed some fantastic writing.  But what was even more surprising was what happened at the end of the lesson. He had a free period and it was the last period of the day. Now even the most focused kid at the best of times would struggle to be productive at the very end of the day never mind a disengaged one. So just as I was expecting him to make a run for it he quietly and politely asked me if he could stay in my room to catch up on his work. I nearly fell off my chair. And before I could fully take in what I had just heard something even more magical happened. His best friend, an equally naughty tyke who I taught resit GCSE English to last year and who had me tearing my hair out through his downright refusal to do any work (by some miracle he passed early and so I no longer have to teach him), was waiting outside my room to pick up his friend. But, his plan was foiled. My guy wanted to continue with his work.  So what did his friend do? HE JOINED US! With his GCSE Maths Resit looming, a gentle suggestion from me to come in and do some revision gained his approval. Moments later I was surveying the scene in my classroom. Two quiet, studious and engaged young men just doing their work. Unrecognisable from who they were just days before. There was nothing that could have shaken off my shitty week more effectively. And whether it was a Halloween prank or not, I couldn’t care less, because the last hour of yesterday was just perfect and just like that so was my week.