“I did great!” Sensei congratulated himself, smug that he had managed to surpass himself despite work pressures. He was appointed to be the coordinator for his colleagues carrying ant and butterfly lessons fo the youngest pupils in school. So, he did something no one else would have done. He came up with a poster comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences of insects.

His ego masturbation stopped abruptly when he received a message from the School Staff Developer. Apparently, he needed to stand in for his absent colleague — but preoccupied with other matters (and his self-affirming act of creating the poster), he had not noticed the relief duty at all.

Rushing to the classroom, he stuttered, “I’m…sorry…” to the Staff Developer who had mercifully stood in for him for half an hour. At least, his students did not murder each other in his absence.

privately, he worried about the consequences of dropping the ball. his ex-colleague had her promotion prospects delayed as a result of missing her relief duty. the same thing could happen to him. but honestly, he could care less about climbing the leader.

He pushed his missed relief duty to the back of his mind. After all, he needed to do battle with his sixth graders for 1.5 hours.

He was not sure when the lesson had gone sour. Perhaps it was a string of recalcitrant students who not only had not done their homework, but also misplaced their assignment. Pretty soon, he was snapping at students who had not understood his instructions. One particular child got the brunt of it because he failed to write the purpose of his email on a new line after his salutation.

sensei realises that it seems to be a petty thing now that he is typing this down. but honestly if he didn’t kick up such a big fuss, this student would never learn.

Just as he turned around to engage with other students, this student left the classroom, sobbing. He had apparently pushed this boy too hard. With his heart leaping to his throat, he called up the special needs teacher to enlist his help. His colleague promised to find his student.

By then, Sensei was too exasperated to engage his rowdy class. He kept quiet for some time, refusing to talk and writing down instructions on paper. His silent antics worked well, though. The rest of the class actually quieted down enough for him to launch into well-elaborated explanations in regard to finding the answers for the reading comprehension questions.

his vice-principal suddenly appeared, and panic engulfed sensei. would he be called into her office again for pushing this student too hard and chasing him out of the classroom? feeling emotional, he felt tears well up in his eyes. he had to do so much more to teach students who apparently didn’t want to be taught — and get into trouble because of it.

Whatever. Sensei was too tired to care.