Things are a little weird these days, and I think it's not because I'm old-fashioned (or even an old bat), but there's something strange in the air.
First, just today, I had an appointment with a colleague. I rushed to make it early to work, and... my colleague was off for the day. I'm not going to start growling just yet, but I hope he'll apologize when we meet next.
Since I don't know why he ended up taking a day off whilst it wasn't planned, perhaps there was something big that happened to him and that made him forget our appointment entirely, but if he took off to go play the ponies, I'll definitely growl.
Yet, pardon me for being old-fashioned, but our other colleagues didn't imply any huge emergency (dead parent or sick child) and I want to believe that I'd have sent a message to warn a colleague and cancel an appointment (the one that went down the drain was rather important, and he'd insisted on planning it - can you read I'm disappointed?).
Then, there's my boiler that's scheduled for a cleaning session next week. When will the cleaning guy come? "Morning". Mind you, it's better than a few years ago when the company that does that in my building just gave us a day and it was basically "expect us between 8am and 6pm". Yet... When does their "morning" start now? 8am? 9am? It'd be nice to know - because it'd be nice, and because I'm not a morning person and I'd like to know when I'll have to drag myself out of bed in order to be ready to open the door to the plumber.
It'd be nice to get a clear window of time, but I guess it'd be too much planning for them (Imagine! Knowing exactly when you'll work in a specific building! *fake gasp*).
And then, there's my students. My own lil' adults to teach and help.
Most of them are absolutely charming, working hard and making me happy to be a teacher.
The others...
Well, when they arrive late for class, they think it's not an issue (a class doesn't start just for you when you finally show up, thirty minutes after the official beginning of it).
When they're glued to their mobiles, they don't see how impolite it is.
When they don't take notes when I give them some vocabulary, some grammar, some data about history/geography/culture/anything, they're wasting my time (I always end up having to repeat these things).
A few of the "weird bunnies" even are as bold as to draw intricate pictures right under my nose (because learning English is so useless in today's world in their minds).
The icing on the cake is when some of them chat in class (because whatever they have to say is so much more important than anything I'm trying to teach them). The cherry on the icing on that cake is that a few look annoyed when I dare to shush them a second time (how dare I interrupt them?).
The "weird bunnies" are a minority, but they're so incredibly irritating. In fact, they're so irritating that I've decided to change the way I work, and I'll punish them (even though they're young adults [*cough* on the paper, at least *cough*]) each time they don't follow my rules. I'd hoped that telling them to behave would kick-start their brains and make them act decently, but I was mistaken.
Apparently, it's past midnight and someone watered my Mogwais. Well, too bad for the class-gremlins, when annoyed, my inner Mrs Hyde gets out [It's hell to get her back into her box, but it's worth it].
Perhaps I'm very tired and I notice odd things and behaviours more... Or there's something barmy in the air.
Well, I seem to have found my inner Carolyn Knapp-Shappey, too, and I'm not putting that one back into any box - I like her.
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