not another day off!

“See you on Monday – oh no, that’s right – Tuesday. We get Monday off, don’t we?”

“Wednesday.”

“What?”

“Wednesday. See you on Wednesday.”

“Why?”

“Snow. We get Monday off for St Paddy’s and then it’ll snow so hard that we’ll get Tuesday off as well.”

“No - really?”

“Trust me.”

So proclaimed the highly regarded meteorologist photocopy guy Geoff. As I often do I had stopped off in the reprographic room on my way out of school. He seemed so certain, so assured of his prediction that I didn’t feel the need to question him further. Photocopy guy Geoff had said it would happen so it would happen.

I now want you to look at the above photo. Study it hard. It’s a little image I took this morning (Tuesday.) I like to call it Snowscape – Sans Snow.

Lest you be in any doubt there is definitely no snow in the picture.

Dry roads and blue skies dominate the photograph. We did not get Tuesday off.

Pupils are of the opinion that teachers fall into two camps when it comes to unexpected days off. They tell me that there are the teachers who are so grateful for a moments rest that they embrace the opportunity to sit at home and sip soup with relish. Then there are the teachers who hate days off – they can’t stand the idea of pupils out in the streets during day light hours. They hate the idea of young people having fun rather than copying out text in badly lit rooms.

Of course they aren’t a hundred miles from the truth. Teachers do have mixed emotions about unscheduled breaks in service. As a sub I hated them – I didn’t get paid for days I didn’t work. Even now I’m not so keen. Don’t get me wrong – every teacher appreciates time off and the chance to take a breather is always welcome. It also means that there is less time to get through the work we need to do at school. For teachers already pushing their pupils to meet their coursework deadlines this is very annoying. Even in my job I find that everything goes crazy while I try to get caught up on a missing day.

So what is the moral of the story for today? Well I think it has to be: If you want 36 copies of a worksheet for your year 8 drama class go to photo copy guy Geoff. If you want to know the weather – watch Angie Phillips.