Last day of school

Yesterday was the last day of school, or actually the last half-day of school, as I finished before noon. I had lots of fun teaching Polish to one of my classes, but then I got annoyed to the utmost by a bunch of Year 9’s whom I had to keep in a classroom for half a lesson. What can you do against a bunch of 14 years olds, who can already smell freedom, when you’re a supply teacher they are sure they will never see again and therefore do not see a point in obeying? The answer is nothing. There is no point of setting any activities, cause they will not do anything anyway. So you just try to keep the noise levels under control while keeping your hands in you pockets so that they can’t see them spontaneously clench into fists and squeezing your teeth to stop yourself from screaming, while they send the textbooks flying across the floor, litter the floor with tiny bits of paper you know you will not be able to make them pick up, spill out the contents of the bin, listen to the music on several phones in the same time, write/draw obscenities on the white board, explore the boxes containing another teacher’s belongings, attempt to break into the cupboards, try to get out through the door, try to get out through the windows, hang out of the windows and chat with the escapees outside and do everything they know you really don’t want them to do. Those were the most frustrating 25 minutes in my life, especially while I couldn’t see a point in them being there either. On top of everything someone had forgotten to activate the bell, so half of them didn’t even show up and the rest of them fled the classroom when the time came, bell or no bell, while I was vainly trying to make them stay in (cause I was told to wait for the bell).
As a result of that, when I got into Paul’s car, I spent a good minute just groaning my frustration out. And when I finally turned around to actually say hello… there was no beard.
Now that will take some adjusting.