I am in the middle of the ocean. It is night and the spirits of the oceans are angry.The water is raging, waves are breaking apart my raft. I don't think I can survive another minute. I see the reaper approaching. Death is at my doorstep. How did I even get here?
I have two schooling days left to be done with my work; to submit it for moderation and punch it in. I know I was a bit dramatic in the opening paragraph of this post. I do however feel like I am in the scenario I described.
I have pushed as much as I could but I still have much to do. I followed all the steps in maximising my output in order to finish the work quickly and efficiently. But yet I am still behind. This led me to wonder what could have gone wrong. What could have caused me to fall behind with my work? I found the answer. I have been working so hard that it completely slipped my mind.
About a month ago I fell terribly ill and I couldn't go to work for an entire week. Five days worth of work was difficult to catch up on because of various factors. I managed to cover most of it but the formal assessments are still lagging behind. This is where my frustrations are arising from.
The tasks themselves aren't the issue, the learners are. It is a struggle to get them to submit their work on time. They always have excuses. As it is the end of the term, is the worst time to get them to hand in their work as most of them have stopped coming to school.
Today I was taking marks for prepared reading in my grade six English period. To my surprise sixteen learners were absent in that class alone. What is more annoying is that I specifically told them not be absent as we still had two outstanding formal activities to do.
At times as teachers we feel as if these children do such things to spite us. It's a bit harsh to say I understand but we truly cannot help but to feel this way at times like these.
The grade fours are also not making things any easier. Three weeks ago I gave them a project to do. All that was required of them was to go to the library and asked for handouts relating to the project, take three pictures of their local area and to asked their parents for help in conducting a three short question interview. I reminded them and completed the project in class as a case study. Today was submission day. Not even one had done the work.
The grades sevens have done all their tasks and all that is left is a reading aloud task. We could not do it today as I was doing damage control with the grades fours. I asked the grade sevens not to be absent on Monday. I am sitting here typing this post wondering if they are going to abide to my request.
These are small issues that are creating a huge problem for me. I regret to have fallen ill for as long as I had. I would have probably been done with everything by now.
I currently feel like my boat is being swallowed up by the ocean... But I am an educator. I am equipped to handle any situation. I will find a way to get a hold of all those learners with outstanding marks in these two schooling days that are left. Where there's a will there's a way.
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