Slice of Life - Morning Time

I have decided to do a 'slice of life' entry for no particular reason other than I love making lists, and this is kind of like making lists. I have changed my tense throughout the story and can't be bothered trying to make it consistent. Oh well.
* As an aside, I have this questionairre on reading and writing that I get kids to mark where they lie on a spectrum (eg - one end might be 'I like to start on a fresh piece of paper', the other end might be 'I write on anything, like scraps of paper or napkins'). The one that tends to polarise people the most is the one about either loving making lists, or not particularly liking it. I am one of the proud list makers. Whether or not you follow through with what's on the list is irrelevant.

My Morning

6.53
My obnoxious alarm went off. I quickly thought of some 'easy' lessons I could teach which meant I could sleep in a bit longer. Several snooze-button pushes later......
7.21
Actually got up. Have a message on phone. It is nice reply from Matt for text I sent him on Sunday night (he is doing labouring stuff so has to get up earlier than me and go to bed earlier - hence him tactfully not staying the night and going home at 10pm instead, despite my good-natured protestations).
Had already co-ordinated my outfit in my head to save time. Just required picking the clothes I wore the day before up off the floor and adding a skirt and stockings to make it more 'schooly' (and clean underwear). Wore my new Popup tshirt with a black thermal top underneath, a black cardigan and a black beaded necklace. My earring holes are a little tender, so flagged that accessory.
7.25
Went to bathroom. Noticed there is still no lightbulb in the toilet. Cursed Chris. Brushed teeth.
7.26
Took pile of dishes from night before down to the kitchen. Put them in the dishwasher (many flatmates miss this crucial step). Made myself a bowl of cereal containing Vogel's 'Cafe-style' muesli, strawbettery-cheesecake flavoured yoghurt and calci-trim milk. Took it back to room to eat while finishing getting ready. Used handy face-wipe to clean face and ears in my bedroom in front of the heater. Put on moisturiser and deoderant. Brushed hair and applied bobby-pins.
7.33
Packed bag, making sure I included my wallet, keys and phone. I put on my coat, new red beanie and running shoes (work shoes were put in the bag for later - I forgot to do that last week and had to teach all day in sneakers, which was ok cause I'd just worn jeans and took my necklace off to make it look like it was my intentional 'casual' look). For the record, I am very aware that cross-trainers and jeans don't actually look cool on most people.....
7.34
Went to kitchen and put an apple, mandarin, muesli-bar and empty pita bread in my bag for lunch. I put the pita bread in one of my handy Glad sandwich bags. They are amazing. They make sandwiches fun! They even come in different colours and with different stickers to secure them.
7.35
Left. Realised it was raining. Went back inside to get raincoat. Met Chris on the way back downstairs and he reminded me to not leave the door open because we now have a cat in the flat. It tried to run away last night and failed.
7.55
Arrived at school, having walked through the smoggy tunnel. Went and put two notices in the daily notices (both about basketball). This has to be done before 8am, hence me getting to school early. I purposefully called the Senior B team 'The Avengers' in the notice. I'm helping to popularise the name. Not quite sure who I'm helping anymore.... the girls seem to have abandonned it, so I'm just doing it for myself really.....
8.00
Having decided what I was doing that morning, I printed out a few things to photocopy. I even had time to carefully choose the font for the heading of the short story. I printed off: a copy of 'On the Sidewalk Bleeding' by Evan Hunter (which I photocopied 15 times to make a class set), a copy of the 32 comprehension questions I made up to go with it (30 copies - but only A5 size), a copy of 'The Rear Guard' poem by Seigfreid Sassoon (war poet) and associated questions (27 copies, double-sided). I then hogged the good photocopier for a while.
8.15
Got back to my desk in the battery-hen workroom. There was lots of 'stuff' on it from Friday. I cringed and shifted some stuff to make it more bearable.
8.25
Staff briefing. I forget what was said. But it lasted for 20 minutes. It always does.
8.45
My dean gives me back my class's reports and says (smiling), 'Didn't you proof-read them?' I sheepishly reply, 'Uh... yeah.... I sent about ten back..... Did I miss a few?' Later in the day I dare to peep inside the folder.... she has yellow-stickied about 40 more reports with mistakes in them. Ooops! There goes my lunchtime sorting through those..... I grab a glass of water on the way through the staff-room, hoping as usual that I can get past the principal without her waving me down to talk to me for a 'minute'....
8.47
I walk across to my class and have to elbow through the stage challenge girls milling about in the foyer. One of them accosts me and makes me stop to take an assignment and the department dictaphone off her. I then meet a couple of students on the stairs and comment that I saw one of them in town with her booooyfriend on Saturday.
8.48
Arrive in class a few minutes late. Do the roll to settle things down. And we're into it!

HOW EXCITING IS THAT?????

I was going to do my whole day but realised how long that would take. Instead I will do a 'top eight moments' list to sum up the good points.

In no particular order...

1) Got to repeatedly say 'Fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound' and actually make my class enact what that would look like. Fabulously disturbing!

2) Sat through a fire alarm for god knows how long until another teacher happened to walk past and say 'Can you hear the alarm?' at which point I realised I'd been subconsciously blocking it out while hearing it for a few minutes...... It's the way of the modern world - so many alarms, most of them mean nothing.... you just wait for them to stop. My whole class had also sat there continueing with their work. We thought it was an ambulance and vaguely wondered why it was taking so long.

3) I noticed that my wee student M. had yet again written the date up neatly on my whitebaord. I like that! She has decided it's her daily job.

4) My neighbour in the workroom gave me a lovely apricot yoghurt covered cookie just before staff meeting after school. It was just what I needed!

5) I was checking out Leon's new blog and saw that he'd put a link to me. Cher, bro!

6) I found my black pashmina scarf. I had been looking for it all weekend then had noticed it wasn't around my workspace either and had resigned myself to the fact that it was lost forever... then I found it on my desk in the classroom! Yay!

7) I was talking to my senior girls about 'Ratemyteacher.com' and most of them said they didn't want to put comments and if they did, it wouldn't be anything mean, only nice things. Gives you faith in the youth of today! One girl said very pointedly that she would say anything she wanted because we were 'providing the service they pay for, not the other way around' (I pointed out that she very much sounded like someone from a private school). She does not like me much and openly accuses me of picking on her any time I ask her to answer a question in a class discussion .... I am vaguely worried now that I have put an idea in her head............

8) One of my difficult girls in my fifth form class eagerly piped up, after reading the short story that 'This is like 'The Outsiders' eh! That's my favourite book... I used to get angry when people talked while we were reading it in class....' Bless! And she is not the kinda girl who usually likes reading or even comes to school regularly for that matter.