Manic Thursday

Wow. I have not had a morning such as this for a while now. My days usually progress in the same manner, calm, paced evenly and well-structured. And, what's worse, the confusion and panic and mixed-messages are all my own fault. Initially, it was a case of lack of communication, no one told me where to get the exams from, which ones they are, and so some class right now might be working on a completely different exam. That was out of my control. Then, I was in the wrong room, apparently, there'd been a swap. Again, I was totally unaware. No worries, off to mark some of my own work back at my desk when I am given an 'extra' class. I check the roster; no such thing recorded, but alas, off to the 'extra' class. Upon arrival, not only do I see it is my usual bunch of students, but apparently, this is my own scheduled class, that is on my unchanging timetable! How can this be? I was meant to be on exam supervision, no? Ah, but you silly girl, the timetable does not lie and you were indeed meant to be teaching your usual load, I simply did not double-check my own timetable and have caused all this confusion on my own. To add confusion to confusion, the unit of work I was teaching? Yes, wrong. Apparently, the message was meant to have been received that we are now looking at an entirely different set of work until end of term. Aaarrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh. And now to face 25 fourteen year olds who have overheard this exchange and my only thought is 'How to save face?'. I face them, explain, and yet am met with the usual complaints and whines when their structure or routine changes in the slighetest. This infuriates me unnecessarily, and yet I cannot help but allow my annoyance at the morning's events to come out in my strident voice and implacable face. Maybe not so implacable, after all, my lack of a smile and laugh speaks volumes.