** How I became the most popular teacher in Mwisho wa Lami and beyond!** As you may already be aware, Bensouda left for Mombasa to join her colleagues for a head teachers’ conference last Sunday, leaving me in charge of the school. I must, however, mention that I am always in charged because Bensouda only comes to the school when she needs to have a staff meeting. I recently heard that some teachers are now calling her Madam Staff Meeting. But this time, she told me she was leaving me fully in charge and would not call me and did not expect to be called by anyone over any matter. Knowing that I have not been a very likeable Deputy HM since my well-deserved but belated promotion, I decided to use this time to make amends. We finished the school end term exams the previous week and we planned to spend the last week revising, marking exams, and preparing report forms in readiness for school closure, whose official date was last Friday, August 8. FREE TEACHERS On Sunday, I wrote an SMS to all teachers inviting them for a staff meeting on Monday at 8.30 a.m. For obvious reasons, the meeting did not start until around 10 – but without teachers like Saphire and Lutta. Those who know Saphire will tell you that he and me have never seen eye to eye. As for Lutta, he never believes I should be his boss and that is why he doesn’t respect me. “Where are we with exam marking and reports,” I asked as soon as the meeting started. “Me I am finished with marking and entering the marks in report forms,” said Tito, the Standard Four class teacher. “I am only being delayed by some teachers who are yet to give me their marks.” “I am also almost done,” said Madam Anita. “If only Mrs Atika and Lutta could give me their marks I will finish by tomorrow.” “Tito, who is yet to give you marks?” I asked. He told me it was Saphire and Lutta. This was not the first time the two were delaying other teachers in making their reports forms. I told the teachers to make use of Monday afternoon and Tuesday to clear with the reports. “The earlier we finish the earlier we will close,” I said. “What about revision, how do we prepare reports quickly and yet we have to revise.” “We will do that next term,” I said. “If you check the pupils mood they just want to be home.” “What about the pupils? They will be very noisy,” asked Madam Mary. “I will deal with that,” I said. So as to relieve teachers of more work, I called all the prefects and told them to form teams that would play against each other for the whole day. “Any misbehaviour and you will all go back to class.” With such an incentive, all the pupils went to the field to play from 10:30 a.m., leaving the teachers to concentrate on marking and preparing report forms. I sat in Bensouda’s office that day, waiting for the first teacher to complete the report forms so that I could sign them. As I waited, I took a dictionary to try and come up with some creative phrases that I would use when commenting in the reports. “Deepen your camaraderie with academic fraternity”, “you will sour higher”, “a performance worth of extolment”, “kudos lad for a fantabulous showing”... are some of the comments I planned to write for the good students. BELOVED TEACHER For those who did not perform well, I had statements like: “Obviate from being chicky to better your execution”, “here lies the bitter fruits of your acute malingering”, “the road to a wretched future is paved with such calamitous results”… I wanted to be different from Bensouda who last term wrote in all reports: Pull up your socks! I joined the teachers for lunch to find out the progress made. There was good progress. Lutta and Mrs Atika, who had by that morning not provided their marks now had them and were entering the marks in the report forms. The only issue was that none of them could show any actual marked papers but that was not the time for such questions. Saphire had not turned up and so some class teachers were stuck. That afternoon, I started signing and entering my remarks on the reports forms. It was an enjoyable exercise, something I had dreamt of for long. Although we usually end the day at 4.30 p.m., that day I dismissed the pupils at 3 p.m. and told them not to carry books the next day because it would be play-day again. They were happy to hear this. By Tuesday morning all reports were ready except for four classes which Saphire taught. We met at 11 a.m. and agreed that we would use the test marks and where these were missing, we would use last term’s marks for Saphire’s subjects. Teachers worked together to do this when I told them that if they finished early, we would close school on Wednesday morning. At midday, I got the remaining report forms. “Reports for the other remaining two classes will be ready by 4 p.m.,” said Madam Anita, who had taken charge of the project as she wanted to travel to Nairobi with her husband on Wednesday. “Good,” I said, “Please call for parade at 12.30.” “Good afternoon school?” I greeted the pupils when they assembled. “Good afternoon Mwalimu Andrew!” they roared back. I informed them that they did not have to come back to school after lunch. “But tomorrow come early ready to close school.” The students cheered as they went home. I went to the staffroom and told the teachers who had completed their reports that they could also go home, and only join us the next day during closing. “If we can all be here for a staff meeting at 8 a.m., then we can close by 9 a.m.” Within 20-minutes, even the reports for the two remaining classes were ready, and all the teachers left school immediately after lunch. I was left behind signing more report forms, an exercise that took me well up to 8 p.m. I ensured that I was neat and clear, with care taken to ensure that I did not spoil my international-standard handwriting. TALK OF TOWN Come Wednesday and for the first time, all teachers were punctual for a staff meeting. Only Lutta arrived late – at 8.17 a.m. I thanked all the teachers for their co-operation and promised that if I will be in charge next term, we will close a week earlier! We prepared the list of the top three students per class and called for parade at exactly 8.40 a.m. I thanked the pupils, wished them a great holiday and then called the top three students per class to take their report forms. “For the rest please get them from your class teachers,” I announced and declared Second Term officially over. Word spread fast and I have since been the talk of the county. From what I gather, many teachers and students from neighbouring schools are now considering coming to Mwisho wa Lami – especially after I promised to close school a week earlier next term. Should there be a vacancy for MCA or MP position here at Mwisho wa Lami, you can be sure I will sail through unopposed! mwalimuandrew@gmail;facebook/mwisho-walami
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 08:48:58 +0000
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