Sunday, July 4, 2010

The day my career almost came to an end

About a month ago, the Deputy Principal, Mrs. Kandia, banned all students from making ‘cold power’. She then conducted a search during which she confiscated kilogrammes of sugar and cocoa from the girls’ boxes and lockers. Mrs. Kandia also reduced the lunch and games time – thus creating one extra lesson daily.
These actions did not endear her to students and teachers; and a week later, a warning note was found dropped in her office. She later said that she suspected the note had been placed in her office by a student, but was authored by a teacher. “Only a teacher can write such English,” she alleged.
But the World Cup has given her a chance to redeem herself. It all began when the Principal walked into the staffroom unannounced one morning and found us watching a replay of a match that Ghana had won.
“So this is what you sit here doing all day?” she shouted. “There will be no TV here until the World Cup is over.’”
“Madam Principal,” said Mr. Maina “We can come up with rules during this tournament. The TV has many educational programmes and should not be removed just because of World Cup.”
“If you remove the TV here, these teachers will leave early to go watch matches from their houses,” added Mrs. Kandia, the Deputy. “I prefer them watching the matches where I can see them.”
“No way Madam Deputy,” the PM thundered. “Anyone leaving early will be dealt with.” She ordered the TV to be taken to the store and also announced that students would watch a maximum of two matches every weekend. The next morning, she left for the Head Teachers conference in Mombasa. But Mr. Maina claimed that the PM had actually gone on her private businesses. “The Conference will be covered on TV; you won’t see her on TV!”
A day later, the Deputy ordered the TV back to the staffroom, and announced that different classes would watch every day’s matches in turns. This made her a heroine overnight. “Only a teacher who has no classes will join the students to watch the matches in the DH, or would be allowed in the staffroom during matches,” the Deputy announced. We prepared a timetable for this and for the first few days, she walked around to confirm this.
She must have got tired after two days. Soon after, it was free for all. Most classes ended as soon as World Cup matches began – with most students leaving class to watch the matches. I remember the day Chile was playing Honduras. I was supporting Honduras, as I had never heard of the country.
Since I had a double lesson that afternoon in Form 2W, I went there during lunch time and gave them three Ufahamu exercises to occupy them during the lessons. I returned to the staffroom and settled on the sofa ready for the crunch match. Besides three other teachers, we were joined by Arthur, the bursar and Baraza, the Lab Assistant.
“Imagine Honduras, which had earthquakes, are in World Cup na sisi we are not,” commended the bursar.
“That was Haiti,” said Mboya, laughing. The game began soon after and I had difficulty pronouncing the difficult names of the players.
A few minutes into the game, my phone rang. I wondered why Jasmine, who was in class, was calling me. “Andrew, leo umepatikana,” she started. “Your supervisor from KU has just missed you in Form 2W and is coming to the staffroom.”
“What? Mwathani!, I don’t even have a lesson plan!” Even before I stood from the sofa, he was already at the staffroom door. “Andrew, I am Dr Wasonga from Kenyatta University,”
I welcomed him into the staffroom and pulled a chair for him next to my desk. “I arrived late and went straight to Form 2W as per your timetable. Why were you not in class?” he asked. I told him that we had swapped the lesson with another teacher. “I taught for her in the morning and she was supposed to teach for me in the afternoon but she fell ill.” It was clear that he was not convinced
“Where are your Schemes and records of work?” he asked.
“Sir I have them here,” I explained. “But I forgot the keys to my locker at home.” Just then, the other teachers went wild celebrating Chile’s goal. Dr Wasonga then asked me to prepare for the second lesson of the double. I hurriedly scribbled a lesson plan and went to class with him. The lesson was good, although I called a few students the wrong names, with two of them openly correcting me!
From class, we went to the staffroom where he gave me a long lecture and criticized me for not using teaching aids. Which teaching aids would I have used when teaching how to write kumbukumbu?
He then relaxed a little, smiled and said: “My car has some problem, please come help me,” I followed him to his car as we chatted. Am not good at cars but I suspect his was a new type of Mercedes Benz I had never heard of. The word Platz was written behind.
I helped him change his flat tyre. Once we were done, the car would not start until I called a few school employees to help me push it. “Thank you so much, Andrew. Forget about the earlier altercation we had. You will have a good report,” he said, went back to his car and sped off.
mwalimuandrew@gmail.com

3 comments:

  1. I was almost in da same prbm. I was found in in class by Pro. King'ei in class without a lesson plan wearing a Jeans and T-shirt. Bt we were from our mindterm and the boys had reported juz da other day on, so I was only going to class to confirm if were was enough percentage to teach.

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  2. with every word, u r very funny. keep up the work.

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  3. This is so thrilling. You are absolutely humerous. This situation is so much tricky especialy when you are being evaluated by a strict Prof. thanks to God you manage to manouver succesfully.

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