A day in the shoes of a teacher

“If only I could switch places with Ms. Stacey, life would have been so much better”, muttered Mona, ripping another paper out of her notebook, where she was trying to solve a question of linear Equation, since 3 PM.

“I bet it’s a very cushy job, sitting on the other side of the camera, explaining the concepts through a few questions, and assigning the rest of the work to students. Just playing sage on the stage and chilling the rest of the day, gossiping over cups of tea, just a bit of working online and that’s it!! I wish I could do this instead of sitting and solving these sums, which seems to be a never-ending task.”

It was 9 PM, finally after completing all her assignments, Mona laid down in her bed, looking outside the window of her bedroom. The sky presented a wonderful sight, Moon came to the sky as a mother comes to sing a soft lullaby, to ease her children’s weariness, gracing the sky as if it had some bright idea.

“Brrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg! An alarm clock clanged in the silent room, waking Mona up from her deep slumber.

“What on earth is going on in here? Who set the Alarm of 5 o clock?” Mona clenched her jaws and threw the alarm clock against the wall. Being a light sleeper, she had never set an alarm to wake up, and it surprised as well as enraged her to lose her sleep because of that clanging alarm.

She stepped out of her bed, but something felt wrong, her bathroom shoes wouldn’t fit in her feet. She stopped for a minute, but later her mind suggested it a consequence of being overly exhausted and lack of sleep. But the next moment had her shaken. As she looked in the mirror, she saw a reflection of a woman in her early thirties, with dark puffy eyes staring in the mirror, hair falling on her shoulder, with some silver streaking here and there, and a big round face.

“Ms.Stacey!! What are you even doing here?”, uttering these words, Mona realized the reflection in the mirror was none other than she herself. She stepped back in disbelief, “No, It can’t be me! What’s happening??” She touched her face to reassure if it was her.

“Wow! I have never seen any of my wishes coming true, in such a short time. Now I can do just what Ms.Stacey does, sit and do nothing” exclaimed Mona, flabbergasted with joy. Whilst she was standing there with these soliloquies, another voice stroke her ears. This time it was the cellphone ringing. She hurried out of the bathroom to see who was calling her, at this time of the day. She picked up the call to find out that it was the mother of one of the students who called to inquire about the reading test. Mona had no answer to the questions of that parent and so she asked for some time and sat to find out what this reading test was about. It took her quite a time to get the information of the reading test and the included syllabus, after which she called the parent back to inform about the details.

“Woof!! I knew I could do it, after all, it’s just about sitting back and bossing around” said Mona with a smirk on her face, having the least idea of the events that followed. Suddenly, she heard the school van honking at her door, she took a glance at the clock, “Ohh Gosh! How could it be 7am? I just woke up, I still need to dress up..” Mona hurried back to the washroom and tried to dress the best in those 10 minutes but of course, it wasn’t just possible to do that in just ten minutes. Mona rushed down to have a slice of toast with jam but didn’t have enough time to eat that, so she took it along with her. Sitting in the van she received three instructional messages on her phone about some tasks that needed to be done at school, she was trying to keep her poise but deep inside it wasn’t as it seemed to be. One of the instructions was to prepare the lessons for the coming two weeks and preparing slideshows of the relevant topics. “That’s not a big deal! It’s again just about sitting on a chair and typing on the computer” But it was not just what she thought it is! When she entered school, she looked for a quiet nook to enjoy her Jam sandwich with a cup of tea, completely forgetting about her classes which had to be taken with students.

 

While eating, she saw a few teachers chatting with each other with each having a laptop at the desk and typing something. “As I imagined, life is so much better being a teacher”.

She was brought back from her thoughts by a pat on her shoulder, it was the school’s senior Coordinator, standing with a frown on her face and an unpleasant glare in her eyes, “Ms. Stacey! You have a class at this moment, what are you doing in here anyway?, Students are waiting for the last 15 minutes! Get to your class this very instant!!”  Mona had not thought about the classes, she had completely paid no heed to what Ms.Stacey’s job actually was: that’s TEACHING. She had no idea what she was going to teach, She logged in through Ms.Stacey’s classroom with the help of administration, yet it was a horrible experience trying to explain another concept of Linear equations. Since she barely had an understanding of linear equations herself, it had her frustrated and eventually screaming on students for not being able to grasp the concept.

After taking three consecutive classes, with the same topic to be taught in each class, Mona’s head was bursting with anger, frustration and HUNGER. She wanted to have that slice now, which she was carrying since morning, she could eat a horse but she only had a slice. So she devoured it just as if the world is ending. Soon after, a meeting was called where every teacher was instructed to submit their planners before leaving and completing the pending checking.

“I can’t take it anymore, I’m overly exhausted after teaching the students.” Urged Mona.

“Ms. Stacey, you’re acting as if this is your first day at school! You’re doing it for years, what’s wrong with today?” Retorted the Senior Mistress.

Mona was awestruck to hear those words… “You have been doing it for years….”

How can someone do this for years, it’s not humanly possible to this job for years. Yet Mona had to write planners, prepare slideshows, and check the submitted assignments, attending the calls to random parents, entertaining each complaint, and a lot more. Writing the planner was another enfeebling task, she recalled the time when she was mocking at the teachers sitting and working on their laptops while talking to each other. They weren’t enjoying life, those teachers were making planners, which was yet another bugger for Mona. She was cursing herself for making wishing to have places switched with Ms.Stacey. She now knew what Ms.Stacey had to go through every day.

 

“I can’t believe how strong and patient Ms.Stacey is to stand all of this. I had never thought about how difficult could it be to be a teacher.”

Finally, the day ended, and Mona could lay back in her bed with a profound feeling of respect and adoration for what Ms.Stacey was doing. She looked out of the window where amid the starlight was the ever glow of the moon, that mother of the sky who watched over every beating heart, and enclosed all the secrets of the night.

Mona wished to wake up as Mona again, never wanting to switch places with her teacher ever again.

Clock clanged again Mona rose from her bed and this time the shoe would fit in……

With a sigh of relief and joy, Mona started her day again, with a new determination and respect for her teachers.