JACK TEACHER - 1

When a relief teacher walks into a classroom, the first thing he does is check the exits. There are normally two, but sometimes three. The second door could be an emergency exit, or it could lead into an adjoining classroom. Sometimes a classroom could be a middle room in a block and there could be a door, at each end of the room, leading into another classroom.

It was the emergency exit that the relief teacher always paid particular attention to, as this was an escape route for naughty children that took them into the outside world. Any other doors usually led into another classroom, which generally meant that there was a teacher in there who knew the troublemakers in the reliever’s class well.

Teacher knew naughty children well, and what they could get up to. He’d spent most of his teaching career, mostly as Head of English, at the 110th. This was not the name of the school but every secondary school in the country had an identification number for administrative purposes. For some reason, teachers at that particular school always referred to it as the 110th.

Teacher had been a respected HOD but he was over the paperwork, marking, lesson preparation and meetings and wanted to see more of his country. What better job could there be than a daily relief teacher? Schools from all over the place would ring when they needed someone to step in at short notice.

Teacher, born in 1960 as Jack [no middle name] Teacher, was fond of the drifting lifestyle and, when he entered a classroom, all he brought from home was a ball point pen and his wallet that contained his eftpos card.

 
On arrival at the school, relief teachers were given paper rolls and lesson plans. The lesson plans varied between ‘well thought out’ and ‘sketchy’ but Teacher knew to expect this. Maybe the regular teacher was undergoing some kind of crisis? Though often the teacher was on a school trip, or a course and the lesson was planned well in advance. Hence the two types of lesson plans.

He entered the room for today’s first encounter and a spotty looking kid in incorrect uniform was sitting at the teacher’s desk like he owned the place.