Anonymous phone calls at school

Last Thursday dawned a fine day. It was also one of those hectic days where I felt rushed off my feet.

My office is in a big room situated in the middle of the corridor, where I can have a view of the going about of the students. I share my office with my colleague who is in charge of year 11. 

The first thing that struck me, when I was first shown my office was the view.The view is brilliant as you can see different parts of Malta as far away as the sea. However, my colleague quickly told me that I would not have a lot of time to mull over the view. How right she was!!

So on Thursday, my colleague called in sick. This was a huge blow for me. It was the first time that I was going to handle both the year 9s and year 11s. This was double the work, but I was up to the challenge.

Then at around 10 in the morning, an anonymous phone call came in, reporting a teacher. I made it clear that I did not accept such types of phone calls and that she has to identify herself. The woman replied that she would not as it did not make a difference to me. A short battle of words ensued, where she threatened to report me higher up, that is to the higher echelons in the Education Department, that I was not doing my work and that I did not care about my students. I told her that she would still need to identify herself to report me. At that point, she hung up.

I must admit that her attitude really got me down at that moment, but then, I realized that I had a multitude of things to do and continued with my chores. All in a day's work!

The view from my office