FuelMyBlog iPod contest: First 5 Minutes of My Working Day

first a big thank you to the guys at tsheets.com for sponsoring this competition. you guys rock!
to be more specific (taken from the fuelmyblog contest page )

"Tsheets is a web-based timesheet system that turns ANY PC or mobile device into a time clock, that is ideal for tracking hourly time for employees, salaried employees, contractors, or your own time."

"The Fun Part

Matt and Brandon over at Tsheets want to know:-

a) What you think of their site
b) What you do in the first 5 minutes of your working day.

So to keep things simple, it works like this, to win an iPod, you can do two things:-

  1. Go to this link and click on "TRY TSHEETS" and sign up free (no credit card required). One random user signed up from fuel will be pulled out of the hat and win the iPod, we'll do this live on the 23rd May on FuelTV, simple stuff!
  2. Write a blog post, and this post needs to mention Tsheets.com (We are tracking the entries by following fuelmyblog and tsheets). The post needs to tell what you do in the first 5 minutes of your working day. Tsheets will decide the winner on the 23rd May 2008, be creative and be honest ;-) And leaving a link under this blog post helps us add them to this competition page, below!"
best part is, you can tell which part i copied since i make a conscious effort to never use caps.





first, some background info. i work as a teacher for a class of overly rambunctious class of primary school students. hell hath no fury like a class of 20 hyperactive seven year olds.

when i get to work (time 0.00) the first thing i do is wonder why on earth am i spending such a beautiful morning cooped up in a classroom (with no air conditioning, i might venture to add) with the aforementioned seven year olds from hell.

i get out my marker pens (time 0.50 minutes), clean the white board, and contemplate how to use the duster as a lethal weapon. funny how seven year olds can inspire such hatred. in fact, i usually wonder why teaching a class of seven year olds is not used as a substitute for capital punishment, the suffering is neverending.

by this time, (approximately 1.03 minutes since i arrived) the class starts to get noisy. if you've never been to a heavy metal rock concert before, you can simulate the experience with a class of at least 15 seven year olds. really. not joking.
i call for silence, already, the day seems to be dragging on......

next on the agenda, the dreaded roll call (time 2.36 minutes). somehow i believe that the ability for a child to recognize and respond to their name only manifests itself at age 8, because my charges never, let me emphasize this, never respond when i call them. mostly, it's just me reading off their names and ticking down the names of whomever i see present. at least i've developed the ability to separate my thought processes into 2 so that i can call names (i wish... :p) and tick names independently of each other.

collecting their homework assignments (time 3.44 minutes) is an experience that borders on the traumatic.
incomplete scripts, illegible handwriting, smudges of brown on the edges (ewwww) etc.
thank god not all of them hand in their work.

and finally the first 5 minutes have passed
at this time, i glance at my watch, realize i have a whole day in front of me....
and i weep inside







2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on winning the iPod! It's a well deserved win. Couldn't help but laugh while reading your entry.

youroldbean said...

thanks Javi!

i've been quite busy lately!
can hardly breathe

finals coming up so studying like a mad dog(if mad dogs do study)

cheers