Angels guarding? My tiny moment of it perhaps...

Ever felt like you were being watched over by angels who were making sure you did not stumble, fall, or get hurt by any means big or small?

Ever? Maybe just once? or every once in a blue moon even?

I had my moment this past Wednesday and I can't seem to stop thinking about it! Hence this record of it perhaps...

So for those who don't know already, I teach.

I recently just got back to it with refreshed confidence that comes from diligent training, finding myself set up under a new system of education. I say new, because it was running under a set of rules that kind of sometimes clash with my recently acquired training in the field. Nevertheless, I put my game face on, and considered my successful demo that landed me this job in the first place after much ado, to reassure myself that I could deal with the challenges that came with this job.

Setting aside all the other crap that my job has been dishing out at me these past 3 months, today was indeed a glorious moment for me by leaps and bounds. But Im going to put the details of that on hold for a little more longer. I want to add in, that my first evaluation came in the 2nd week of my employment. I scored 95 out of 100. Apparently, the evaluator thought I did'nt teach enough grammar. I was okay with this because the evaluator was being silly to not take into account that it was a writing and discussion activity, neither of which needed the kind of grammar lesson that I was marked down for.

But I digress...

Zipping back to the now. My current schedule involves some quite challenging ladies. The system has slacked enough to make it apparent that some books are way too hard for the students at the level they are being prescribed at, else the students are being unfairly passed on to a level that they are not yet ready for. This leads to a problem while teaching because we are to finish a set curriculum, within a set time period, and if we dont, we get marked down by our heads. Plus, the students complain (despite the lag being THEIR fault), and in the system here the students get what they want, FIRST, irrespective of the teacher's skill, qualification and track record. Having said that, I knew I had an impending evaluation from the onset of my new schedule about 2 weeks ago, and I'd had my fingers crossed ever since, hoping that it would not be during any of my writing classes as they were the completely non responsive bunch. At their very best they were non responsive, otherwise they were just unruly, disruptive, argumentative without reason, and overall very scary. I truly had a hard time with them on Tuesday!

And then came Wednesday. In popped the evaluators - in THIS very class - as had been dreaded by me from the get go! My game face, I kept it on... and then the class was over...

The interim is a vague blur, but a seemingly smooth one, ALHUMDULILLAH! My inability to clearly remember, instigated an incessant round of questioning of the self in me: ''Am I imagining that this went well?''

I spent all of Thursday and Friday (the weekend in my part of the world), questioning my feeling of contentment that my class was actually GOOD on Wednesday! What the hell happened in there?

And then, on comes Saturday. I spent the entire day teaching my classes, not going to check up on my evaluation until the end of the day. Eventually, when I did finally walk in, I got thrown over by an onslaught of overwhelming verbal accolade from my co-ordinator, about the page I was discussing in the book (which by the way, at the time I mentally Oh-My-God'd myself over soon as they walked. I did though go on discussing it regardless). My co-ordinator raved and she ranted (LITERALLY- I do not exaggerate), about how no one's used that part of the book before (including herself). She then went on to show me my score, which turned out to be a 99 out of 100; 1 being lost to a darned black jacket that I refuse to buy/have on to date, because they dont pay me enough to bother investing in it!

I came home smiling to myself, unable to believe that the class I was evaluated for got me THIS score!

Was I really being watched over at the time?

I can't help but keep going over it again and again, more so because of how today's class progressed. It sure was hinting at an unwelcome ''normal'' behavior coming back in full swing really soon, perhaps by tomorrow, who knows...

*sigh*

Alhumdulillah for while it lasted -a million times over and over- Alhumdulillah for whatever it was!