My first proper day in school went somewhat askew today.

The first two lessons I spent in class 1. It should have been 2 x half-class English lessons, but I ended up waiting in the classroom for the arrival of pupils, who came in dribs and drabs. Eventually we had enough present to do something meaningful, but it was quite late, so I forewent the half-class scenario in favour of dishing out text- and workbooks to be monikered by the children.

All went well, and with the lesson finished I carried on my day. Not half an hour laterI was approached by class 2’s teacher, who had been wondering where I was for her English lesson. I had, I realised, spent one hour and twenty minutes with the wrong class, and had handed out the wrong books to the wrong children.

As it turns out this was not a completely idiotic mistake: both classes do have 2 x half-class English on Tuesdays; both teachers are new; I’ve never had English with either class before.

Slightly put out I went to class 4A later in the day, where I informed them of the regularity/importance of the weekly vocabulary test they are to receive. I told them that these words were not randomly picked from my (alcohol addled) brain, but were words they would meet again in the (definitely correctly assigned) texbook they had been given.

I calmly wrote the seven words on the whiteboard and sat down to wait for the class to complete the task of transfering them into their books, flicking through the textbook and looking authoritative. As I flicked, it gradually dawned on me that none of these words actually appeared in the very book I held in my hands: I had given them class 3’s words.

It was too late and too embarassing to admit my error, so I’ll just have to create some new activities that combine the material in the textbook plus the new words they had faithfully written into their brand spanking-new wordbooks.

Unlike today (six lessons in five hours), I only have three lessons tomorrow, so things surely cannot become as pear-shaped