A teacher is hurt by a hit and run driver in the parking lot after January exams. His schedule has to be filled by others. The protagonist, Claire Hébert, the inveterate planner, gets a last minute timetable change. The same day her boyfriend has given her a puppy, which she only reluctantly to accepted because she already felt overwhelmed by schoolwork. She struggles to do her best with the new workload, but she’s a workaholic and it causes problems in her personal life.

As the term progresses, Claire, an academic teacher, deals with teaching basic math to the class she inherits, the spoiled brat son of a colleague, students who are rude and rebellious, students who have learning or behavioural differences, a student who is cyber bullied, students who lie, and students who constantly play games on their igadgets. We see how differently the vice principals support teachers in conflict with students.

She also has excellent students: the boy who can fix anything technical, the girls who surround and help the cyber-bullying victim; the kids who support each other during difficult emotional trials; the student who tutors a classmate, and students who prevail over difficult learning differences.

We meet the unpredictable principal and her vice principals, her favourite, lazy and misled, the other hard working and disciplined.

Claire’s love life, the career decision she has to make and the students who constantly affect the status quo are intertwined with the happenings, activities and dramas of a semester in a secondary school.

Chris Williams

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