First day on the new job in MPSŠC. Of course, I visited a few days ahead, and got instructions from the chief of staff, learned what curriculum my classes have. I had four classes of locksmiths, third grade, and one of electrotechnicians, ergo fourth (three grades sufficed to get the title of KV - qualified - worker, four to be a technician, and for VKV - highly qualified - an extra year was required, but I still don't know how did that go, where were the classes held and how). To differ from 13., where the PUOV and PUVO*, i.e. the common fundaments and vocational directed were separated by shifts (the 9th and 10th grades in the morning, 3rd and 4th in the afternoon - and yes, the confused numbering was there too), this building was big enough so there were two staff rooms and two wings of the building, so the younger mostly stayed in the front building and the older had the one in the yard, where the classrooms were mostly upstairs and the workshops on the ground floor, and both oours worked both shifts. Some classes, for mechanics and machine related subjects, were held in the cabinets in the ground floor of the front building, so the schools weren't really strictly separated, and the staff knew each other from before 1975, when this vocation directed system was introduced.
The staff room was quite small, sized like a smaller classroom. It was above the electrical workshop, at the corner of the yard wing, so had a good view of the whole yard. As with the neighbors, a sizable part of staff were engineers. For general machine subjects, like mechanics, machine elements and whatever the subject that covered relevant bits of metallurgy, there were regular professors, i.e. engineers working full time in the school. For some things there were engineers from local industry, who'd come and hold their few classes - from the shipyard, Naftagas, or at the neighbors', from Vojvodinaput (roadworks), carpet factory or the dairy plant.
I quickly acquired a habit to get up at six when working first shift, and for this semester I think all my classes were in the morning. Because as early as elementary school I learn to hate the morning hectic panic when everything needs to be done fast. This way I had half an hour for the bathroom, half for breakfast, half for coffee and half to get on the bike and pedal to school, and still have time to smoke one in the staff room. The classrooms and halls were a no-smoke zone, staff room and offices were not.
Later I gathered that it was a matter of school's policy to have as few people working across shifts as possible, simply because it's tiring and also comes at a cost, as it brought some compensation.
----
* PU stands for vocation directed (pozivno usmereno); V is upbringing (vaspitanje), O is education (obrazovanje). Someone explained to me that in the 9th and 10th grade they still hold the emphasis on upbringing, and switch that around afterwards. Extra points for the fact that „puvo“ means „farted“.