"Are you our supply?"

Being a supply teacher in London is about being pushed out of the way in the corridor, arguing with sixteen year olds daily, trying in vain to keep students inside the classroom and being in a weird middle ground - not quite a teacher, not quite a student. Not knowing what the school rules are and being unsure as to whether a student is lying or not, "But Miiiiiss, Sir promised we'd make Christmas cards in our last lesson!". Students ignore you when you speak to them and talk about things you'd rather not hear.
The supply teachers whom I have encountered in the last 6 months are generally Australian, shunted around London by the agencies who control our fate on a "day-to-day" or "long-term" basis. Carrying our lunches and lives in our little baby day packs (Macpac, Blackwolf, Fairy Down) unzipped, unclipped, detached from the much larger mumma backpacks, that wait patiently in cupboards in sharehouses around London.
I watch the students dancing around the classroom, emulating the latest Beyonce moves and strangely, I'm jealous; I wish I could move like that. I see them using the latest mobile phones and I wonder "who's paying the bill?" I read the ineffectual posters stuck sporadically around the schools:
Everyone at [this school] has the:
Right to learn
Right to be safe
Right to respect

Remember! When a teacher is addressing your class
Look
Listen
Don't talk
Be polite

Graffiti - not smart, not art

Give me a break! These kids could not possibly care less, I feel apathetic and I'm not even suffering from the I'm-a-teenager-and-I'm-oh-so-tough syndrome which seems to be at epidemic proportions.
And then, I realise with a small amount of distress that I'm no longer a "youth". And then, I think to myself phew! Who needs crazy hormones dictating your every move, who needs friends dictating your choices, parents and teachers giving you a hard time because they don't understand you and because it's for your own good???
What's the NSW Department of Education's slogan? Teach. Make a difference. Yeah, good luck!