Who Got the Email?

This has been happening to me more and more lately.

I walked into the classroom, turned on the lights, and went in search of lesson plans. This morning, I didn't have to look long. The teacher's desk was very clean and neat. But it contained no lesson plans.

So, I did what I do now when that's the case. I called the office and asked if the teacher had emailed them.

It used to be that teachers would just call the classroom to tell us subs what they wanted us to do. But lately, most email lesson plans. If the secretary that checks me in sees those plans in her email, she prints them out and gives them to me along with the key to the classroom.

But sometimes the teacher emails them late. And sometimes the secretary misses the plans.

Sometimes the teacher emails the plans to someone else.

In those cases, I have to wait and see who has them. Who is this teacher's buddy? Sometimes it's the teacher next door, but many times it's not.

School started. No one had brought me lesson plans. And the office didn't have them.

I found the class' book. Algebra 2. Where had they left off? What could I give them?

That's when the phone rang. The teacher. She wanted to make sure the lesson plans found me. When she learned they hadn't, she told me the teacher next door had them. I sent a student to retrieve them.

(Why didn't I check next door? I was running late--that was my fault--and I had moments before the bell.)

When I saw the email, I saw the problem. She sent the plans to three different teachers. Presumably, each one thought the other two got the plans to me. Oops.

Of course, later that day I had two different teachers stop in to make sure I had gotten plans.

This sort of thing used to make me more nervous than it does now. It still makes me nervous, it's just not as bad.