Wednesday, May 23, 2018

The Idiot


I arrived at the school on Tuesday morning for a rest-of-the-week assignment. I ran into another sub, and after we checked in, we exited the school's office together. He mentioned that it was a minimum day...

Wait. What?

We confirmed with a school employee that it was, indeed, a minimum day. (My packed lunch would not be needed.) It was open house that night.

And I realized that I knew this. I was at a different school the previous day, and I saw that their open house was Thursday. Which meant that the school I was at's open house had to be Tuesday. So, I knew, but I didn't know.

This was good news, but I had a class to cover first. I went to my assigned classroom. Let myself in. Turned on the lights. Went in search of the lesson plans...

No lesson plans. I freaked out. I called the school secretary to ask if the teacher had emailed them. What was I going to do for four days in a class with no lesson plans? This was not the sort of teacher who just leaves a class hanging. I've covered his class a few times in the past.

I worked myself into a nice lather by the time the warning bell rang. I opened the door to let the kiddos in. And that's when the student teacher arrived.

Of course there were no lesson plans. The student teacher was going to be teaching the class.

And again, I realized that I knew this. The other sub who I bumped into on the way out of the office is a sub I talk to now and again. A couple weeks prior, I had mentioned this assignment. He heard the teacher's name, and his comment was, "He has a student teacher this semester". I filed this information away. And then I promptly forgot it.

At least these were good surprises. Eventually.

I must pay better attention to the clues around me. I had all the information I needed. I had just forgotten it.

20 comments:

  1. Sometimes all the dots just don't connect until later. It's then we go "ohhhhhh." It happens to me quite often.

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  2. Glad it all worked out in the end, although I'm sure it didn't seem like that as you were panicking trying to figure out what you were going to do to occupy the students for 4 days.

    betty

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  3. It's nice when surprises are good and work in your favor. Not so nice the other way.

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  4. It got your heart racing though, didn't it?

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  5. Sometimes we just file stuff away and forget that we did this. I like to think it is cause we have more things going on in our head that was are reviewing.

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  6. You can't keep track of every little detail :). Just keep telling yourself that.

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  7. At least it all worked out, I would have been trying to figure out what all is going on as well *hugs*

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    1. It usually works out. I should not panic as I do know that it usually works out.

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  8. It's hard to remember all those things, and put them together. I think you're doing okay.

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    1. I just wish I had remembered them sooner.

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  9. I've never heard of a minimum day. I guess that meant the school closed early? The open days at our school are actually open nights (as they are for all the government schools in my territory - FYI I live in a territory, not a state, and it is really tiny! Popn 400,000)

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  10. If it makes you feel any better, I ended up walking around the entire building at lunch today because I completely zoned out on where I had parked. I think we all have those days.

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    1. We do. I hope you eventually found your car.

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  11. So you just have to supervise the student teacher? That should be a nice gig.

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    1. Technically I'm supervising. In actuality, I'm sitting there trying to stay awake. (I brought something to crochet.) Most times getting to cover when there's a student teacher is the best.

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  12. Happens, Liz. For me too, there have been similar occasions when, things have made sense, afterwards.

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