Thursday, February 7, 2019

Three Subs


Seventh grade math. The lesson plan warned that the classes had been difficult (this was accompanied by an apology), but I was to have a co-teacher.

Of course, not thirty seconds after reading that, the phone rang. It was the office informing me that my co-teacher was also out sick, and a sub for that co-teacher had not been ordered. I begged the secretary for help. I knew I was going to need it. She said she'd see what she could do.

First period I wasn't to have a co-teacher. I muddled through, but it was as bad as advertised. Second period was the teacher's prep (and I went elsewhere to cover an extra period). Third period I returned, expecting more of what I had had in first period.

The bell rang, and I fought for attention. That's when another sub showed up.


She was so helpful. I went over what they were to do, and Ms. F clamped down on them.

The kiddos were working. They were even nearly silent. All was well. Until the phone rang...

On the way over, Ms. F had fallen, and she was a little sore. (It was raining out. It's slippery. And she had come from across the campus.) This had been reported to the office, so they called to have her come to the office to fill out an incident report.

I found this all out later. While Ms. F was on the phone, another teacher walked in. She had been called to cover, but finding two subs in the room...

It was a bit chaotic. Once I realized that Ms. F was leaving, I assured Ms. E that I did need her help. It didn't appear so as the kiddos were quietly working, but considering how much effort was needed to get them there, I didn't want to risk losing the help.

Third period was totally lovely. (Well, not totally. They got a little crazy at clean up time. Par for the course with seventh graders.) But Ms. E had her own class to get back to, so I was left alone for period four.

Alas, no more subs arrived for the rest of the classes. I was alone. And things didn't go well. Not at all.

19 comments:

  1. Of course they didn't go well. I'm sure you expected that they wouldn't. But at least the day eventually got over.

    betty

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  2. Wow. Kudos to you for being able to roll with the changes I know that I could not. Also. Another day done and over with and you survived. Always a plus. :)

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    1. That's something that I always have to do. I never know what I'm going to get. Like today. I was told I was covering an English class. Nope. It's ceramics.

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    1. Thanks. I sent the teacher a very long email. She was very nice.

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  4. You think they'd find a better way for dealing with rough classes.

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  5. Oh my gosh...said it before and sure I will say again but I could not do what you do. I do wonder, why did you choose that career?

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    1. oops....meant to remark about your comment about living in Oxnard! Yes, different yrs for sure. I was born right there on the base cause Daddy was in the Navy, 22 yrs. I was just a babe when we moved to Coronado Calif. From there we moved to Ky.

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    2. I didn't so much choose it as I fell into it. There are good days, too. (Today's a good day. I'm just trying to stay awake. Easy.)

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  6. Oh dear. There's definitely a story behind that "not at all". Perhaps several.

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  7. Ugh, it's days like that were it's all about survival and behaviour management and the teaching not so much. I hope your next day was a dream!

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  8. What a parade. Some sort of CCTV would be nice in those cases.

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  9. Sounds like you had a rough day. ><

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  10. Ugh. My condolences. I hope that day is a one-off and you don't have to go through it again!

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    1. I will try to avoid that class in the future, but other classes can be just as bad.

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  11. Ouch! Sorry to read that you had a rough day.

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