It's that time of year again--the end of the school year. And this is where I list all the various classes I covered this past school year.
(I do this post for me. I understand if you don't want to wade through all the numbers.)
I did something different this year. I kept my tally on a Google Sheet as opposed to the paper method I've been using since 2012. (If anyone wants details, I can do a separate post next week.)
There are 180 days in the school year. I worked 174 of them. This is less than my all time high of 177 for last year (but last year was very unusual). Five of those non-worked days occurred in the last two weeks of school (three from the last week and two from the week previous). The other day was a day I took off in September for no good reason.
That total does not include the 19 days (2 professional development and 17 days of class) I did for the summer academy last June, nor does it include the 3 days I worked at the continuation high school the first two weeks of August (one in social studies and two in the computer aided drafting class) before the school year officially began.
I worked 115 days in high school classes, 35 days in middle school classes, 16 days at the continuation high school, 4 1/2 days at the alternative education center, and 3 1/2 days at the adult transition center. (Half days? Yeah, that was an unusual day.)
On 57 of those days, I covered a different class on my prep period. (That's way up from the last couple years, but it's lower than what was normal in the before times.) Only four of those days I covered for teachers that did not have a prep period.
I did work the first day of school but I did not work the last.
More specifically, the list of classes I covered...
I reworked my definitions a bit this year. "Extra period" is specific to me covering a teacher's class for only one class. A "partial day" is when I covered the teacher for the whole day, but they didn't teach that class for the whole day. (So, "partial day" can be one period or more than one period.) I do way more "partial days" as most teachers don't teach the same thing all day.
So, the numbers listed are: covered full day/covered partial day/covered for an extra period only.
- As expected, my big "winner" for the year is English (it's almost always English) with 33 whole days, 18 partial days, and 12 extra periods.
- I covered 10th grade the most at 16 partial days and one extra period.
- Then 11th grade comes in 2nd place with 8 whole days, 6 partial days, and 2 extra periods.
- Next is ELD (or English language development--classes for students who are learning English) at 3 whole days, 5 partial days, and 2 extra periods.
- As for the rest of the grades:
- 7th: 4/3/2
- 8th: 2/5/2
- 9th: 2/4/7
- 12th: 0/6/1
- Yearbook: one partial day. (That teacher's rest of day was 10th grade English, which is why I'm including the stat here.)
- The next most covered subject is science. That's not surprising as I did a three-week assignment in chemistry in August/September. I did 31 whole days, 6 partial days, and 6 extra periods.
- The winner in this subject, naturally, is chemistry with 20 whole days, 2 partial days, and one extra period.
- Next is biology with one full day, five partial days, and two extra periods.
- The rest of the science classes:
- 7th grade science: 1/3/1
- 8th grade science: 0/0/4
- Health: 0/3/1
- Physics: 0/1/0
- Anatomy/physiology: 0/2/1
- Forensics: 0/1/0
- Environmental science: 1/1/0
- Intro to health careers: 0/2/1
- Then comes the social studies classes with 24 whole days, 1 partial day, and 3 extra periods.
- I've got a thee-way tie for first place here, so I'll just list everything:
- 7th grade world history: 0/4/2
- 8th grade U.S. history: 2/5/1
- Geography (9th grade): 0/8/0
- World history (10th grade): 1/7/0
- U.S. history (11th grade): 0/8/0
- Government (12th grade): 3/4/1
- Economics (12th grade): 0/3/0
- And math rounds out the required courses with 13 whole days, 5 partial days, and 13 extra periods.
- The most covered class here is unsurprising as it's the class all high schoolers must take. Integrated math 1. (It's a combo of algebra and geometry. The harder components of algebra and geometry are a part of integrated math 2.) I had 6 whole days, 7 partial days, and 10 extra periods.
- As for the rest:
- 7th grade math: 0/2/0
- 8th grade math: 1/3/1
- IM2: 2/0/1
- IM3: 0/2/1
- Next I'm listing special ed, but some of these days overlap with the above. The RSP special ed teachers co-teach, so if I covered one of them, I tallied special ed plus the subject co-taught. I had 18 whole days, 1 partial day, and 23 extra periods.
- Of those, I co-taught 5 whole days, 3 partial days, and 11 extra periods. (They tend to period sub co-teachers when possible as the other teacher can handle things and we subs are just in for crowd control.)
- Special day classes (where I was the only teacher and the classes were small) accounted for 5 whole days, 2 partial days, and 3 extra periods.
- The "severe" classes (these would be days at the adult transition center, but there are also some middle and high school classes) accounted for 4 full days and 7 extra periods. (Teachers who teach the "severe" special ed classes have the same group all day, so partial days don't really happen.)
- This is rounded out with "learning center". The learning center is the one period a day when the special ed teacher covers a resource room where the special ed kiddos can go to take a test or work in a different room when needed. This is never a full day, but I covered 7 partial days (meaning on 7 special ed days, one of the classes I covered was this), and 3 extra periods.
- Before I get into the electives as a whole, I must note the success seminar class. I covered about a month of it while the teacher was out on "baby bonding" with her 3-month old. That was 19 whole days. I also caught 3 extra periods of this throughout the rest of the school year.
- And finally, the electives.
- Top elective: computer classes with 10 whole days, 5 partial days, and 3 extra periods. What are computer classes?
- Business (typing, accounting, etc.): 2/1/2
- Graphic art: 3/4/1
- Computer aided drafting: 2/0/0
- Esports: 2/0/0
- Then comes the art classes with 10 full days, one partial day, and one extra period. Included in this tally is:
- Photography: 0/1/0
- Ceramics: 6/0/1
- My third place in electives would be leadership with 9 partial days. Leadership classes are generally a one period commitment for the teacher, and most of those days were for the middle school leadership class I covered while doing those three weeks in April/May for the English teacher finishing up her maternity leave. Then:
- ASB: 0/8/0
- Link crew: 0/1/0
- As for the rest of the electives:
Sometimes people ask me what I teach. When I say, "I sub," they don't get it. I haven't figured out how to explain that list to people in few words. So, I tell them, "pretty much everything," when pressed. I think that's fairly accurate, don't you?
So, now I have a bit of time off until it starts all over again. I wonder what next year will bring.
Previous years' stats:
You pretty much work full time during the regular school year. That is a lot of substituting.
ReplyDeleteYup, I pretty much work every day.
DeleteInteresting mix this year
ReplyDeleteIt was. Not quite as limited as last year (with the two long terms that were pretty much the year).
DeleteIt's weirdly interesting to look at the life of a substitute teacher. You must have to be very flexible.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's the best answer for them
ReplyDeleteIt's always an odd conversation. "What do you teach?" I sub. "What do you sub?" Uh... It's like people don't understand that I take whatever classes are uncovered.
DeleteAnd some people think substitutes don't work a lot! Of course, you're in a big district. It's interesting how subs can even sub subjects they aren't as familiar with. Easier with lessons on the computers. Today was the last day of school here. The kids got out early and were extra loud walking past my house! I remember how fun the last day was. You deserve a vacation before those summer school teachers call off and you are back to work!
ReplyDeleteActually, it's a pretty small district. But the high schools have a large population, so that kind of evens things out.
DeleteYou sure were one busy woman
ReplyDeleteJust a normal year, mostly.
DeleteEnjoy your well-deserved vacations! Great way to keep tracks of the years and classes.
ReplyDeleteHi Liz - well I admire the fact you record so much ... interesting to compare the years. I'm sure next year will provide extra 'fodder' for the blog stats - let alone work stats. Enjoy a bit of time off - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteWow! Reading this tells me how much I like to know what I am doing where you must go with the flow sort of speak. I'd suck as a math/science/chemistry teacher...yuck.
ReplyDeleteScience is fun. What's not fun is the teachers usually leave bookwork, and the kiddos assume I don't know the subject, so I don't get any interesting questions. Which I could answer.
DeleteFlexibility is key, for sure. Best wishes!
ReplyDelete