The last day of school has passed. Last week I finished up the last posts of the school year. And now it's time to reflect on the year that was by tallying up all the classes I covered. (This is a very dry post, so no worries if you want to skip it.) My previous years are linked at the bottom, for comparison.
There are 180 days in the school year. I worked 161 of them. That's... low... It's down from last year's 173 days and way down from my all-time high of 177 days. But, the district hired more subs so jobs were a bit harder to get, and I had only one long term assignment at the beginning of the school year. It's nowhere near my lowest totals, back when I was a newbie sub. So, meh. It makes it easier to do better next year.
This total does not include the day I worked summer school at the adult transition center in June nor the three days I worked at the continuation high school in July before the official first day of school. I also worked one day of teacher prep for that vacant art class I started the school year in.
I worked 84 days at the high school level, 69 days at the middle school level, and 4 at the adult transition center. I only caught one day at the alternative education center, and that will be my last as I heard that they're closing the school. I only worked 3 days at the continuation high school, but I had to stop going there for much of the spring semester for reasons (which I haven't blogged about, but probably will explain eventually).
10 of those days I covered an extra class while a different 10 of those days I covered a teacher who did not have a prep period.
I worked both the first day of school and the last. Woo-hoo! (I did a happy dance when I caught a last day of school assignment. It's been a few years since I managed to work both in the same school year.)
Now on to the specifics. But first, some definitions.
Most teachers do not teach the same class all day. An English teacher might have a period of ninth grade and two periods of eleventh grade. So, when I say "partial day", I mean that I covered at least one or maybe two periods of that subject. When I say "full day", the teacher taught one specific class all day (like biology). An extra period assignment is when I covered a different teacher on the prep period of the teacher I was booked to cover for the day.
Each subject is listed with three numbers: 5/2/1. The first number is for a "full day". The second number is for a "partial day". And the third number is for an "extra period assignment".
- My winner (of the core subjects) is, of course, English (like it is almost every year) with 25/11/3.
- In first place is freshman English at 2/8/0.
- Next is sophomore English at 1/8/1.
- In third place, eighth grade English at 5/2/1.
- Then, following, junior English at 0/7/0.
- And the rest, in no particular order:
- Seventh grade: 0/5/0
- Senior English: 2/3/0
- English language development: 0/7/0 (which is for students who are learning English. It's generally taught by the same teacher who teaches their core English class, so it's not surprising there's no full day for this.)
- Creative writing: 0/2/0 (which is an English elective. The teachers who teach this only have one period of it.)
- Journalism: 0/1/0 (which is only one period a day. I haven't caught this class in several years.)
- Yearbook: 0/1/0
- Supervising the writing center: 0/0/1. The writing center is new. It's a place where the kiddos can go if they need help with an essay or such.
- In second place is math with 6/27/0. Why all the partial days? Many of them were for special ed teachers who also do a period in the learning center. Or there's one math teacher who also teaches computer science (who I did a long-term assignment for two years ago).
- Winning the math is, of course, IM2 or integrated math 2 (which is sophomore math which was probably geometry when you were in school) at 0/11/0. Which tracks. Mr. J, the teacher I did the long-term for, and his co-teacher Ms. L were the teachers I covered, and neither of them only has IM2 on their schedules.
- Business math (math for juniors or seniors who aren't college bound): 0/8/0. Ms. L co-taught one of those classes, plus I subbed for Ms. C a couple times (who Ms. L co-taught with).
- IM1 (read: freshman math or algebra 1): 2/5/0
- And the rest are tied:
- Seventh grade math: 0/5/0
- Eighth grade math: 0/5/0
- IM3 (read: algebra 2): 0/5/0
- And finally, statistics: 0/1/0
- In third place, social studies with 12/9/1.
- 10th grade world history: 1/6/1
- 8th grade U.S. history: 0/4/0
- 12th grade government: 2/1/0
- 12th grade economics: 2/1/0
- 11th grade U.S. history: 1/2/0
- 7th grade world history: 1/1/0
- 9th grade geography: 0/1/0
- 11th grade U.S. history, ethnic studies: 0/1/0
- AP African-American studies: 0/1/0
- And rounding out the core subjects: science with 7/4/3.
- 7th grade: 2/1/0
- Chemistry (10th grade): 2/1/0
- 8th grade: 2/0/0
- Biology (9th grade): 0/2/1
- Health (9th grade): 0/1/0
- Earth Science: 0/1/0
- Forensics: 1/0/0
- Environmental science: 0/1/1
- Intro to Health Care Careers: 0/0/1
- Next on the list of subjects is special ed, although this isn't necessarily a subject. These classes overlap with the above. If I covered a co-teacher, I tallied the subject (English/math) as well as here. If I covered a "special day class" (SDC), I tallied the subject and here. This is why these numbers are high: 41/5/1.
- Mostly I was co-teaching: 5/19/2
- Next were the special day classes: 10/7/0
- Then were the mild/moderate or moderate/severe special ed, or the "very" special ed classes: 11/0/1
- Learning center: 0/10/0. This is where the kiddos go when they need a quiet room to take a test in. The special ed teachers supervise the room, generally one period a day.
- Study skills: 0/8/1. Basically this is a study hall for special ed students.
- BEST (behavioral and emotional support teacher): 2/0/0
- My art totals are high due to the vacant class I started the school year in: 30/3/0
- Under the art umbrella are also digital media art: 4/0/0
- Photography: 1/0/0
- Ceramics: 1/0/0
- World languages:
- Spanish: 6/1/2
- French: 4/0/0
- Mandarin: 1/0/0
- Computers: 4/3/0
- Computer science: 1/2/0
- Graphic art: 1/1/0
- eSports: 2/0/0
- Leadership: 0/4/0. The teachers who cover the student government classes don't cover that all day. They teach other subjects as well.
- ASB: 0/2/0
- WEBS (middle school leadership): 0/1/0
- Link Crew: 0/1/0
- And then a miscellaneous category for those classes that don't fit anywhere else:
- CTE (career and technical education): 2/0/0
- AVID: 0/1/0
- Success: 4/9/0
- Woodshop: 4/1/0
- Culinary: 1/0/0
- Credit recovery: 0/8/0
- Drama: 0/1/0
- PE: 0/1/0
- Athletics: 0/2/0
- Film studies: 0/1/0
- Roving: 1/0/0
Whew. Yeah. I get around.
When people ask me what I teach, I never know how to answer. I substitute. For what? Whatever they need me for. And if the questioner drills down, I still can't give a simple answer. "A bit of everything." Because, yeah. I cover just about everything. If not this year, then last year or next year.
It's amazing you handle so many subjects. I'd be a loser in this profession.
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