The Competition

Monday. Tenth grade English. Co-taught. 

The kiddos had some questions to answer from their reading of "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe, and then they were to begin reading the articles for their district writing essay (that they do once a quarter). And other than the kiddo in period eight who thought that that was the perfect time to blow up balloons and make balloon animals for everyone, the students spent their time making progress on their assignments. 

It's early October (at least, this day was), and while I had been scrambling for assignments, August and September were mostly filled with working days. While I was booked for most of last week, that was the extent of my bookings. The rest of October and November (and December and after) were completely blank. 

But this is when the jobs start popping up. 

I was seated, watching the kiddos work, when I got an alert on my watch. New job. I grabbed for it. Missed. Damn.

Then another job popped up. This one I caught. 

I looked over at my co-teacher for the day. Mr. H. The usual co-teacher was also out at the meeting (or whatever) that had taken Mr. E, so it was us two subs. Mr. H has been a sub about as long I have been, and we get along. We've both been trying to keep busy working. So, when I realized that someone (likely Allie) was putting in gigs, I let him know jobs were being input. 

Then another gig popped up. I grabbed for it. Missed. 

I turned to Mr. H. "Did you get it?" Nope. 

He got an alert that I did not get. (I heard his phone alert.) He grabbed for it. I think he missed it, but I'm not sure. 

Why didn't I get that alert? It could be that it was on a day I already had a job, or it could be that it was taken before it got to me. No matter. 

We both kept looking. Not much was input for a while. Or, at least I didn't get alerted. 

The class was working quietly. My computer alerted. I grabbed, and I got it! "Yes!" I probably shouldn't have said that out loud, but it just slipped out. 

Mr. H? He was still trying. 

At the end of the day I had picked up three assignments. During the rest of the week several jobs came up for grabs, and while I would have liked to have gotten more of them, I got a fair number. 

As of this writing, I have at least one gig booked for each week of the next six weeks (two weeks with one, three weeks with two, and one week with three), and a teacher reached out to let me know he'd be out for December and could I cover his classes? 

So, I'm working. Mr. H? He's working, too. Hopefully more days will pop up. I mean, it's likely. People get sick. Things happen. It'll be fine. 

At least I've got some things coming up that are already booked.