Change of Plans

"Oh good. You're here."

This was a rather strange greeting from the secretary, especially as I was pretty early.

She explained that I was listed as there for a half day in the afternoon for a teacher who had no idea she was out. But before I had a chance to freak out, the secretary said she had another gig for me.

A biology teacher had called in sick that morning.

Considering that my job is filling in for absent teachers, you'd think that I covered classes for sick teachers all the time. Not really. But it does happen occasionally.

Since Mr. E had called out that morning, he left no lesson plans in the classroom. Nor had he emailed them. Luckily, I know who his wife is. Her classroom is directly across from his.

Alas, he had not sent lesson plans in with her either. But after a couple phone calls, I was set for the day.

I kind of hate bothering a teacher when he isn't feeling well and could really use the rest. But, I walk into these classes cold. I have no idea what they're doing. And I'd like to not have it be a wasted day for them.

Luckily, the students were finishing up lab work and such, so it was a pretty easy day, once I knew what to instruct them to do.

A Fortuitous Mistake

As I stood in front of the classroom door waiting for security to arrive to let me in (they don't give keys to subs during summer school), the teacher arrived. He was going to be out the next day.

Upon conferring with the summer school principal, he figured out that he had written the wrong day on the request. ("I'm bad with numbers. That's why I teach history.")

Several thoughts went through my head. What was I going to do with my day now? I got up and dressed this early for nothing? But before I could contemplate driving home, the summer school principal had turned her and my attention to a different teacher.

"She can cover your class."

After a bit of confusion, what was happening became clear. The other teacher, Ms. M, had just been discussing with the summer school principal getting a sub so she could leave that day. Her husband was in the hospital. And while she was just hoping to leave early, since I was already there, she could leave immediately.

Perfect timing. And a mistake that turned out to put me right where a sub was needed.

This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. (Luckily I was on hand on a day when a teacher learned her brother had just died in an automobile accident.) I just didn't expect it to happen in summer school.

First Day Scramble

I had planned on doing my year end stats last Friday, but as I wrote my posts for last week (I write them all over the weekend), by the time I got to Friday's post, I was done. I could do it for this week. What else was I going to write about?

I really should have seen this coming...

Monday was the first day of summer school. Sunday night I thought, "Watch them actually call me tomorrow morning."

They did.

The first day of summer school is a scramble. The place is packed. The students just get their schedules. And the teachers just get their room assignments. (They close most of the campus, and they shrink the open classrooms to one wing.)

I had two "blocks" to cover. (The day is broken into three two-hour blocks. Most teachers only teach for two blocks.) The first block went fine.

There's a 15 minute break after each block. I headed to the restroom. I had a question for the summer school principal. I got back to the classroom with only a couple minutes to spare.

No one was there.

They still had a couple minutes, so while I was waiting I made sure I was all set up. Still, no one arrived.

At this point I happened to glance at my class roster. 43 students enrolled. Room number... Wait. That's not the room I'm in!

(I just assumed both blocks would be in the same classroom. It hadn't occurred to me I might need to move rooms.)

I grabbed my stuff and ran out the door. As I headed towards the other room, a large group of students headed back the way I had come. They were accompanied by the summer school principal.

I had been in the right room. The students' schedules and my roster had the wrong room printed on them.

This is the sort of thing that only happens on a first day. (By day two, all these issues have gotten straightened out.)

A Comedy of Errors

Friday. A day I know I'll get an extra period assignment and am shocked if I don't. This particular Friday there were four uncovered teachers...

I made sure to get a key as the classroom was on the other side of campus from the classroom I was covering that day. I hiked out there, got through the crowd of waiting students, put my key in the lock... And it wouldn't open.

That's when I noticed the room number on the key. The wrong room number. I got the wrong key.

Borrowing the phone in the classroom next door, I called to get someone to open the door. She got there just after the bell. By the time we got into the room, we had missed the Pledge of Allegiance and about half the morning announcements. But the kiddos filed in, and I went in search of lesson plans.

I found stacks of assignments for seniors. I asked one of the students what grade they were in. 9th. So, that work was not for them. Um...

Before I had a chance to panic, the classroom phone rang. It was the secretary saying she had the lesson plans. (Teachers frequently email them to the school.) So, I found a student who knew where the secretary was and sent her and a classmate to go and retrieve them.

We were at the back of campus. The office was at the front. So, we waited for a bit. With 9th graders. Yeah, it got a bit loud. But not terribly out of control as this was an honors class, meaning a class of the more academically inclined. The fact that they were an honors class is the only reason this is a funny story and not a harrowing one.

The girls made good time considering. I perused the lesson plan and was able to tell the students where to turn in their essays. Discovered they were to watch a video. And realized that I didn't have a class roster to take roll. This was on the computer, and the secretary had neglected to give me a log on.

I went in search of the video. Couldn't find it. The girls who had retrieved the lesson plans read them, so they helped search for the video. They couldn't find it. Finally, another student found it on the third (rather than second, as stated) shelf.

Luckily, I didn't have any technical difficulties, and got the video going. I sent around a sign in sheet in lieu of taking roll. And managed to keep the class in some semblance of order. Phew.

Some days it just goes like this. I've learned to roll with it.

Missed Day

It was 5th period on the first day of school...

(The continuation high school is on a year-round schedule, so yes, they do actually start back up in July. I was shocked to get called, but I quickly got over it and took the gig.)

I was still in the midst of "getting started", which includes doing a head count and comparing it to the number who answered "here" when I called roll, when I caught a back-and-forth going on in the middle of the room. It only took a moment for me to learn what was up.

The continuation high school has two "sessions" a day--morning and afternoon. Some "morning" students can have an extra 5th period or an all-day schedule. The "afternoon" students start the day at 5th period.

Martin was confused by his schedule. He went to the first class listed--our class--but the first class listed was for 1st period. For 5th period he was supposed to be across campus in math.

Apparently, Martin never got the message that he had morning classes. Which meant that he had already missed the first four periods of the day. Oops.

"I'll just stay here..."

Sure, he was already late to 5th period, but he had, in effect, ditched the first four periods of the day. I kicked him out encouraged him to go to his actual class and explain the situation.

(The students are supposed to be notified as to whether they are morning or afternoon before the start of school. Especially if there is a change. But these mix ups happen, so he won't get into trouble.)

Wrong Test

It was Friday at the middle school. One of the things the teacher had left for me was to pass out tests to the students who had been absent for the test. They could make up the test during class.

Fourth period. I gave the one boy his test, and he went to another class to complete it. He returned in a reasonable amount of time and returned the test to me. I put it in the pile with the others. We continued with class.

Time passed and it was the end of the period. The class was done with the day's work. The boy asked me if he could see his test. He thought it might be the wrong one. The girl sitting next to him was going to check. So, I pulled out his test and brought it to him.

The boy was suspicious because the test wasn't that hard, yet his classmates had told him that it was a killer.

Fourth period was marine biology. The other periods were 7th grade life science. Marine biology is an elective that the 8th graders can take.

When we looked at the test, it turned out to be the test that the other classes took. Not the marine biology test. The life science test.

Oops.

Now, this was not my fault. The teacher paper clipped the tests to the answer sheets, and I just passed out what she had left me. Although, I would have thought the boy would have realized that the test wasn't covering the material they had covered in class.

After the bell rang and the class emptied, the boy approached me. He had a suspicion that the test wasn't his test, but he didn't want to disturb the class by returning to ask.

I explained to him that when this sort of mix up occurs, it is completely reasonable to come back to the room and alert me to the problem. Not that I could have given him the correct test (the teacher hadn't left it out), but at least we could have put it aside. Sigh.

He wasn't pleased that he'd have to take the test again. On Monday. But at least that test should be the correct test.

Do It Again

8th graders. In groups they can be...well...interesting.

I was only there to cover one class period (during the prep period for the teacher I had been called to cover for the whole day). After waiting five minutes to get someone to open the classroom door to let us in (five minutes after the bell rang) the entire class was so wound up that it took a while to get them seated and settled. And there were no lesson plans to be found.

Luckily, that's when the phone rang.

The teacher told me to assign them work from chapter 9.  I repeated back, "Chapter nine". I wanted to make sure I had it right. Then I got up in front of the class and explained their assignment.

They told me that they had already done that assignment. Loudly. Repeatedly.

Okay, I must have misunderstood. I asked if they had done chapter ten. Eleven. We settled on chapter twelve, but still half the class insisted that they had done this.

At this point I should have told them to do it again. It was busy work. (This was one of those instances where the original plan went awry, and my job was to keep the class busy.) But the idea of becoming one of those subs bothers me, so instead I looked for a different solution.

I'd almost gotten them settled when their teacher showed up. I told him about the issue with chapter nine. He turned to the class and told them they needed to prove to him that they'd done it. Show their completed work to him.

(One student claimed that they had turned it in. The teacher gave that student such a scathing look!)

Turns out, they had skipped chapter nine, and now was the time that they go back to it.

That's what I get for trusting them.

Blue is a Color

In 8th grade, the students take physical science. It's the end of the year, so it's time for the astronomy unit. The classes had questions dealing with the solar system.

As I made a circuit of the room, I noticed that one boy hadn't started working on his questions. At least he had his science notebook out, but it was open to a page with diagrams of atoms. I stood over him and I told him to get started. He needed to get out of the chemistry section and get to a page where he could do the assignment.

"This is my science notebook."

I told him I knew that. I needed him to open to a page in the astronomy section.

Again, he informed me that he had his science notebook. We did our "Who's on First" a couple more times before I realized what the problem was. His tablemates realized it at about the same time I did. First I had to shush them, as they weren't explaining things any better than I was. I searched for a way to explain.

"You are saying 'color' while I am saying 'blue'."

Finally, I got through to him. At my insistence, he flipped through his notebook and he found a different page. I stood over him to make sure he started writing something, and then I moved on to students who had questions about the assignment. (Questions that involved gravity. Cool!)

Later, I walked past his desk again. His notebook was still open...to the page with the atom diagrams. Sigh.

Late for Opportunity

Monday night I stayed up longer than I normally do. I watched all my Monday night shows. I wasn't worried about getting to sleep--I was scheduled to cover the reentry class on Tuesday.

Monday morning the sub caller called me. She needed me to cover reentry on Tuesday and opportunity on Wednesday. While I would have rather skipped the opportunity class, I wasn't about to miss a day of work, so I accepted.

The reentry class starts at noon. The opportunity class starts at 8 AM.

Tuesday morning at 7:55 I got a call. The sub caller had mixed up the days. The reentry teacher was going to be out on Wednesday which meant that I was late for the opportunity class. Oops.

So, right now I'm covering the much nicer, calmer reentry class. (I'm scheduling this ahead.) And I'm really glad that the opportunity class was yesterday.

V Not L

I was glad to get the call this morning. I've been spending way too much time by myself, and the result hasn't been pretty. It was good to get out of the house.

I got to school, got the key, and I headed to the classroom. On the way there, I spotted the teacher on his way to the classroom. Uh oh.

Turns out that he wasn't going to be out today. So, I trekked back to the office.

The secretary was surprised. She searched through her paperwork. The teacher hadn't requested today off. She had no idea how she had made such a mistake.

The secretary wondered if she just requested a sub for the wrong teacher. We had to wait until the final bell to figure that out. At that point, they were looking for a bunch of students standing outside waiting for a teacher who wouldn't show. When we didn't get notified that a class was missing a teacher, the secretary sent me to the library.

When the school or the sub caller makes the mistake, I still get paid for the day. Many times, the school can find enough individual periods where a teacher had to leave early, had a meeting to get to, or some such to fill out a day. If, like today, this was not the case, then I get sent to the library.

I like the library. It's a nice assignment.

The library assistant showed me what I'd be doing: attaching bar codes to a set of workbooks that just arrived. But before I could get settled, a call came in from the secretary. They found the class.

The secretary wrote down the wrong name. They weren't close in pronunciation, but I could see how she could write one down for the other. Instead of covering a math class, I was sent to cover chemistry. Not a bad switch.

I got to the class. One of the assistant principals had started things. He got them going and he took roll. The class looked at me questioningly as the transition took place. As soon as the AP left, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

I explained the mix up (they were sophomores and juniors). They were as entertained as I was.