Declined the Call

Friday morning. I had just gotten my car back the previous afternoon, and I was looking forward to a day where I could go out and get some errands done. Although, at this moment I was fast asleep...

The phone rang. 

There is only one person who calls me at 7 AM. And while I had told her that I was car-less, I hadn't yet informed her that I had my car back. So, I was not expecting a call. 

I went to pick up the phone... and I accidentally hit "decline call". 

Oops.

I immediately called her back. 

There is one school open. The continuation high school. Seeing as how Fridays are the short days, I figured I might as well work. I mean, I had my car. I could get there.

So, yeah, my summer is officially over. Sigh. I guess I got three weeks? Maybe four. 

(The official first day of school was yesterday. And I already got a week's assignment for the week you're reading this. So, I'm back to it.)

Weird Monday

Winter break is over, but as I didn't work last week, I'm posting stories from the week just before the break.

The call came late. An hour prior, I saw no call and I figured I wasn't working. It was Monday of finals week, so I was not terribly shocked to not have an assignment.

The call came at the time I should have been getting into my car, so while I accepted the assignment, I let them know I'd be late.

I got to the school about a half hour into the school day. The office was empty of all except the receptionist. Everyone else was out at the fire drill.

Score! I missed the fire drill!

The office staff returned, and I checked in. The teacher I was covering had first period off, which meant I had missed nothing being late. And I had about two hours until my first class. (They were on a block schedule for finals.)

I got into the classroom and got set up for the day. I was enjoying the first prep period I'd had all month when the office called. Could I go and cover another class? Naturally.

I arrived at the silent class (about an hour into the block). They were in the middle of their final. The teacher had no idea what I was doing there.

He called the office. It turned out there was an IEP meeting he didn't know about.

Some days just go sideways. I guess I was due for a weird one.

20 More Minutes

I'm still in the same ceramics class from last week. At the moment we're told the teacher is only going to be out two more weeks. We're hopeful, but I won't be at all surprised if this assignment gets extended further.

The sub caller laughed about how I'm getting "the weird ones". To be fair, this is only the second "weird one" after the CAD teacher's jury duty kept getting extended in August. (I suppose she meant that usually these longer assignments are more expected, like a teacher is out for a scheduled surgery or maternity leave.)

What I find funny is that I stumbled into this assignment because I wanted 20 more minutes in bed.

That Wednesday I had nothing scheduled. So, I was happy to receive an early morning wake up call. I had a couple choices as to an assignment (which was much better than the day before when there had been nothing).

I had a choice between two sites. I picked the site with the later start time just because if I'd picked the other site, I would have had to get out of bed as soon as I hung up the phone.

So, I stumbled into this assignment out of sheer laziness. It's a strange sort of luck.

A Bad Wake Up Call

I woke at 5 AM. This is normal. Most mornings, I'll wake sometime between 4:45 and 5:45. Since the sub caller doesn't call until nearly 6 AM, my challenge is to go back to sleep.

Some mornings I actually succeed.

This morning, the ringing of my phone jerked me awake. When I heard the name the sub caller gave me, however, I wished I was back asleep.

I dread certain classes for various reasons. Classes that I can't control. Teachers who don't leave me anything. Loud students who won't settle down.

This class usually has all three.

I did groan when the sub caller said the name. I did also take the assignment.

Turned out not to be as bad as anticipated. Did I have lesson plans? No. But we managed to find the projector, and having movies on seemed to keep the kiddos from going crazy.

(What do I mean by crazy? Students chasing each other brandishing music stands.)

Ah well. It's work, right?

Confusing the Cat

The continuation high school stars a half hour later than the other high schools in the district.

This morning I got called at the usual time. I was told to go to the continuation high school, but there was a caveat. There were a lot of teachers out today (really? on a Friday? sorry for the sarcasm...), and the sub caller wasn't sure if she was going to be able to cover them all, so if she couldn't, she was going to have me go somewhere else. Um, okay...

It was way too early for me to get my head around this. Normally, I'd remain in bed for another half hour, but if I got switched, I'd end up being late. So, I got up and got about halfway ready, and then I sat down and checked my email, blogs, Twitter, et cetera. Waiting and wondering.

That's when I heard the cat meowing outside my door.

She greets me every morning when I leave my room. I assume she hears me get up as she doesn't wake me on the mornings I don't get called (most of the time). She likes to dart in front of me as we descend the stairs. One of these days she's going to end up with a glass of water splashed all over her, but that's another story...

The sub caller did call me back, but only to tell me that she thought she had it all covered. I was glad she called, though. I needed to know the name of the teacher I was to cover.

It was a crazy morning for her. I was more curious than concerned.

So, I had another twenty minutes to kill before I had to move. The cat continued to complain. It was too much trouble to get up and open the door.