Waffles Radio

Most of the time when the schedule has changed I’ve been a not very happy person about it.  I think my day of middle school art is the best example, but I don’t think I have to tell you that it’s a pain to go into a school, read the plans, then learn that you’re going to be thrown off because the schedule is different.  I think you can figure out where I’m going here.

The problems actually started the day before, when the class had a different sub.  They didn’t finish the work, and the sub left a note saying that they should get to finish it the next day.  The teacher did leave sub plans for multiple days so the I’m guessing that the sub was just incompetent^[1] and didn’t make them actually work^[2].  So I had to pick up their slack and try to get the work done that he wanted to have done on my day too.  What fun.

Too bad I was doomed.  The school decided they would need to have everyone in the musical go practice.  So everyone not in the musical went to their first class and watched the movie version.  All 3 hours.  The kid I thought would be a problem^[3] was actually the biggest help in keeping everyone quiet, if not paying attention.

We ended up having about 30 minutes in each class.  Not enough time to get anything done if you ask me.  Surprisingly, the kids actually tried.

I never assign homework, it’s just not my place^[4].  But with these kids, I told them it would probably be a good idea to take the book home and catch up to where they were supposed to be.  I have no idea if they did it, but they were at least good enough to not complain about it.

1. and thus should go hang out with these monsters [↩]
2. Just for reference, I take up work and let the teacher know if anything out of the ordinary keeps the work from having an opportunity to get done.  This rarely works out to where the entire class has the same excuse.  Rather, individual people get a special note left about them.  Usually it’s because they were called to the office. [↩]
3. I’ve had him before.  Let’s just say that he’s not the kind of kid you’d imagine would appreciate Matthew Broderick in something that didn’t involve monkeys or gallivanting across town. [↩]
4. Except for one girl who’s dad was in Iraq.  I told her to go home and make something to send to him.  But I don’t think that counts. [↩]

One of the best things that can happen when I go into a class is knowing that the kids are doing the same thing with me that they would have done with the regular teacher.  That’s what happened with this class.  Sadly, no super heroes were involved.

But they did work on the monologues that they would have been working on anyway.  Except for the class that swore they had them done and memorized.  Which I believe since the teacher told me they were further along than everyone else.  They ended up playing improve games to fill the extra time.

Worksheets.  I know the teachers are leaving me worksheets because they’re easy.  And I appreciate that, I really do.  But it’s so much of a pain to give out worksheets and expect the kids to not talk the entire time.  The teacher says that the work should be done individually, never really mentions if they can talk to not, but we all know what that means.

The main thing that saved this day was that they’d all had me before so they knew not to mess with me.  Otherwise, this could have been bad.  The kids aren’t bad by any means, they just know how to manipulate a sub.  I can’t really blame them for that either.

Remember my worst day ever?  I saw this class pop up and I decided to grab it again.  Mostly because I was really surprised when I had problems.  I don’t have problems with the kids at this school.

Turns out it was a good move.  Kids asked about what happened last time.  But nobody tried to pull anything this time.  The girl who asked if I wanted her to throw up her candy saw that I was there and started complaining.  But her assistant principal heard it and she was called to guidance literally 3 seconds after the bell rang.  How’s that for protecting the sub?

That’s just one reason of many on why I love subbing at this school.

Another day in Language Arts.  I’m really tired of writing that, but it’s how it is.  The kids did their work.  The teacher knew I was coming as opposed to someone else and left money for me to use the snack machine.

It’s not really something to complain about at all.  Especially with free candy.  I just like it more when there’s things to do.

Wow, talk about a roller coaster.  This started off as a 2 day assignment and the last two days got added later.  Crazy, I know.  Which is made even more so by the fact that I had jobs lined up for the last two days and got asked if I’d please stay with this orchestra class instead of going to those other jobs.

The orchestra classes were no problem at all.  I told them when we started that I didn’t play and I couldn’t help them fix anything, but I could tell them where they messed up or at least where I heard something that sounded off to me.  Everyone was fine with that, and for the most part everyone in those classes played the whole time and got further into songs than they’d gotten before.  I’m a bit worried that I would have them practicing bad habits, but I didn’t think about that until afterward.

The non-orchestra classes were a different matter.  This school has a time sort of like a home room where they do extra things, and the subject matter depends on what teacher they’re with.  My classes went to the computer lab.  On the first day they were talkative and didn’t do their work.  But they started behaving better and better each day.

I wish I could have more multiple day assignments like that.  The kids act a lot differently when they know you’re going to be back.  And for that matter when they know you’re not going to put up with all of their stupid sub behaviors either.

Ah, student teachers.  Subbing in a room where there’s one of those is an adventure no matter how the class is.  You’ve got to figure out who holds the power and how much work the student teacher expects you to do.

This was one of the first days where the student teacher was supposed to run the entire show.  I came in and told her that I’d be as useful or as useless as she wanted me to be.  I’d rather be useful, even it it’s busy work for me that she didn’t want to have to do later.  Instead I sat around all day and watcher her try to control the classes.  They didn’t listen to her.  Honestly, I wouldn’t either if the harshest punishment was to move to a different seat and the teacher didn’t make me actually do it.

But who am I to complain?  I got paid to sit around all day.  I drew a nice picture.  I got to watch the classes in a different way than I usually get to do.  I also didn’t leave a note since I didn’t really do anything and the only things I would have said would have been negative stuff about the student teacher and that just wouldn’t be a good idea on so many levels.  Besides, the regular teacher has probably noticed the same thing.

Language Arts.  I think I’ve said enough about this.  I don’t mind subbing there, but if I have a choice I let it go.

This group of classes was pretty well behaved.  They did their work.  They didn’t complain about stuff.  That’s really all I can ask for.

I was supposed to be doing 6th grade math on this day.  But for some reason the teacher put it in wrong and didn’t make sure that the mistake was corrected.  To make things even more confusing there was a workshop or something that the teachers could go to that day so when I went to check in and she was there everybody figured that’s what happened.

But it wasn’t.  You know when people say they’re sorry but it really doesn’t sound like they mean it at all?  That’s the vibe I got while I was talking to her.  I get that she was probably confused that I came into the room.  But she also tried to convince me that I came in on the wrong day and that it wasn’t her fault.  And maybe it wasn’t.  Maybe someone else put it into the computer wrong.  But in the end, I think it’s still her responsibility to make sure that her days are entered into the system correctly.

The only thing we could get me that late in the day was to supervise standardized testing.  It sucked.  Not only because I had to sit in a computer lab with people who were finishing their tests, but also because I only got a half day when I’d been prepared for a full day.  Hell, I’d even grabbed this early so I spend a few days not seeing what other jobs were open because of her mistake.

Oh well.  I was done at 10:30.  And she got onto my “I’ll never sub for you again unless I’m getting extra money out of it” list.

The plans for every class on this day said to just let the students practice and that they would do what they were supposed to do.  I was rather skeptical to put it nicely.  I’ve probably gotten a bit too cynical based on teacher saying that their classes would do the work and then they didn’t.  But on this day, she was actually right.

The only problems I had with any of the orchestra classes were who got to run the tuner.  Outside of that everybody actually practiced the entire time.  It was amazing.

She also had a class that was music appreciation.  That class watched the movie, and I went in to make sure they don’t talk dictator role.  That probably didn’t need to happen because they all paid attention.

She did tell me to watch out for this class, but I think I need to form my own opinion and not form one based on what the teacher but for me.