So, I got a real job. And because of that, I decided that I should do a review of my last job. Not to discredit my last job as if it were not real, quite the opposite. I had better just get on with it.
See, I've been working as a substitute teacher for a while, while between other jobs, and loving it. No, I never intended to become a teacher or the like, but once I started I found it to be rather fun. First, the how I started. It was one day while at my friends Casey and Riley's house. I don't remember the particulars, but their sister (an elementary school teacher) commented on how she couldn't get a last minute sub for her class. I volunteered, mostly jokingly, but she told me I had to be all this stuff with the district first. Little did she know, when I went home that night, I looked into it. Turns out I met all the qualifications, even though my schooling was in mechanical engineering. So I applied. A few weeks and a background check later, I began my new career as a substitute teacher.
The first and biggest hurdle now to cross was the lack of training. Granted, I have worked with kids for many years of a wide range of ages, but never for pay and never all day either. So, the first job I accepted was one that seemed safe: a half day of high school physics. I was nervous, but stoked at the same time. I got me a briefcase to go with my snappy suit, and went to meet the class. Well, the first days was pretty easy, I just had to show a movie for the last two classes of the day. The teacher was even there at the beginning to show me how to get it started. Piece of cake. I was ready for more.
The next classes I don't necessarily remember the details as much. To pick a job, the teachers all post to this web site and the subs get on and take the classes they want. Hitting refresh every minute or so quickly became tedious. I decided to take the internet into my own hands and was going to write a script or something to do the work for me. As I was searching the topic, I found it had already been done for me, and was provided as an app on my phone to alert me of new jobs. And there was a free trial. So I trialed it. This was a much better solution for sure. When the trial ended, I subscribed. Definitely worth the few dollars a month. Fast forward a while, I found another program that does the same thing in better ways, including adding the job to my calendar automagically. This one is called SubstituteAlert. After trying a few, that's the one I like best and recommend. And it costs less per month.
Back to the story. I took a wide range of classes to teach. I mostly preferred to teach what I knew, leaning towards math and science classes. But I'd do almost any class, if I was feeling adventurous, or didn't get one that I wanted and was tired of waiting. I've done English and history (my two least favorite classes when I was a student), keyboarding, tech, gym, ceramics, art, Spanish, German, Latin, and ASL (though I don't know any other languages very well at all), band, health, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, any other kinds of science, math from calculus to elementary, and pretty much any others down to 4th grade. I've gotten to go to talent shows, be in teacher vs student school wide competitions, participate in field days, class parties, and chalk art festivals. I've even had a couple fights during my reign (nothing too serious, but getting the administration involved really is annoying. If you are a student, just fight off school grounds please). Basically, I've had the privilege of experiencing pretty much all of it.
There's been the doldrums and hard time too, naturally. I must say, when the teacher has the same documentary planned for all 7 periods of the day, and the students just take notes, and the class is too short to even finish the movie, that gets boring. Granted, it is an easy day, just uneventful. I don't expect the teachers to make super fun lesson plans for the sub for when they are away probably sick, I understand that's unreasonable. I just figure I should point out that it's not all a fun adventure every day. There is also the trouble child. Every day seemed to have at least one. It's surprising how much one child can affect the entire class for the worst. And they are all different, I can't just say there is one way to deal with them. Any teacher or person who works with kids knows that already. The advantage of being a sub is that I only have to deal with them for 1 class usually.
I found also that middle school was the most entertaining to work. Elementary was pretty fun too, but the trick there is that I would be with the same kids all day long, and they would learn by the end of the day what they could get away with, and play off that. Granted, I let them have some fun. And why not? If they were working on their stuff, some quiet whispering was fine by me. And in elementary, I never had to do the same thing all day long. Quite the opposite. Those teacher had lesson plans that spanned the full day all prepared for me. Its a bit daunting, when I have 15 minutes before school to read through their few pages worth of what to do in surprising details. Those teachers are impressive. I would have specific allotted time to do vocab, then switch to math, then jump to history, and so on. It kept me on my toes more than the kids I am sure. But the best part of elementary was recess. Especially when I would head out there with them, and every time they would look at me like "What in the world are you doing? Teachers never come to play!" Hey, if they get a break to go play, I should too. I love to swing, and play on the playground, and see how far I can jump off the swing and get the kids to join in the jumping contest until the recess aids tell me it's against the rules (seriously, playground rules are strict these days), and then have the aid look at me all confused and wonder who I was out playing with the kids. I had my substitute badge, so it was all K. Good to know the aids are at least checking who the strangers are around the children though. Oh, and lunch. When I would go to lunch with the kids and sit at their tables, that got them all excited. It's things like that that make the job fun. And plus, kids are just cool. Only in elementary did I get letters and notes from the students at the end of the day thanking me for being their teacher. I save those notes, they are awesome.
High school is trickier. One issue there is that I look like I could still be in high school. This is one reason I would dress up to teach, so I can at least stand out somehow and appear to have authority. But with those students being older, when a sub was in their class they already knew it was not a productive day. Usually. There are a few select teachers that actually plan stuff for the subs besides just watching a movie. If any teachers are reading this, please note that I prefer to actually teach stuff when I sub, not just sit there with busy work. The students usually prefer it too, I think. There is one particular math teacher that I got to sub for that comes to mind. He planned the day for me as if it were a regular day that he would be there. Full lesson plans and homework for the students, and he expected the students to come to me for answers to their questions. Here is the caveat, when a sub chooses their assignment, they know what class they are taking. I think the teachers should be able to expect their subs to know the subject they are accepting, and plan on them being able to be useful to the students, so the day could be productive still. This math teacher has asked for me to come back a few times since then, as I guess his students also liked having a sub that knew what was going on in maths. Anyway, those older students see me more as a peer, not a superior, for the most part. That is fun sometimes, but often they don't care to hide their lack of caring to be in the class at that point. Those are the times its rough. And the classes are long. But still not as long as elementary.
This is where middle school was the right balance. The students are not beyond caring yet, and old enough to be fun and respectful. The classes are short, so any bad ones don't last too long. I don't really know how all to describe it, but middle was my favorite. Also, I felt like I knew enough at that level of schooling to teach almost any subject and be able to answer their questions or help them out if they needed it. Well, one exception to that is girls' gym. I don't think I will ever be qualified for that one.
A couple months ago, I got a new job. It's in engineering, where I had intended to be. So, my substituting days are at their end. Almost. See, this district has a policy to keep a substituting job one must sub at least 1 day each month. So, I have been. Just as a fallback for whatever may happen, and because it's surprisingly fun. I'll write the story of my new job another day, when it becomes a more complete story. For now, I just wanted to thank all the teachers who let me teach their classes, and those students who were awesome. That is all.
