succumbing to the inevitable
Everyone in Portland seems to have this stomach virus thing--so it stands to reason that I would end up with it too...
Everyone in Portland seems to have this stomach virus thing--so it stands to reason that I would end up with it too...
A situation that comes up a lot in subbing (especially at the secondary level) is subbing in relatively unstructured classes like Resource, or "Academic Support". These can be an absolute nightmare as a sub because the less structure the class has to begin with, the more headaches you will have as a sub. I was reminded of this phenomenon by a recent post of a first year teacher struggling to tame her Resource Room. Unfortunately it's fairly typical to have problems running this kind of classroom because a lot of of the accountability and structure that you can count on in other settings is not a given.
Labels: teaching
Current mood :: indifferent and cranky
It seems like self-reliance is back in style these days. For some of us, it always has been. Nothing beats the gloom and doom of the financial news I get bombarded with every day like knowing that I can take care of myself pretty much no matter how bad things get. Really, if push came to shove, and we lost our house, it would be a setback, to be sure, but not the end of the universe. We'd figure something out.
How do you know if you're a good sub, an average sub, or a terrible sub? That's basically the question I was reflecting on in my last "success" post. As a sub, you don't get much feedback from anyone (other than the kids), and they're pretty subjective. Granted I've seen a variety of subs in action; once, when I was in high school, I watched a truly amazing sub whip my unruly business elective class back into shape. On the other hand, I've seen some really bad subs during graduate school when I was doing my field observations, the worst being the guy who came in to the class, sat down in the far corner of the room, pulled out a novel, and completely ignored the kids for the rest of the period. I've probably written about him elsewhere, as he is my poster child for what NEVER to do as a substitute teacher.
Yesterday, I got an email about the joys of living in Arkansas, which for the most part is broadly applicable to the whole delta region:
Like a lot of people who spend their days teaching, I tend to feel pretty lazy when the weekend rolls around. Today was no exception.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people have trouble spelling the word "success", so I decided to make that today's verbal meditation topic. I had a girl ask me that for the umpteenth time today, so it's on my mind...
No, not the good kind of floating. The bad kind. For the first time in awhile, I was in a "floating" school (a school that doesn't have dedicated classrooms), a situation I haven't been in since student teaching.
Labels: teaching
I've been meaning to write about this for a long time. "Sub-time" is something unique to the experience of substitute teaching, and an exception to all the known laws of physics. "Regular time" is something I think we're all pretty familiar with--60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours to a day, 7 days to a week, 52 weeks to a year, and so on. Sub-time works a bit differently.
Is there anything better than a three-day weekend?
"You're the best sub ever," the girl with the fading pink hair said as I came around the corner to the door of a very-familiar classroom at a very familiar school.
Labels: teaching.
"Who would I know here?" I asked myself, as I walked past the windows towards the office of an unfamiliar school.
"You're the best sub ever," the girl with the fading pink hair said as I came around the corner to the door of a very-familiar classroom at a very familiar school.
Man oh man, was I ever tired this morning, so I guess it's just as well that I didn't get a single phone call...I could not keep my eyes open to save my life.
"It's not just you...there just isn't much happening right now," is what he told me.
No car = no work.
William Matthew Brown
Today I won the substitute teaching jackpot!
Labels: teaching
I usually work on Wednesdays so it was kinda weird having this one off.