not the best time...

"It's not just you...there just isn't much happening right now," is what he told me.

This is one of the slowest years for subbing I can remember. Not that I've been doing this all my life or anything but this is my third year now. The other two, my phone rang off the hook. This year is eerily quiet.

Most of the calls I'm getting right now are for Elementary SPED jobs, which I will admit I'm trying to avoid until the worst of the flu season is over. I've had a couple for some high school positions, but either they're at schools that are way too far away to get there in a timely fashion, or it's for subjects like PE where I wouldn't have a clue what to do once I got there...

Everyone's cut way back on hiring. The few job postings I've seen are all half-time gigs. Everyone's talking like there's going to be layoffs or their near equivalent-all the probationary folks will not be asked back again next year...

I already had my taste of the good life for a couple of weeks on a long-term assignment, and will admit that I still wish I could have had something full-time going on this year, but at the same time, it's kind of nice to not have the insecurity of layoffs hanging over my head, along with all of the other stresses.

I'm just a sub, I don't have much to lose. I either get called, or I don't. I either work or I don't. There's no expectation one way or another.

Either way, I don't have to go to meetings and grade papers. I don't have to worry much about being evaluated by administrators--other than the informal variety one gets as a sub. I get a lot of the fun of actually working with kids without some of the chores that come with having to grade and evaluate them. The tradeoff of course is I usually get kids who are trying to show me all their best sub-moves, but frankly this is more amusing than truly annoying.

For my purposes as a sub who comes and goes from their lives, all they have to do to make me happy is stay on task and act appropriately for a school setting, and I'm perfectly happy. All I ask for is a referral-free day, and usually I get that.

The insecurity of all of this has actually been a blessing in disguise--I've had time to think more seriously about what kinds of things I'd like to do in a classroom once I get my shot at a full-time job. I've had time to really build up some curricular materials, potential unit plans, a grammar study program, and ways to make literacy more engaging and potentially appealing to goofy teenage boys.

What subbing has taught me is that I know I CAN do my thing with just about anyone, anywhere, and often at the last minute. Whether or not I get the chance to do it at the same place for two days in a row with a salary and benefits remains to be seen, but things are the way they are.

There's lots of talk about budget cuts and desperate measures, and I think this is not going to be my year, but then again, it doesn't have to be. I'm not special, and I can be like everyone else, as Ken Peterson would no doubt say. I'm sure all of us substitute teachers are feeling about the same way right now. And yes, it does suck that things are this bad, but it's not the end of the world. If money was my main concern, I'd probably get out of this business, and get in on the debt collection racket.

If I have to sub again next year too, then so be it. If I have to sub again the year after that, then so be it. The way I see this is: babies are born every day, and I'm in this game for the long haul, so I don't mind pacing myself. And it can't rain all the time...