Subs

I've been a sub for years, and now I'm on the other side of the fence. Since I've been sick a lot this year, and am expected to do trainings as well, I've already had 5 days where I've needed to call a sub. Yikes. It's barely November!

A substitute is a mixed blessing in a classroom like ours. If you're lucky, you get someone who's fairly experienced, and knows how to work with our population of kids skillfully. Oftentimes, though, you are really just getting a little bit of extra adult supervision (which is nice--people need to eat lunch and take breaks), but unfortunately you don't usually get someone who can really do all the things you do in a normal day.

I've tried to alleviate this somewhat by putting together a really detailed subfolder, with the kind of specificity where someone could come in do most of our daily routine (in case I get someone who's a go-getter and wants to give working with a non-verbal student a go). Besides, from a sub's perspective, the day goes by a bit faster if you aren't sitting around while everyone else does the work. That can be really boring...