The Sub Life - 10/2/06

Today I was actually given a choice of schools, which I assure you is not normally the way this works. “There’s a 7:30 start and an 8:30 start,” the lady from the sub office tells me. It is currently 6:30 a.m. so the 8:30 start is looking reeeeeally good at this point. I ask her where each school is located and make my choice. 8:30 it is. The school is a little bit west and a couple of miles south of me and a relatively easy commute. My quick Internet research of the school on the CPS website tells me that it is like 80% Hispanic, 10-12% African American and the remainder Asian and white.

I get a parking space right across the street from the school, and there are moments later when I gaze longingly at my white Honda and think how nice it would feel to be in it driving home. When I go inside to the office I realize that it was a good day to be available as a sub. It is Yom Kippur and a whole bunch of teachers are out in observance of the holiday. So many so that one other teacher – Ms. Bondelon – and myself are the only teachers on the entire hallway that day.

I get to my room and quickly realize that I will have a 7th grade class today, the oldest group I have ever worked with. Unlike my previous experiences, the teacher left me very detailed plans and plenty of reading, math, social studies and science activities to keep the kids busy. Hallelujah! In fact, it ends up being more stuff than I can get through. As a sub I love having that problem. There is a bit of trouble tracking down the class roll so I can do attendance but after that is done I am able to get into the material for the day. I also have a quick chat with a student named Carlos, whose desk is right next to mine for some reason.

The primary obstacle for me during this assignment, other than the usual classroom management and misbehavior, is the fact that the kids are used to switching rooms for the different subjects. That will not be the case today due to all of the absent teachers. The kids say things like “We usually go to Mr. So and So’s room for math” and “We usually do math first instead of reading” and I repeat the phrase “I know things are different today and I am sorry, but with the teachers out that is just the way it is” over and over. I do feel bad for the kids though, because routine is still very important even for 7th graders.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing that happens during the day is that a student from another class, Richard, tells me to “F**k off” when I ask him to leave the room after his visit becomes too much social and not enough business. “That was a first,” I think to myself and let it roll right off my back. I tell the kid to get out of the room and eventually tell the security person what he said. I also have to keep telling my buddy Carlos, among others, to knock off the “hip hop interpretations featuring the tapping pen as high hat and hand as drum” routine.

After talking to a teacher’s aide towards the end of the day, I also learn that this class started the year with a sub and just got their permanent teacher the previous week. So, basically they had a sub for two plus weeks, a new teacher for 2 days and then she took off for the holiday. This is pretty rough for them in terms of having any kind of continuity. In light of that they weren’t that bad, I thought. I clock out, head back out to my choice parking spot and head home.