Substituting

I remember in the day (ahem, Bryan ISD back in college) when there were enough sub jobs to go around. This was a time before a husband had to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to get his wife a job for the following morning so she doesn't have to spend hours clicking "refresh" on the web browser hoping for a job to pop up just to get gone 3 seconds later due to someone else's faster fingers (not frustrating at all!...). This is an era also when it obviously doesn't matter what school or age or subject you get...you just take it. Such is life for me now. I've learned that it's just one day. I can do anything for one day. Whether that's teaching a bilingual class, special ed, or band (yes, I've experienced all of them in the last week), I'm thankful for the opportunity and I get to go home at the end of each day.

I'm not going to lie, substituting is pretty great. Not something I can make a career out of, but for now it's perfect. I haven't decided which grade level I like best (not that it really matters, because I'll take any job that comes along). There are pros and cons for each. High school you get the attitude. Junior high you get the obnoxious I'm-hormonal-and-think-it's-cool-to-act-like-I'm-in-2nd-grade behavior. And in elementary you've got to take bathroom breaks (when you never get one yourself) and if you have a hard class - you got to keep them the whole day!

But I've gotten some fun comments...
"you're pretty, most of our subs are not good looking at all..."
"you're nice" (aka - my normal teacher is mean)
"our teacher always lets us do this!" (when referring to helping each other on a test...riight)
"aw, she's so cute" (and over a decade older than you...thank you)
"workbook? what's that?" (um, the thing that you've used everyday for the last 6 months while in this class!)

What's funny is that students still think that they can get away with anything with a sub. I mean they don't sit in their assigned seats and then seemed shocked when I'm able to look at the seating chart and confirm that no, not all you chatty girls with big earrings and too much make-up actually sit together everyday. Or trying to smoothly pass notes by stretching theirs arms really far and thinking I don't see that piece of paper fly from their hand. Or looking at their neighbors paper on a test and when getting caught acting like they found something on the floor suspiciously close to the answers they were trying to get a glance at. Or one friend asking to go to the bathroom and 1 minute later another friend asking to go, thinking I wouldn't remember. It's quite humorous actually. Maybe because 75% of the subs that I've met are over the age of 65, they can usually can get away with it. But not me. You might be a foot taller than me and a heck of a lot louder, but not today. Sorry to bust your bubble. :)

I've always said that life is about experiences...:)