Deep Breath and Move On

On most days, subbing is a crap shoot. You never really know what kind of class you're walking into, what kind of mood the students will be in, and what sort of sub plans the teacher has left for you. It is an adventure to walk into the classroom. Every class is different, some will wait patiently while you try to figure out what is going on, and some will attempt to set the building on fire while waiting.

The third grade class I subbed for on Wednesday was much closer to the latter. I try to arrive early to be prepared, but there are always some start of the day things that pop up. The first couple of activities were rough, but I've learned to just preserver until the students go out for recess or to a special to regroup. Which is what is did. Knowing that this class didn't have much tolerance for down time, I made sure that everything was laid out to get me through until lunch time, the class came back, and SHAZAAM things went much better for the remainder of the day.  But by much better, I still had a class that:

• about a third of the students requested to go to the office for "upset tummies," later, I found out that this school has a policy of giving mints to students with upset stomachs...maybe not the best plan, office ladies

• a student that requested to call home about 10 different times (and seriously, 10 is a conservative estimate), and on at least 2 separate occasions, I caught trying to make a phone call after being told no (and no, I'm not a meanie, there was a note from the teacher that she's a chronic home caller, to the point where the parents say not to let her call)

• another student that had a mysterious aliment causing her eyes to blur whenever she was required to do work, but be fine any other time

• a student attempting to use a 2 foot pencil for the entire day (okay, that one was pretty entertaining).

Ah, subbing, there is no job in the world quite like it.

On the job front, the job search is becoming discouraging. For a short time, there were jobs being posted everyday. Not always for this area, but still jobs. Now that is slowing down, and I've gotten a couple of "Thanks, but no thanks" letters from school districts this week. It is getting pretty tough not to get down about the job hunt, especially when lots of well meaning people ask about interviews and point out vacancies. It's tough to put on the happy face and keep telling people, "Nope, no real prospects, and thanks I've applied for that, but haven't heard anything." Perhaps, I just need a distraction from all of this...