not a rant

Last week was Hell Week as far as subbing was concerned, with me running class-to-class baby-sitting more or less feral children, as they all become when they go weeks on end without a consistent teacher for more than two days in a row.

Then I got hooked up with these really cushy jobs. We have some new teachers who did their student teaching here and were hired, but are still finishing up their last credentialing classes or haven't done their mandatory training week with The District, so they require a credentialed presence in the classsroom at all times. That was my job. I was more or less an FA - chilling behind the desk, making notes, helping students with their work. My mentor was responsible for my getting these cushy jobs, as he thought it would be good for me and the other teachers to gain different perspectives. He also wanted to displace the sub who had been filling this position in one particular social studies classroom, as he has the unfortunate tendency to commandeer the lesson from the teacher and preach God's word to the students. So he got kicked out and I was moved in. He was not happy.

Then we found out he'd gotten moved next door to an open long-term English position. You know - the kind I have been asking for since before I went off-track. The kind no one was aware we had available. After a few days someone did the complicated math and moved me into the English class, displacing "Mr. Church," as my kids call him, once more. Now he is day-to-day again, meaning he's taken a cut from ZZ (long-term) pay. Boy, does he hate me. He will not even look at me when we run into each other at the sign-out counter.

The English position has three preps, meaning I must prepare for and teach three different subjects per day. They are: English 10, American Lit, and Drama. Drama?!? Out of two full classes, only two students wanted the class. The rest were just sort of put there. One of the drama classes is a delight; the other requires constant maintenance. In American Lit today we started reading The Things They Carried (the short story, not the larger collection.) It took all period to get started because none of them had any clue what Vietnam was all about. As in, I asked what would have been going on in the world when O'Brien got out of college in 1968 and they were like, World War 2! Me: No, that was in the early 40s. Them: Oh. Uh...Pearl Harbor! One period was really into it and listened intently to my shoddy explanations of geopolitical intrigue. The other period, my last of the day, kind of made me want to die inside. The one girl giving me the most grief was like "I wish I had never come to school today. I am never coming to this class again." I told her, "Well, that's your choice. But I'll be here, and I hope you come back."

Pants. On. Fire.

Again, though, most of my kids are insanely sweet and really just need structure.

They did get one of their previous subs fired, though. At least, one girl did, and then transferred out of the class. The rest of the class is up in arms about it and I notice she hasn't been around lately, which is probably wise. The story is that she asked the sub, who was "tight as hell" and "real," about how drugs get into the US, and then went to the office and told them he was telling the class about drugs, which got him into trouble. I don't know the specifics; the social studies teacher I was FAing for tells me that kids used to say he talked about "weird stuff" even before this, but never specified what said "stuff" was. All I know is, he's gone and my students feel terrible about it, especially since it brought Mr. Church down upon them. This is also an excellent reminder never to trust your students with anything of real importance to you. This sounds like low expectations but really it's just covering your own ass. Example: the first of many students to tell me this story reported that "We were supposed to go to the dean and tell him what happened. But...we forgot."

I started school last week. I have class every Monday night and all day Saturday a few times a month. It's not hard, just inconvenient, though located very close to the apartment.

That being said, we're moving! We have new apartmenty goodness all lined up; the lease is signed and we get the keys on Thursday. It's cute and very cat-friendly, just like me and Aaron, so we will soon be an even larger, furrier, happier family.