This is why it both pleases and amuses me that a lot of the high-schoolers I sub teach show up in classic rock band t-shirts. They know the music, too--- their parents are raising them well.
What made me unhappy today ?
- Thread starter big soft moose
- Start date
Whenever a kid shows up in a "vintage" band shirt I play the music in class. Hope to either turn them on or break that stupid fashion trend.
More annoyance than unhappiness, but earlier this morning I took a half day PM sub teaching job at one of my favorite schools. 25 minutes ago, I was all dressed and ready when the phone rang. It was the school secretary. They didn't need me after all, they'd filled the vacancy with one of their building subs.
It's a very real possibility that they'll fill most positions with a building sub, and I won't get a look in hardly at all. That would be full-on unhappiness.
It's a very real possibility that they'll fill most positions with a building sub, and I won't get a look in hardly at all. That would be full-on unhappiness.
Last edited:
I abandoned substitute teaching back in the eighties because the school district treated subs so poorly. Never again.
You mean rotten stuff like making you work through lunch and never letting you go to the bathroom? Not standing up for you when the kids were defiant and rude? Being slow with your pay? Awful.
My districts do pretty well. Yeah, sometimes I have to cover classes during my prep period, but generally when the teacher's prep period is the last one of the day, they let me knock off early. It evens out.
And the other teachers and the kids like me.
No, it was being called at the last minute ("Can you get here in half an hour?), rushing to class so fast that my freshly washed hair froze in the cold, then arriving to discover my first class was not for two hours. Teachers who not only leave no instructions but no roll books. Being called to teach PE without anyone knowing if I needed to dress for outdoor field hockey or the dance class. Being called at the last minute to cover for a teacher who requested a sub two weeks earlier. Telling the person who calls that I cannot teach after 1:00, being assured all pertinent classes are morning classes, then arriving to discover there are two afternoon classes. Agreeing to teach biological science and arriving to discover I'm there for French, a language I can't even cuss in, let alone actually speak. A couple of teachers in the breakroom who make sure I overheard them talking about how subs are just "babysitters with no qualifications."
It wasn't the kids. Kids are kids. It was the damned administration.
Did I mention the state's second largest school district paid their subs the least daily wage by a wide margin?
I did love teaching lower grade school PE, though. Everyone else seemed to hate it, so I got called for that a lot. I also covered for the HS art teacher at least once or twice a month during the fall and winter. That was fun. The first time I subbed art, one of my dance students was the teacher next door. She came through the connecting door, introduced me, announced she did not expect ANY PROBLEMS, and departed, leaving the poor students wide-eyed. There were no problems.
It wasn't the kids. Kids are kids. It was the damned administration.
Did I mention the state's second largest school district paid their subs the least daily wage by a wide margin?
I did love teaching lower grade school PE, though. Everyone else seemed to hate it, so I got called for that a lot. I also covered for the HS art teacher at least once or twice a month during the fall and winter. That was fun. The first time I subbed art, one of my dance students was the teacher next door. She came through the connecting door, introduced me, announced she did not expect ANY PROBLEMS, and departed, leaving the poor students wide-eyed. There were no problems.
I guess I had a very supportive family. They nurtured my love of reading, starting me off with comics - Tintin, Lucky Luke, Asterix & Obelix - building up to things like Archie, going into chapter books like Beverly Cleary's "Fudge," Donald J. Sobol's "Encyclopedia Brown" and so on...The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, etc.
The one thing that did piss me off about reading was in school when I was TOLD I HAD to read X, Y, and Z. That really annoyed me - I had no interest in Moby Dick or Shakespeare or Jane Austen at the time so telling me I had to read them just made me not want to read them. Is it REALLY that hard - with the sheer variety and volume of literature available - for schools to find books that youth WANT to read on whichever topic? There's books on basketball, hang gliding, paper airplane mechanics, jokes, video game strategy guides (take a look at the guide for Skyrim for example), cookbooks.....can't the school just assign youth to read a book on a topic they're interested in and write a book report, give a presentation? Now.....are those examples considered "great literature"? Probably not, but before you ask students to read a book like "War & Peace" or something like "Dante's Inferno," they NEED to have a desire to read.
Without that desire....educators and society are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to developing basic and advanced literacy skills.
If the children's love of reading had been nurtured beyond Harry Potter....I really think it would have been great for society.
Similar threads
