GinaFish.com

On Wednesday, I faxed my ‘Verification of Graduation’ and the results of my tb skin test to the company that contracts substitute teachers for various school districts. That day, I went and had lunch with my parents and didn’t really think much about what I had just done.

When I went to sleep that night, I wondered…hm? Wouldn’t I just freak if they called me tomorrow?…

Then at 6 a.m. on Thursday morning, the phone rang! And it was them! Calling to see if I’d like a sub job for the day!?! So I said “Of course!”

They told me the name of the teacher I was subbing for, her subject, what building to go to and to check in by 7:30 a.m. Okey dokey! So I finished getting the kids on the bus, then scrambled to get ready. I left the house at 7:15 and got to the school just fine. I was SUpeR nervous!!

As I was driving there, I just prayed and thought “Okay, God’s with you and he’s not going to let you screw this up. You can’t possible screw anything up if you just watch kids for one day, relax, relax, relax!!”

Just as a side note: I dressed in black pants, black short sleeve sweater with a cobalt blue jacket. That way, I got to wear black flat comfy shoes, and my earrings from Everlastings. Physical comfort and Friendly comfort. Both were important!

So anywho, the secretary showed me where to sign in, gave me a student handbook (I asked for one), and showed me the teachers classroom and her schedule. Lucky me! She had the first period off as her prep period so I had an hour to settle in! At first I didn’t think I would have an assignment to do with the class, but as luck would have it, the secretary brought me an email from the absent teacher about 30 minutes after I got there so it worked out well.

I learned where the teachers lounge was (it was tiny) which also housed the teachers restroom, the work room with the important copier, and that also contained the teachers box. Another teacher came in while I was making copies and I asked her if sub’s normally emptied the box for the teacher. She looked surprised for a minute and said “I’ve never had one do that for me, but it’d be nice!”. So every time I sub, if I can find their box, I’m going to do it!

If there is one thing I remember from high school, is that I always dreaded when people would take roll. It was always an opportunity to embarrass someone by misprouncing their last name or saying the first name that they are trying to keep hidden from everyone in their class. But I’ve always found it easy to pronouce last names, so I figured I’d give it a whirl. So I called out last names, and they gave me their first name. I even surprised a couple of kids by getting their last name right. And really, probably only half the students went by their first name. The other ones used their middle name, or a shortened version of one of them, like John or the girl K.J. Her real first name? Kevin. Seriously. What were her parents thinking?? Hope she knows how much we wanted a boy her whole life?? Ouch!

So the class was 9th grade English and they were reading “The Outsiders”. Yes, the same one that was made into a movie with Timothy Hutton. Good book. I read a bit of it while they were reading too. Mostly I just stared at them all day long. LoL, purposely making them nervous so they wouldn’t try to run over me.

I was all prepared for boys to be trouble makers or class clowns, but totally forgot about girls at 14. Yuck! I only let them play with make up for about three minutes before I shut their party down and gave them the stare down that shouted “Read or suffer my glare!”.

My youngest nephew goes to the high school. He’s in the 10th grade. I was glad I didn’t have him in a class the first day. I called him after school with a bunch of questions. “Okay, what exactly is activity day? Can students eat or drink in class? Can I let them go to the library if they want to and I think it’s okay? Can they wear hats inside?” Stuff that wasn’t exactly covered in the student handbook.

Overall, I think the day went well. I had a big headache when I got home, but I think it was for a lot of reasons. It’s gone now, thank goodness!

Friday morning, I was on edge for a little while. Will they call me? Won’t they? Do I want them too? Well, I didn’t get a call. But I did get a letter from the company saying I had been accepted into the substitute program. lol, a little late for the letter, but I’m glad it wasn’t a fluke and that I’ll hopefully be called again. Gotta test this out as a possible career move.

I’ll let you know how it goes next time too!