So after that first day of subbing, I was not at all upset when I did not receive a position on day 2...I took the day to recover and pass my resume out at random schools.
The next morning I was given a call a bit after 6am, by now I know that I will never be called at the time I was supposed to be called at.
This time I was at least told that I would be filling in for middle grades...ok, fair enough.
I show up at the time I was told to report at, and apparently the school expects the subs to be there a lot earlier than the time I was given, because the clerk that I checked in with at the office did not seem all that please with my performance thus far, it was only 8:20 am.
I guess she could tell by some of my questions that I was not as affluent a sub as she would have liked. She asked me how long I've been subbing and I straight up told her the truth, "to be honest it's my second day...", to which she replied, "I would have never had you come". I just apologized for the hatred she felt toward me, and tried to reassure her that I would do my best...
She greatly underestimated my ability to wing it, because I ended up having a great day with the 7th grade class I was assigned to. I mostly ruled with the Candy hand. They might act like they don't care about candy, but they do, oh they do. The other teachers on the middle grade floor that I was on assured me that I had done an excellent job and that I should not worry about the fact that the clerk lady sorta hated me.
When I left that day I was sure that my great performance was reason enough to show up the next day, as I had been assigned. Little did I know that the clerk was not expecting me showing up again. As I was getting set up in my classroom another man walked in, an older, more experienced African American man. Apparently he was assigned to this same class. We quickly became best friends and decided to go down to the office and sort this mis-understanding out. The clerk lady was pretty upset that I had shown up, and I think she thought I was trying to pull a fast one. I assured everyone that I would turn around and go home if they did not want me there and that this was an honest mis-communication. I am an honest person, and would have not have shown up somewhere had I known I was unwanted. After she called the sub center to tell them of my unwanted presence at her school, she calmed down and said that another sub they were expecting didn't show up and that we could both stay for today. I apologized profusely, and made last attempts to convince her of my innocence. I told her I would go anywhere she needed me to work. She put me back in the 7th grade class.
This was a good decision because when I opened the door to the class, revealing that I would indeed be subbing for them that day, I got a mildly enthusiastic applause that broke out among the students. I gained back some of my broken spirit by feeling that I somewhat belonged in this place.
Our day went really well, actually better than the previous day, probably because they sorta liked me and because I had developed my instincts on what each kid needed to get through the day. I was also able to bribe them with a short free time at the end of the day, providing that they follow a few simple rules as well as finish allll the work the teacher had left for them (which was a lot). They earned their free time and I left feeling a boost of confidence in my ability to do this thang. The teachers in the school kept telling me how well I had done, maybe they meant in comparison to other subs...either way. I made peace with the clerk lady by making yet another apology and plead for forgiveness in my mis-understanding (mmm hmmm). Another teacher in the office spoke up behind me telling her how well I did with the class, and she let me go with a , "I'm sure we will see you back here soon"....phewwwww
the freakin weekend, I turned 25
No comments:
Post a Comment