My Substitute Teaching Blog

On Friday I will start another year of working as a substitute teacher for the the local public school district (which is located in a large Midwestern city). Most of the time I work as a substitute for grades 1-5 (I will do upper grades if I'm feeling masochistic or desperate for cash). I was a regular 4th grade teacher in previously in a large suburban district in the Mid-Atlantic prior to moving here.

The big question-Why am I a substitute teacher? There is no simple or single answer.

1. I am not a regular teacher because my certification did not transfer from my previous state (long story for another day), and I'm not ready to go back to school for another 2 years at this point to learn something that I already know how to do.
2. Day to day teaching burns me out very quickly and makes me very cranky. I love the flexibility of deciding each and everyday whether or not I feel like working.
3. I'm looking for what I want to do next. Most likely I will be going to graduate school for library science next summer or fall.
4. The economy is not that great the moment. Working as a substitute teacher beats flipping burgers at McDonald's (well most days it does).
5. I love working with kids.

I hope to fill this blog with some of the silly stories that I bring home each day. Some stories about kids, some stories about other teachers, some about administrators, and some about parents.

I will not be using any real names for children in this blog (unless it is a particularly funny name that I feel must be shared). I've just revised the entire blog so I am not even going to mention my city or the state (Yes I know I am overly paranoid!).

As far as names go, I had a girl name Perspective and a boy named Socrates in the same class. Parents--what are you thinking?? So much for keeping real names out of this.

My first subbing assignment for this year is on Friday. I will be subbing for a 1st grade class---it should be good for several stories.