Surprise!

Today was a FUBAR sort of day. I had accepted the job about a week ago to substitute in a 4th grade classroom. One of the nice things about accepting a job a week or more beforehand, is that the regular teacher has plenty of time to prepare plans and materials for the substitute.

I arrived at the school this morning, and the school secretary informed me that the teacher I was to sub for was reassigned from 4th to 2nd grade yesterday. I arrive in the classroom and it is a disaster---her desk might even have been messier than my desk. I find her lesson plans, and for practically each subject I either have to make copies or transparencies to teach the lessons. One especially aggravating thing, was for one lesson she wanted to me to make copies of something that she didn't even have.

I always arrive at the school about 40-50 minutes before class begins, so that I can familiarize myself with the lesson and review students names. So now instead of me preparing myself to teach, I am going to be working as her secretary. This pisses me off to no end. I can understand with teachers who call in sick that morning, maybe something wasn't ready ahead of time. But this teacher new she was having a substitute for over a week.

Because of this the lessons did not go smoothly at all, I was constantly going back to the plan book to see what I am supposed to do next. And since all the students were completely new to this teacher, there were no procedures in place for bathroom breaks, pencil sharpening, or the other usual silliness. So here it is I look like the clod not knowing what to do next, when actually it was the regular teacher who didn't have her act together.

Other than that it was a fun bunch of kids that I worked with today. No real problems and everyone made it through the day, including the teacher without crying.