The End

Well I have been officially offered a new job at the local library. I will be in charge of teen programs for one of the local branches. This probably means for all practical purposes an end to this particular blog. I might do a blog for my new job, or I might not.

There is a chance I might do another day or two of subbing (as a retirement account issue), if so I will add the stories. Otherwise, goodbye and thanks for reading.

Bathroom Breaks

One of the hardest parts of the teaching, or the subbing, day is the bathroom break. The teacher I subbed for today actually had 4 different bathroom breaks in her schedule. When I had my own classroom, I usually had a morning and an afternoon break.

Why is the bathroom break so hard? Well the key to maintaining control of a class is eye contact, once you lose that eye contact all control is lost. If I have a group of 10 girls and 10 boys using the bathroom, usually 3 boys and 3 girls use the bathroom at once. Now do I maintain eye contact with the students in the hall or with the 3 boys in the bathroom (the 3 girls in the bathroom aren't an option since I'm a male teacher). Well I've already lost control of the 3 girls using the bathroom, you will use the bathroom for an extended break of talking and makeup application. Do I keep the eye on the boys in the hall who are about to fight or on the boys in the bathroom who decide to play with the toilets and have a water fight. Little kids and bathrooms are absolutely gross!

I was supposed to go through this silliness three times today. I'm sure some of you wonder why I don't just send the kids to the bathrooms on their own. Well its usually against school policy in most urban schools...and here's the kicker if you did send a student to the bathroom on their own and something were to happen to them, you as the teacher are liable for what happens to them. Ninety dollars a day isn't worth it sometimes.

My subbing career will be over in the next week or so, I've been offered a library job---they are just trying to figure out the best branch for me at the moment. So for my last week of subbing I am going to be picky as hell!

Will I miss subbing? I'm sure there will be a little part of me that will, but I am not going to miss my role as disciplinarian. Not one little bit.

Paris Hilton- substitute teacher?

This entry doesn't have anything to do with me subbing, but it seemed an appropriate story for Where's My Real Teacher? anyway.

I can't believe that New Jersey's laws are so loose that they would let 2 bimbos in off of the street to substitute teach. I completely understand the parents being ticked off about having these two teach their children. I can't believe only 34 parents cared enough to object though. I worry about those 340 parents who didn't care.

Still it would have been funny to try and watch these two actually teach, the students would have chewed them alive!
CNN.com - N.J. school says 'no' to 'Simple Life' - Jan 11, 2005

The Fat Lady Hasn't Sung Yet, But The Fat Man Gets Hungry

Well I thought before Christmas vacation that my subbing career was finally be, well I spoke so soon. I am still in the running for one of the library jobs that I applied for (I have a 3rd interview next week), but things aren't falling into place as quickly as I hoped.

It was hard going back to sub again, partially because its been good to have two weeks off, but mainly because I know that I truly want this other job.

A half day assignment came up on the sub website last night, so I figured that would be a good way of getting my foot wet again. It was only from 1:00 to 4:00, the only draw back was it was with one of the difficult classes that I had taught shortly before winter break. I figured 3 hours couldn't be that bad, especially since they would leave the school by 3:30 and might even have one of their special classes. Well I was lucky, when I arrived they went right to art class for an hour. So I actually only had the class from 2:00 until 3:15, and for that I received a half days worth of pay (so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much).

The class was basically as rowdy as last time, mainly lots of talking this time. One of the boys in the class was singing the song from Rally's Hamburger's commercials, "Gotta Have It, Gotta Have It." I told the boy he had to stop because he was making me hungry (which was true because I hadn't eaten at all yet today (poor planning on my part). And this boy thought this was the absolute funniest thing he had ever heard....first he couldn't understand how I could be hungry given my large size, second he decided to taunt me by describing every single type of horrible junk food in the world. He thought he could make me hungrier, of course he did. I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it. So much for those New Year's resolutions.