Not the day I expected

Friday, March 17, 2023

I had a sub job scheduled for several months for today. The teacher teaches orchestra lessons, and I picked up the job out of the scheduling app because orchestra kids are the best and I figured small group lessons would be a delightful day compared to wrangling some classrooms. I was at the same school Wednesday as I would have been today and I asked if I was going to be allowed to sub for the teacher as scheduled, or if they might consider sending me elsewhere. I have subbed for him in other schools (he has an itinerant schedule), but when I came here once to work for him, I was told he didn’t have a schedule and that I was going to special ed. I am glad that I asked, because the office coordinator told me I would be going to phy ed.

I don’t know a lot of subs, because we don’t really cross paths, but I do know a few and none of us take our job scheduling lightly. We are able to choose our schedules – when and where and for whom/what subject we are subbing. Most people I know are terrified of music jobs, which make sense if you don’t read music or play an instrument. I have gotten very selective – generally only subbing for teachers I know who have an organized classroom or for subjects I am very confident in. I also do not sub for phy ed. About five years ago (pandemic really messes with my ability to gauge time), a student badly broke her leg in a joint PE class. I was enormously relieved that it was a joint class and that a real PE teacher was there to deal with everything and I just had to deal with the 60 other kids, but I have not subbed for PE since. So I said no thank you, cancel me and let someone else come to do music and end up in Phy Ed.

Last night, I looked at available jobs. There was no reason for me to stay home today – I have been accomplishing absolutely nothing at home lately, so going to work is much more interesting. The choir director at the high school needed a sub. All teachers have the ability to write a note and attach it to their absence. I think people who take the time to write a note and write, “Sub plans will be on my desk,” are so entirely lame I will never sub for them. DUH! Sub plans are ALWAYS on the desk. The choir director had written, “any sub will be successful with this good group of students. There is no need to be a music teacher.” I really wanted to reward that guy for writing a good note, so I picked up the job.

I showed up a couple minutes late, because the official start time is a whole hour before first hour starts. I figured if I was six minutes late, it would be no big deal. I told the office coordinator that I was running late, and she said unless I really thought I needed the time to prep for my classes I was welcome to come late. She said their building sub comes at 45 minutes “late” every day. When I was working there regularly, I needed that time to prep, but as a daily sub, it’s highly unlikely.

Even though I did not want to be “repurposed” at the middle school, the teacher I job shared with all fall needed to leave this morning, so I volunteered to jump in for her instead of choir. It just made sense. Since she wasn’t planning on needing to leave (not feeling well), she had no plans other than that the 11th graders had an assignment on the computer they could do, and could I give a lecture on the Russian Revolution for three sections of 10th grade. I KNOW about the Russian Revolution! Lucky!

My first hour class was happy to have me back, or they did a very good job of pretending. They worked as diligently as they always did. I had a girl in third hour who did an absolutely perfect double take as she walked into the room, “It’s YOU!” It was a compliment 🙂 I had a boy come in dressed in a leprechaun shirt 4th hour and start showing me treasure he had in a little pot-of-gold pot. When another student said something about giving Mrs. Thompson a break, he looked up and was totally surprised to find me standing there instead of his regular teacher. Every class asked about the Amazon and I told them about giant ants and searching for caiman. The caiman story captivated big kids as much as it did medium-sized kids. They were very proud of me for being in charge of screaming, because, afterall, someone should be in charge.

I stopped in the office at lunch to get a key to the restroom. The office coordinator told me that the orchestra director had volunteered to do double duty and keep an eye on the choir, since there was now no sub. The two rooms connect with a small area of practice rooms between them. He put out a clip board for them to sign in on, so attendance could be done, and went to start his class. When he went to check on choir, everyone (and the clip board) had disappeared. He called the office to tell them that he had lost the choir. I asked where they had been found. She shrugged and said, “They weren’t found, as far as I know. But it’s not really my job to track them down.”

So, I didn’t do orchestra lessons, I didn’t do phy ed., I didn’t do choir, and I especially didn’t lose a choir. I did social studies and it was a great day.

Keith has orchestra in Eau Claire this weekend, so we drove through Wisconsin after school – stopping at Taco John’s for dinner as we usually do. Our friend Dan is playing in the trumpet section this concert and he rode along with us. Turns out he is a big fan of Taco John’s, too. Win win.