Just a Sub Part 3

This occurred during the fourth of those four experiences I mentioned in Just a Sub Part 2. It takes place in a middle school where I had never worked before.

It began with a misunderstanding, I assume. I was asked over the phone if I’d be interested in a long term sub position filling in for the Spanish teacher. I was certified in Spanish, so I figured it would be something different and some experience under my belt.  I agreed to come in that Thursday to “observe” and “see if it might work out.”

 I figured the Spanish teacher was about to go on maternity leave or have some kind of major planned surgery and would show me around a little to begin with.  It was a luxury I had never had before.

Or it would’ve been.  When I got there Thursday, the substitute coordinator and assistant principal both sat me down, separately, and gingerly explained, “Our Spanish teacher has been out on medical leave for four  [or five, in one version] months, and  there have been strings of different substitutes since then. We just haven’t been able to find anyone certified in Spanish.”

Wait.

 1 ) Now I remember where I’ve heard this school’s name before. I applied for a job as a Spanish teacher here at the beginning of the year!

2) If the teacher’s been gone that long, who will I be observing?

Oooh shoot, not again….

“So do you think this is something you'd be interested in?”

“Definitely.“ 

I have plenty of stories about this one and plenty of lessons learned, and they will be told later.

They did send another substitute  to the classroom with me to show me where the books for each class were. No one was really able to tell me how far the kids had gotten; I was given notes from a few different substitutes that all said different things. I decided to start the beginning classes off with basic introductions because it didn’t look like they had really had any instruction in anything else. For the advanced class, I would give them a pre-test of sorts to guage what they knew.

So that’s where I started. To avoid disciplines problems that resulted from the lack of routine, I set up materials before each class and established the routine of doing warm-up activities each day. I assigned work and took it up. It worked great for a little while.

But what you have to understand is that with these types of situations, you never know how long they will last. You’re repeatedly asked to stay “one more week,” and because of this, you’re not given a computer. It’s just not worth it.

This means that, except for the teacher next door, you are cut off from the rest of the school unless you can find them in the hall between classes. You can’t record discipline infractions like other teachers, communicate with parents or other faculty via email or record grades. Eventually the kids realize this and any authority you might’ve had is compromised; they realize you’re just a sub.

And the worst part is that everyone forgets you don't have that power. When you find someone in the halls to ask for help, they ask you to email the question later, until you remind them you can’t do that.  Then they forget again.

But when the parents complain, they pay attention.

The Friday before what would turn out to be my last week there, the administrator who had met me upon my arrival came to the classroom. After the kids left, she asked, in a hushed, stern voice, “Do we have any grades for this class? Parents have been calling in asking for grades. There are no grades online, and the grading period's about to end. They’re threatening to call the superintendent.”

And how exactly am I supposed to fix that?

“I have been taking up work and keeping it to be graded. I haven’t known from week-to-week whether I was staying, so I didn’t know if I should grade anything. I can grade the work if you need me to, but I don’t have any way of recording grades: no grade book or computer to put grades online. I’m just a sub. It’s hard place to be in.”

(Emphasis added)

Substitutes like us live in a gray area. It’s a dark gray that’s easy to get lost in. Going into this experience, I knew a little more how to navigate it than I did going into the first one, but from this experience I learned even more. If there’s a next time, it will be better.

For the kids’ sakes, I worked through lunch and stayed after work to grade the assignments I had taken up. Having no other way to record them, and with my computer access still pending, I took sheets of paper from my notebook and copied the rosters of all six classes by hand. I recorded the grades there and handed by back the work. The day before I left, they set up the old desktop in the back of the room so that I could put grades online.

And yeah, I left. The original teacher didn’t come back. They hired someone else, a native Spanish speaker.  I interviewed for the job and they kept telling me how impressed they were with me, until the parents started threatening to call the superintendent.

If there’s a next time, grading will be on my list of things to bring up.

Thanks y’all,

Kelli