Substitutes

This was a long week. There are a few things you will need to know about my life as a teacher for this post to make sense. 1) During my conference my room is used by another teacher, Ms. Cowell. She teaches English 4. 2) My last class of the day includes modified Algebra 1. That means that there are students in the room who take a modified version of the state test and it means that I have a wonderful co-teacher, Ms. Adams. 3) We had to collect two writing samples from our students this week. It is a bit complicated why we had to do this and all the rules involved but trust me that it was a high priority that it be done on time and correctly. We had a strict one-week window in which to do this.

Ms. Adams told me in advance that she would be out Wednesday and Thursday this week. I was not looking forward to those days because I really need the help in that class. The good news is that she would have a sub. Ms. Cowell let me know that she would be out Thursday and Friday. She asked me to help out a bit by collecting the papers for her class which is no problem at all. However, none of us counted on a stomach bug going around the school and thus the school being short many subs.

On Wednesday I was notified that Ms. Adams' sub had canceled and I would be by myself. I was worried but in the end the students were angels! I have no idea why they were so well behaved but I am very thankful. I was hopeful that Thursday would go smoothly since there would be a sub that day.

Thursday rolls around and no, there was no sub for Ms. Adams because we were so short staffed. The students were ok in that class. In Ms. Cowell's class I stuck around the entire class period because they were taking a test and there was a typo in it. I had to explain the typo and then I helped monitor because this test was being used for district data. There is a lot of pressure to make sure students do their best and that there is no cheating.

Friday took the cake for most exhausting day. I was told that during my conference I would need to cover a class. I was glad to hear that it was a class of Juniors. Just before school started I suddenly realized that Ms. Cowell would not have the same sub she had yesterday and her subs for Friday probably had no clue what the students were supposed to do. I printed off her lesson plan and ran to the different rooms she teaches in to leave the lesson plan and the copies of the work for the sub. After first and second period I went by her classes and picked up the work. Luckily she has third period off because I had to go cover a class. It took me a while to find a teacher with a key to open the room I was in. The great news is that the class went smoothly. Then I had to rush back downstairs to my fifth period class. During team time I tidied up the papers for Ms. Cowell and tried to breathe for a moment. My last class of the day was about what I expected: a little loud, a little crazy, and some students did not get any work done. Once again Ms. Adams was not present because she was covering another teacher's class. After school I had students in tutorials making up work because it was the last day of the grading period. Then my co-worker came in and asked if I wanted her to take my writing samples to our lead teacher. I completely forgot about them! They were due Friday! The students had written them but I had not yet put the papers in the correct order, labeled them, etc. I asked my co-worker to tell our lead teacher that I had the papers and just needed to organize them.

I ended Friday in tears simply because I was so tired. After dinner I took a nap and it helped my mood greatly. I'm hopeful that next week will be a little more calm because Monday is a work day (no students!) and my classes have a test on Wednesday which means less prep time for me.

I hope that your week was calmer than mine. As a bonus, below is a video of the coolest pillow ever. It's like a mermaid! At only $10, I just could not resist.

-Clare G. S.