Mom Called, Teachers and Subs

She called me last night around 11:30. She is okay, and she is in Georgia. Of course, that could change today. She plans to return to Alabama, to her camper near the Gulf Shores. I couldn't reach her this week because her friend's phone expired, but she has a new one now. I told her how worried I was because she hadn't called, and asked for her landlord's name and number in case it should happen again. If I can't reach her in the future, then I can call them to check on her. They have a landline.

Apparently, that part of Alabama did not get hit too bad despite it's near vicinity to Mobile.

It's Labor Day, and I have the day off. I'll meet a friend for lunch, shop for a baby gift, give myself a manicure, and start in on my plans for the classroom next week. Actually, I have two weeks to plan for because I'll be absent on Friday, my usual day of planning for the next week.

I've called a substitute for that day. I don't like doing that, planning for a sub, because it's more work to plan for someone else to do my job than it is for me to do it.

Subs are not babysitters. They have a teaching role to fill in the classroom, and the subs we repeatedly call year after year are reliable. They are often retired teachers themselves. Others are people wanting to work in the classroom without having all the responsibility of planning and testing. For some, it's a good way to supplement family income, work steadily, and work when they want to. Many subs are so in demand that they work as many days as full-time certified teachers. But subs do not have to plan the lesson. Understandably, that is the teacher's job.

Even planning for one day is extra work for the teacher who will miss a day of teaching, but if you want a sub, that is what you have to do. Think about it this way: you have several jobs to do during the day. If you are a Clipboard personality, you will make a list of some kind for what you plan to do. Just a brief list, something you can glance at to remind you of the items you need to take care of. Some people will check them off as they do them.

A teacher has to do more than make a list. She has several subjects to cover during a day, and within each subject, there is a concept to teach, review, or practice. There are pages to read, questions to ask, a worksheet handout or two, activities for students, and so on. She, or he, has a planning book in which to write her plans in a very brief format. Just enough info to let her know what the objective for the lesson is, any text page numbers, handouts, overheads will be needed, and a title or brief description of an activity the kids will do to practice the learned concept, and finally, a closure statement or question. All this info is printed in a little square block of about 1 - 1 1/2 square. We learn to write very small. This is done for every lesson, for every subject. For each day. A glance at the little block in her planning book lets the teacher know exactly what to do and when to do it. She doesn't need to see all the details written down before her because she already knows in her head, she visualizes, what she will be doing with the kids each hour throughout the day. The block in her planning book is like a jobs list, but with more details.

This is what the sub sees when he or she comes into the classroom. Sometimes, a teacher will talk to the sub on the phone the week or day before if her absence was planned. And sometimes not, if she is suddenly sick, and someone calls for her. A sub needs more written information than the planning book provides, although it is a good guide as to how the whole day will look, how the whole week will look.

A sub needs specific instructions regarding the assignments, the teaching of the concept, especially when you are working with a structured program. Teachers have to write far more for someone else to teach their lesson than they would have written for themselves. But that is the nature of the job. This is not a complaint, not a rant. These are just the facts, the way of things. It’s what we do.

This is why we have our list of subs to call, with favorites highlighted. I have a list of six I prefer to call. If we really want a particular sub, we will call them well in advance of the day needed. When you can’t plan ahead, like when you are sick, you make do with the first person you can reach. Hopefully, you are able to reach your first choice of subs, but often that is not the case. Sometimes, calling a stranger who has never subbed for you before is a boon. You discover that they are a really great sub, so you add them to your list of preferred subs. Life is full of surprises, especially at school.

However, the general rule I try to follow is this: don't get sick! In my six years of teaching, I have been blessed in this department. My mother has always been on the healthy side. I think I inherited that from her. I don't want to ruin the record by being boastful, so enough said.

Still, there are other times when a teacher needs a sub, like when she attends a workshop on a school day. Most workshops we attend are on school days. I like going to workshops. They expand upon what I already know and do, and they help me be a better teacher in every way. Workshops are necessary and desirable for a teacher.

Some workshops are far away, in another county, but most are local. Some run over a series of several days because of the training involved, and others are only two hours long, and are held after school. Some are held on weekends, in which case a teacher is giving up her after-school (family) time to attend it, and some are held during school hours.

Some of the best teacher workshops are held over the summer. (I went to the most fun environmental/science workshop over the summer with several teachers from my school held. It was held at the Pisgah Forest Institute in Brevard, North Carolina. For five days we learned about practical ways to bring science, with an environmental slant, into the classroom. I could devote an entire blog page just for that topic, and I will, but not today.)

This wondering wanderer has wandered enough. I didn’t realize I’d be writing my thoughts about substitute teachers today, but that’s where it went.

A final thought: a teacher couldn’t do her job without someone to take her place. We do get sick, our children get sick, our husbands are in the hospital, we have to go to the doctor’s once in awhile, we have to have surgeries, and malfunctioning parts removed. Subs are on call for that (subbing, not removing malfunctioning parts). Teachers have babies, subs help us out for weeks and months at a time for that, too. Teachers have parents who suddenly become ill and need their adult child to come home temporarily. Subs help us there. We get hurt and break bones, suffer from diseases that require treatment, and you get the picture. Teachers don’t like getting sick, I think, more because of the disruption it causes in their teaching routine, than because of the disruption it will cause in their lives. Certainly, I’m not speaking for all teachers, but I hear it a lot. They are a dedicated bunch.

I am grateful for the subs who have answered my call, and for those who will answer my call this year. I haven’t been disappointed in any of those who have subbed for me thus far. I have only been disappointed when I called them and they couldn’t fit me in because they were already committed to sub for another teacher that same day.

So now you know how I spent part of my Labor Day: writing a blog entry!