Diary of a Substitute Teacher

Originally written October 8, 2008.

"Is our teacher here today?"

"No."

"You the sub?"



Even if it's been a while since you've been in school, we can all remember what it was like on the occassional day our regular teacher was out due to illness, workshops, jury duty, or sometimes unknown reason.



Some of us were the ones who took it upon ourselves to test this stranger in our room. Most of us can at least remember it happening, even if we were trying to quietly get our work done and not end up on the "list of students" the sub would hand over to our regular teacher when he or she returned.



Some things haven't changed, though maybe some of the tactics have evolved:



"You the sub? Awwww....we're gonna have fun today!

"Cool, we ain't doin' nuthin' today."

"Can I go to my locker?"

"Can I go to the bathroom? I gotta use it."

"What do you mean I can't be on my cell phone? Ms. Teacher always lets me."

"I AAAMMMMM doin' my assignment, I can play on the computer at the same time!"

(Student singing aloud while listening to IPOD) "Hey f*ck you b*tch...git offa my di........HEY! WHY'D YOU UNPLUG THAT? I'M NOT HANDING IT OVER! I'm putting it away, see?"



I am a white woman in my mid 30's currently working as a substitute teacher in a large urban Midwest school district. The 2008-2009 school year is my first year working in elementary or secondary education. I have a Masters degree, in Communications, not education. I know a lot about the media, marketing, PR, etc. and that's probably why I'm not too upset that I am not directly working in that field. I did take a job with an educational access TV station right out of college and have done sales, marketing, and PR in a variety of paid and non-paid positions. After graduate school I accidentally wound up with a 3-year stint in HR with a staffing company, where there always seemed to be a new opportunity to change duties, move up, and make more money. So I spend my late 20's recruiting, interviewing, hiring and supervising temporary workers placed in entry level factory and clerical jobs. In some ways it was a lot like substitute teaching because you never really knew what to expect from day to day and it gave me a wide range of stories to tell. I interacted with Bosnian immagrants, high school dropouts, petty criminals, displaced homemakers and laid off airline workers. You definitely had to roll with the punches because at the drop of a hat, all hell could break loose if a temp did something intentionally or unintentionally to get removed from a work assignment. I'd have to be the one to let them know they were let go, and as you can expect that didn't always go so well.



My most recent job was working to help run my family's business until this past summer when the retail sector of the company was closed and partially sold after 24 years. A friend told me there was an opening for a girls' volleyball coach at the inner-city high school where he taught chemistry and he thought I'd be perfect for the job! The coaching position was only for about 3 months and didn't pay a lot, but I would also be able to substitute teach in the district. The two together paid ok and there was no commitment in that if I didn't like it I could leave at the end of the season or even keep subbing while I looked for something else. If I loved it I was told there were various career transition programs to become certified.


I also viewed it as an opportunity to get to know my city a little bit better. I have lived in the city for 10 years and grew up in the bordering neighborhood just past the city limits. But growing up I went to parochial grade school and high school, with a 2 year stint in the neighborhood suburban public middle school across the street from my house. I knew some of the names of schools located in the city, but mostly it was private grade schools my elementary school played against in volleyball or softball that I was familiar with.


My high school was co-ed and within the city limits, with lots of city kids attending. Most were white, but there were a few that were black or children of immigrants. I occassionally heard friends' parents threaten them with taking them out of our school and sending them to "Southwest" or another public high school in the city. All I knew about those schools is that some of them had metal detectors at the doors (keep in mind I was in high school nearly a decade before Columbine).


As an adult I've been exposed to a lot more diversity than what my fairly sheltered life growing up had provided. My liberal arts college was very diverse in terms of race, class, sexual orientation, country of origin. But those were still fairly privileged folks in the first place to be attending that school. Also those were not children and no amount of multicultral studies courses equate living the things only read about in higher education.