My First Day Of School (Again)

Today I had my first day of substitute ("guest") teaching! I started getting calls last week, all for assignments at special schools. Last week they called me for P.E. class, but I'm not allowed to teach P.E. (you need extra certification). On Monday my phone was ringing off the hook (I guess a lot of teachers partied hard for the Superbowl!) but my car needed a repair done, so I couldn't go anywhere. I got the car fixed on Wednesday (Kris' brother Eric has a friend who runs a repair shop and he gave me a huge discount on the labor).

So I was ready to get a call and go this morning! At 9:15 I got a call to teach an Autism class at Variety special school from 10:30-2. It would have taken me 20 minutes to get there, but I got stuck in traffic that added half an hour!

Anyway, I got there and found it wasn't an Autism class, but a behaviorally challenged class (which is more in line with my experience.) Turned out to be a class with two boys (17- and 14-years-old) and one assistant! The assistant and teacher have been teaching together for 6 years, so the assistant had things covered. She seemed pretty surprised to have an actual substitute there! So there wasn't much for me to do, but I won't complain!!

By the time I got there, the class had about half an hour of class time left. Then we had lunch. Then the class had its "journalism" period. The students quickly completed their assignment independently. Then I played War with the 17-year-old. He seemed very interested in me and asked if I had a MySpace! I said yes but of course would not give him my MySpace name! After getting bored with a never-ending game of War, it was soon time to walk them down to P.E.. While they were playing ball I had half an hour to sit by myself in the classroom. I read the newspaper. Then I left a note for the teacher, and the assistant and I went to pick up the kids from P.E.. We walked them to their buses and that was it!

I'm glad I finally have that "first time" done with, now I'm less nervous about taking assignments. Although, I doubt I will have another day as easy as this one was! It was a quick and painless $50!