Helpful

I was called today by one of the head people of a subbing agency I work for.
Apparently one of the districts in which I work has had a very hard time getting subs to fill jobs in their elementary.  It sounded like the district leaders were putting some pressure on the agency, trying to find out why.  It was decided that the best way to answer "why" might be to actually survey some of the subs that work in the district.
This also happened to be the same district that would often give me problems with my pay.  The agency has very misleading (I would say wrong) rates on their website for the school.  They are pictured below.  Keep in mind that multiple days, mean consecutive days as the same teacher.

The pay rates, as listed on the company website.

To me this means that if you're the same teacher two to ten days in a row, you get $75 per day.  The agency says this only applies to long-term subs, though there is no mention at all of this anywhere on the website - trust me, I searched VERY hard.  According to the agency, the school has exceptionally complicated "pay codes," and this is their best translation, and reflects the wishes of the school.  It took many strongly worded emails to their customer service before I was paid my missing $15.
Oh, and on two separate occasions, the school forgot to submit my work logs to the company for my pay.

I explained this to the guy, and suggested that if I'd had trouble with my pay, others might be in the same boat.  I also pointed out that the district pays less per day than all of the surrounding schools, that a few times I've noticed the elementary jobs posted with the wrong building and address, and lastly that The school is kind of in the middle of nowhere.

The guy said that he would be looking into the possible pay "errors" right away.  He also sounded as if the other things I'd mentioned were very useful, and gave me what sounded like a sincere "Thanks, keep up to good work."

For the first time ever I actually felt like the agency gave a damn.



**UPDATE - 9/1/2012**
A recent look at the agency's website shows that they have corrected the posted pay information for the school AND raised the per day pay to match that of surrounding schools.
Did my suggestions help out all the other subs that work there?  I'd like to think so.

A Job Hunter and A Social Studies Teacher (Summer 2012)

I have just finished the first week of the August secession of summer school.
The program ran for three weeks back in June, and I've now got two more weeks left in August.

I have about twice as many kids this time; 11 instead of 6.  I've got four different classes going on at the same time.  That isn't really too difficult to manage, but I've got a couple students who won't stay on task unless I'm watching over them directly.  Another student works really well by himself if I leave him alone, but he has a fancy pair of Beats by Dre headphones, and blasts them into his ears at max volume.  Sometimes he will burst briefly into song for a few seconds.  It's actually pretty funny, and since he's working so well I ignore it.

For those of you keeping track, I did not get that job I mentioned a while back.  In fact, I've only had three interviews all summer.  Despite numerous sent applications.
This past Monday I interviewed for a parapro position at a local alternative ed school.  The job sounded awesome, and the interview went really well, except that it ended with them telling me that I was overqualified.  They also said that it paid a good deal less than I would make subbing five days a week.

On Tuesday I interviewed with a local company that provides security to the University's home football games.  After explaining how my experience wrangling teenagers is actually quite similar to crowd control, the interviewer told me that she thought I "would be a very good fit for the student section."  This job is, for now, only seven home games, but it is in the evenings and weekends, so it should be interesting.
Maybe I'll keep you posted.