A 7th Grade Science Teacher

My day was off to a fun start as soon as I checked in at the main office.
It turns out that the online subbing job dispenser made an error.
I accepted my job online at about 5:30am.  I had to hit "accept" a few times, before it would push the job onto my personal job page; this happens sometimes when I click "accept" while the automated system is calling someone about the same job.  It isn't really a big deal, it just means that I have to always double check my personal page before actually leaving for an assignment, since if the person called takes the job, it will over-ride my online acceptance.
Confused yet?  Yeah, the system takes a little getting used to.
Anyway.  I get to the main office, and the secretary was surprised to see me.  Another sub had showed up a little bit earlier for the same job.  Since there was only one teacher gone that day, she hadn't double checked the arriving sub against who the system said would be coming.  So, because I was the one in the system, we went down to the classroom together.  It turned out that this other woman had accepted the job over the phone (which should have closed the post, and not allowed me to accept).  She even said that she had seen the job on her page before she left home.
In the end, I got the assignment, because it was my name in the system.  The secretary felt horrible for not catching the error earlier, and I'm of course left looking and feeling like a jerk for taking the other sub's job.
The other sub was REALLY cool about the whole thing.  I would have been livid.  The secretary and I both urged her to call the agency and ask about what happened.

Much later in the day, one of my 7th grade classes was taking turns reading a section in the textbook.  The topic involved the different way that living organisms are classified.  As you may expect, the word "organism" is shown at least every couple sentences.
One boy, while reading a section, pronounced the word as "orgasm."  Every.  Single.  Time.
I'm pretty sure it was not on purpose, and not a single kid caught onto it.  Even the parapro in the room was too distracted to hear it.
I let the kid finish his section, without correcting him.  When he was done, I pointed out to the class that proper pronunciation is always very important.  I then lead them through a quick verbal exercise on how to correctly pronounce several of the words in the section... including "organism."

An 8th Grade American History Teacher

Today we watched an episode of the History Channel's documentary series, America, the Story of Us.
I love the series, and I've used it in my own (Summer School) classroom.
However, it gets old when you see the same episode 5 times in a row.

When reading the following conversation, keep in mind that this is only the 2nd week or school, and my first time in this building this school year.

8th Grade Boy: Hey, Mr. C!  Do you remember me?
Mr. C.: Oh.  Yeah.  You're that kid.  You did that one thing, that one time.
8th Grade Boy: Yeah! *Super excited, to a friend* He remembers me!

A 7th/8th Grade Math Teacher

School started last week, but I just had my first subbing gig of the year.
I subbed for middle school math teacher.

This particular school starts middle school in the 7th grade, so in some of these classes, these kids were about a week out of elementary.
The 7th grade class had some basic book work for an assignment.  The teacher had it written on the board as something like:
Page 6 & 7
Qs 1-3, 4-24 even, 26-29, 30-38 even, and 41
That seemed pretty straight forward to me, and after some intro stuff, I pointed the assignment out to them and said, "get to work, let me know if you need any help."
After about 2 minutes I realized these kids had no idea how to even approach the work.  They understood the concepts just fine, but when it came to deciphering the problem numbers, and then putting that onto a page, they were lost.
I drew out a piece of paper on the board, and then showed them how to organize it.  After that, they blazed through the assignment.
I'm really glad that I caught why they were struggling.

The following unrelated conversation also took place,
7th Grade Boy: Guess what I might be getting!!
Mr. C.: Umm... a pony?
7th Grade Boy: No, but close!
Mr. C.: Oh... a donkey?
7th Grade Boy: No!  A laser that will shoot all the way across my house!
Mr. C.:  Oh... cool.  I see how that is close to a pony.

A Security Guard

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I've taken a seasonal job working security at the football games of the local university.
The first game was a few nights back.
The gig was pretty fun.  I just had to walk a corner of the Student Section, and make sure the kids didn't get too crazy.  By and large, it was actually a lot like subbing in most high schools, with the exception that a much higher percentage of these kids were drunk.
The highlight of the night was calling for the paramedics when some girl collapsed.
Next week I've got a 4pm-4am shift working security in the dorms the night before a huge game, followed by another 12 hour shift during and after said game.  It should be a lot of fun.


On a separate note, school starts on this Tuesday.  Last year I started getting work on day 2 of the year.  Maybe this year I can get work on day one?  How fun would THAT be?

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.

Looking For A Job

I've got a job interview coming up on Thursday (7/12/2012).
It is with a school just about 230 miles north of where I'm living now. It is for a social studies teaching position.  I'm not exactly sure if it is middle school or high school, since I've seen the district posting for both.

I wonder sometimes what will become of this blog if/when I get a full-time teaching job.  The blog's premise, which is "pretending to be a teaching of any given subject," would become almost more self-deprecating than I'd like.  Perhaps I'll rename the blog, and continue on as a teaching blog?  Maybe I'll abandon the whole thing, and just start a new one? I suppose deleting everything, and forgetting the whole endeavor is also an option... though probably not one that I'll go with.

This is something I can probably worry about later.

p.s.
For those of you keeping track, I'm not just "pretending" to look for a job.  My job hunt is very much real.  I just wanted the title to fit the over all theme.