" Life as a Middle School Teacher: The sub report

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Saturday, August 27, 2005

The sub report

Apparently they stuck two separate substitutes in my room while I was gone. The first sub is one I know well and have complete faith in. Last year when he subbed for the the very first time, he gave away all of my supplies. So after a not so pleasant discussion about that, he has been wonderful with my classes. When I was told he would be my sub, I was thrilled to death.

Then I got back to school yesterday after my three day bereavement leave, and I was thrilled to death to see that there was a pile of foldables on my desk! Woohoo!! The sub followed my lesson plans. That was so exciting for me, because it is a rare day when the sub actually does what you want.

I opened my desk drawer to get a pen and start logging in all of the assignments on my desk, and all of my pens were gone.

Sigh.

I guess I got the well known sub for the first day, then this other woman came in. She followed my lesson plans exactly as they were written down. I was very impressed with that. However, she gave away my pens, pencils, paper, and almost all of a box of 6,000 stickers. I took a deep breath yesterday morning and tried to weigh the good and the bad.

It is really wonderful to have a sub who is willing to follow lesson plans. Many of them bring in a book and expect to be able to read all day. So this sub was a godsend. She managed to accomplish everything that I had written down, including the "extra" stuff that I left in case all the students finished the first assignments. I was also pleased to see that there were no major behavior problems in there while I was gone. That also says a lot about a sub.

I do have some issues with my supplies being gone though. Many of the supplies that I have in my classroom I purchased on my own. It's hard for me to educationally justify buying a box of 6,000 stickers, so I just got them on my own. The pens, pencils, and paper came from the school district's warehouse though, so that wasn't out of my own pocket, but out of my classroom budget. My classroom budget is pretty tight, so I was rather irritated about the supplies going as fast as they did. I do not ever give my supplies to my students. They are required to pay for them. If they give me the item back in good condition at the end of the day, they get their money back.

I put in a new warehouse order for pens and pencils. I will probably get my supplies around Halloween.

I decided that I would rather have a sub that follows lesson plans.

So thank you to my subs while I was gone. I am very impressed with the work I received when I returned.

posted by lobo5747 @ 6:00 AM