Sigh. If there is one thing that is deficient it is the software that one of the districts I’m in uses. No teacher comments on jobs, and no way to change the school in the case of a traveling teacher. So, it is up to the teacher to contact the sub and let that sub know when a position doesn’t start where the system says it does. Needless to say, today I was that sub. Last time I took a social studies position the teacher called me to let me know where I would need to be. Not this time. While I was aware it was likely to be an itinerant position again, I just figured since no one contacted me I would be going right where the system said I would. Silly me. I went there and, you got it “Oh, she doesn’t come in until the afternoon. You have to go to this other school…” I was pretty POed when I was told this. Someone has the responsibility of letting me know, whether it be the teacher or the office. At the other school I actually ran into the teacher in question. She was doing an observation so that was why she needed the sub. I didn’t want to be rude played it calm and apologized for not being on time because the system said I was to go to the other school. Whether or not she got the hint I don’t know as all she said was it was no problem since I didn’t start teaching for another hour.
I’ll have to say she did prepare thoroughly for me with all the materials separated by class, detailed plans, and whatnot. Meaning of course that I couldn’t blame her if things went wrong. 😀 Okay, I wouldn’t anyway, and nothing did go wrong. It was a rather pleasant day. Between the two schools I had four first-grade classes, one second, and three third. The lesson plans unfortunately were not quite the same for each class of the same grade so I was kept on my toes. The one thing I really didn’t like having to do was pick one student from each class to get an award for behavior. While I would like to say I was completely objective on the selection I really couldn’t keep a constant eye on each student to determine who best earned it. It was inevitably more like picking three or four students to watch who seemed to be behaving themselves and look for reasons to disqualify them, then still winding up picking between two or three at the end, completely subjectively. Oh, well.
Yesterday I was at a local middle school as the industrial tech sub. Tomorrow I will have a half day (oh why do I take these? At least I will get to sleep in!) for IT at another school. I already know what to expect there, so I could write up a comparison of the two, but I will save it for tomorrow anyway, just because I can. 😛
I’m just glad you’re the teacher and I’m not. It seems strange to me that they don’t have a regular system to let you know what building you should start at. I don’t really see why the teacher you are subbing for should be responsible for that. That should come from the administration or at least a secretary in the office.
99.9% of the time the teacher only works out of one building. Only a few specials teachers, like the social studies teachers, travel. You’re right- the system should be flexible enough to change the school, or at the very least leave a text note for the sub. The one they use isn’t. It is in sore need of a software update. It can’t even work in half-days. I can’t, for example, say that I am not available in the afternoon- either I’m available for the full day or not at all.
But, the teachers should know the current limitation and make sure the sub is notified somehow.
OUCH – with gas prices the way they are – 3.89 here – I hope the correct school wasn’t too far away!
Fortunately they rarely are. After all, the itinerant teacher has to do this every day, so the schools are usually within a couple miles of each other. Yesterday was no exception.
3.89 and climbing. Glad to hear you were not too far away from the correct place.