Surprises of various kinds

This week certainly had some surprises, starting off on Monday morning.  Having been extremely lucky, or so I thought, with a five-day assignment in 4th grade, I was a little surprised when the phone rang early Monday.  Uh-oh.  Yep, job canceled.  It seems the school decided to use “one of their own” since it was more than a few days- lucky me.  Fortunately the district is good enough to substitute any jobs on hand at the time when they cancel a job, so I was able to pick up two days that way, but not the half-day that was offered for that afternoon- seems the offer is for a short time only.  So, I was up early on Monday and no longer with a job for the day so I started doing my rounds.

This leads to the next part of the story.  Remember when I mentioned a problem with a certain district?  Well, I called last week and was told that there was no problem with my account that would prevent my seeing jobs for them so I was ready to call the sub system company this week to see what their thoughts were about why weeks went by without seeing jobs for the district.  During the rounds a full-day job in this district popped up and even surprised as I was I took it immediately before seeing what it was.  8th grade LD/BD.  Well, it wasn’t fourth grade but it was a full day so a nyah-nyah to the other district’s offered replacement half-day that I didn’t get  😛 . As it turned out, I would have to be there in just over a half-hour so I was off to speedily get ready.  I made it, barely.  It was actually a great day.  The first period- very quiet, the students seemed to be working.  Second period same thing?  These were LD/BD 8th graders??  I certainly couldn’t complain.  These were the only two periods I had by myself too.  All other periods I helped in a mainstream classroom- 1½ language arts blocks with another sub and a math period.  I would sub for this teacher again in a heartbeat.

Did I mention the one district gave me two days for the price of five (figurative- not five days of pay for working two!)?  I guess I had better correct that to the real offer- one day, not two as when I got home I discovered one of the jobs was canceled like the original, at the same school no less.  This makes me very wary of taking another job at this school in the future.  I was so concerned I worried that my Tuesday jobs (two half-days at the same school in neighboring classrooms) would be canceled as well.  If this were not a different school they may very well have, but come Tuesday morning there was no call, and when I got there the jobs were perfectly valid- I bring this point up because one time in this district a couple of years ago I showed up for a job only to find a very surprised teacher who had not requested the day off- turned out some student was able to get into the system and did some messing around.  So there I was, ready for a day in classrooms with autistic kids.  Not a problem, as long as the assistants in the room weren’t subs too.  I have had that happen too- that day was not easy.  Two regular staff members camped out that day in the room to give the kids familiar faces which autistic kids really need.  Fortunately, I was the only sub.  For the most part this day went fine.  The teachers were even there, just pulling kids out for testing.  The biggest problem was during the morning.  As you already know from my previous post, putting a hand in front of the face of an unwilling autistic learner can lead to consequences.  I was reaching in front of this girl to point out something on the paper and apparently she gave in to the animal instincts we sometimes have and bit into my thumb.  Well, that was the end of working with her.  Good thing she didn’t break my skin or I would have had to get some treatment just in case.  The other kids were more willing to do the assignment.  In the afternoon I did some one-on-one again for math, but there were no incidents here.  One of the kids was actually more of a two-on-one because a concerned assistant stayed to make sure the boy worked okay with me.

So that was Tuesday.  Wednesday I was surprised again.  I had no job lined up again, so once again I was up early looking.  Surprise- another job in that district that was dry for the last month or so came up again.  Unfortunately for me it was a half-day for the afternoon.  Not having anything else show up, I decided to keep it and use the extra time to catch up on some much-needed sleep.  Nothing really to tell about this one.  It was a school I hadn’t been in before, but it was a subject I like, science.  It was a good afternoon.  After I got home I slept for another hour before drama rehearsal at night- the reason this post is dated today, not yesterday.  One of my cast was missing (there are three casts for kids drama) and one poor boy was the sole member of his cast.  At least they still let him rehearse, even if some of us stood in for the other members of his cast.  Neither his cast nor mine perform for another six weeks or so though due to a long break for Eastertime.

Derek