Thursday, August 31, 2006

A Dark Day.

I always thought some things were sacred. Apparently the people in charge of schedualing at Gateway High School disagree. They knowingly and willfully took from me, my 90 minutes of nourishment and replenishment and left me with 34 minutes for "lunch." If an honest, hard-working American substitute teacher can't have a 90 minute lunch every day of the week then the terrorists have truely won. I have yet to consult with my attorney (Daniel J. Burke, Esquire), but suffice it to say, the St. Louis Public School District can look forward to a phone call from the friendly people at OSHA.

For Christ sake, it takes me the better part of ten minutes to wash my hands. At the speed i'm going to have to eat my lunch from now on, you might as well set your Tivo in advance for next years Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, because I'll be there. And if I take down Kobaiashi next Independence Day, I most definately will not be thanking the St. Louis Public Schools.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Today's Highlights.

"Do you go here? What grade are you in?" - 9th grade girl next to me in line in the book room.

Also, as i was leaving today there was an old man in a blue sport coat handing out bibles in the parking lot. I asked him if he was allowed be there. He said "I don't really know."
Good luck old man, these kids wouldn't even read their rich grandmother's will.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Mr. Miller Isn't Comming Back.

So the school year starts in August not September. The only way that I know its time to go back to work is that the phone starts ringing at 5:30am.

My daily rate went up three dollars this year and the school day stayed the same length. $91 dollars up from $88 for the same 7:05 to 2:18 school day. The year before last i made $85 a day. If i do this for another 3 years i'll be making 500 bucks a week and well on my way to a comfortable retirement.

The 2006-2007 school year is two days old and i have already worked two days. That's a brisk start for a sub.

There is a special rush you can only get from standing in front of a room of 25 highschool students and letting them know that you're not their teacher, you don't know their teacher and you don't know if their teacher is comming back, ever. Then it gets even better when you get to tell them that as far as you are concerned its still summer vacation in room 315 west. I felt like I was an idealistic governer pardoning 25 death row inmates after they already gorged themselves on last meals of chicken wings and flaming hot cheetos.

One of my 5 classes is "class within a class" which means that it has some Special Ed students and there is another teacher in the room with me. The Co-Teacher showed up today, asked me who i was and then said something like "well if were not doing anything i'm gonna go back to my office." then later that period another teacher came in looking real stern. I said hello and she stood in the doorway stone faced until all the kids sat down and got quiet. Then without looking at me she backed out the door and was gone. It would have been appreciated if we had been trying to accomplish something as a class. oh well.

Points of interest:
# of times a student said "I thought you were a student:" 2
# of fights: 0
# of books read on the clock: 1.5