A couple of weeks ago I had to get a last minute sub because I was sick. Sounds normal, right? well, due to the fact that I could hardly even focus enough to think let alone make a phone call to my favorite subs asking them to come in, I had to leave it up to the "sub-finder gods" and hope that one of my top choices could come in. Well...they couldn't. Darn it. You would think that because we live in a place where there are LOTS of amazing, highly qualified and awesome teachers without jobs (How awful is that????? but really, there are!) whoever the sub list got for my room would be awesome and I would come back to glowing reports. unfortunately, that was not the case.
I just don't understand how sub lists can be closed and it is so hard to get on them, but then more than once I have had an inadequate sub. Is this because kindergarten is such a different world?? I'm not sure, but I wanted to give this sub the benefit of the doubt. I emailed her my plans, sent them to my teammates, and had them check in with her to make sure she was all set. They said when they talked to her she acted like everything was ok, but later reports from parents in the room and my aide were that she was anything but in control. First off, some of my kids were NOT helping her out by any means and running amok. believe me, they did NOT get away with that when I got back! I can't blame it all on the sub, but the more I heard the more upset I was. She was talking on her cell phone, letting kids run around the room (ooh boy, did they hear it from me!) and overall had a "oh well" attitude towards the class. (as reported by my aide)
I know that the world does not end when one day doesn't go well, but I did have concern about her coming back. I talked to our head secretary who asked me to fill out a report on the sub and that she would be taken off of our school's call list. I felt awful doing this, and even questioned if I should just let it go, but decided that if the reports given to me were true then I did not want to risk having her in my room again. (and, lesson learned, no matter how sick I am I will make sure I know who my sub is even if I have to have Mr. Bee make the calls). The secretary and our sub coordinator let me know that she would not be coming back.
Well, imagine my surprise when just a few days later I get our daily in school sub list and she is on it!! I almost dropped to the floor thinking about all of the different scenarios that could play out. Would she come and talk to me? does she know I wrote her up yet? Is she mad? I went and talked to the secretary again and she was also surprised the sub was back, and said that she would call the sub coordinator and make sure it didn't happen again. Well, during my prep period the sub came into my room and introduced herself. I was sooo nervous, but I don't think she had any idea. I quickly greeted her and then pointed her on her way to where she was going (not rudely, she asked) Then I wiped the sweat off my brow and hightailed it to Mrs. Sneaker's room to tell her about my close call!
This got me thinking....Maybe I should have taken the time to give her feedback on what had happened in my room? Was I a coward for pretending like I had not written her a bad report? What would you do in this situation??
All I know is I am so glad given the fact she came back, that this was the only awkward thing that happened. I pictured tears and screaming...overdramatic me, I know. I hate confrontation!! (hopefully, this glitch is fixed! When I commented to the secretary about how maybe she was good in other areas the response was "NO!" from her own interactions with the sub. hmm...)
Needless to say, it was an AWKWARD moment in an otherwise "Typical" day. What do you do when you have a bad sub? Is there a way for you to make sure they don't come back to your room? Or your building?
1 comment:
Unfortunately, the "bad" sub I got was friendly with my prinicpal who had used her more than once at her old school, so I didn't even get to fill out a form on her. I'm talking, made one student cry, then told her to go in the bathroom and not come out until she finished crying, told off some of my other sweeties and generally gave an attitude like she didn't care at all. I received SEVERAL complaints from parents and a few days later one of my sweeties repported having had a nightmare that the sub had come back and killed some students. But, of course, my class MUST be overreacting, right?! Needless to say, I try to always make sure I can choose my sub. In our school this year we had a sub call a whole class stupid because they didn't make it to the final round of the spelling B, another one who spends the whole day screaming at the kids and another who allowed a kindergartner to get in the bus line when he was NOT a bus rider and then when he couldn't be found at the end of the day took off at 4pm like it was nothing that she had misplaced a 5 year old! We didn't find him until after 5pm by the way and luckily he had just been transported to a local daycare facility and it took them a while to realize they had an extra kiddo!
Anyways, subs are a hot button topic with me as I'm sure you can tell! I have to take off a week in April to attend a wedding in California and I am already dreading it because of the sub situation!
I wouldn't have confronted your sub either - it wouldn't have made any difference in my opinion. A lot of subs can't handle primary, especially kindergarten! And, since there are so many good subs out there, it's important to make sure that the bad ones don't slip through the cracks!
Jennifer @ Herding Kats In Kindergarten
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