Thirteen Classes

Last week was kind of crazy. On Friday I tallied up my week. I had covered for thirteen different teachers.

Normally, I cover a teacher a day. Each teacher generally has one preparation period. (Not all do. Some teachers have a class every period. And some teachers have extra no student periods.)

It used to be that I'd be asked to cover a different teacher on that prep period occasionally. Lately, it's more likely than not.

(The fact that we're currently experiencing a sub shortage is surprising. Last year at this time they laid off 55 teachers district wide. I was supposed to be worried that we'd have a surplus of subs as laid off teachers go to the top of the sub list. But most of them got called back to full time the first weeks of school.)

Of the thirteen, eight were classes I covered for one period. Wood shop. AP computer coding. Special ed science. Middle school ELD. And science (biology), history (world), math (IM2), and English (10th grade).

The remaining five teachers were the ones I had been called in to cover for the days Monday through Friday. (Chemistry, health, high school math, and eighth grade English two days in a row for two different teachers.)

Some of the highlights: 

• A student playacting brushing his hair on top of his hoodie. With a whiteboard eraser. 
• Having to walk the entire length and width of the campus to cover an extra period (I was late).
• Getting pulled to cover a different class than I was scheduled for.
• Realizing that other class is one I'm scheduled to cover in a couple weeks. And the students are awful...
• Repeating a class I'd covered for three days a couple weeks ago. And it raining on me again. (It rained the last time I covered for that teacher.)
• A "game" on evolution.
• Eighth graders essay writing. (Oh, peaceful day.)
• And a couple video assignments that I'll tell you about tomorrow and Friday.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I travelled all day. (I was covering special ed teachers who co-teach. It meant that there was another adult in the room. It also meant that I got to change classes like the kiddos all day.)

On Tuesday I had two periods in a row in the same room, but with snack break between them. On Wednesday I had two periods in a row in the same room, but with lunch between them. The closest I got to two periods in a row in the same place on Thursday was having two classes next door to each other (and separated by the snack break). 

So, yeah, it was a week. I'm hoping this week will be much calmer.