The Vacant Class

When I write next year's end of year post, I get to write this sentence: I did cover the first day of school (and this time, it definitely does count).

The thing about the first day of school is, teachers tend to not miss it. There are very few events that would pull a teacher out of class on that very important day. (One year a teacher took her daughter to start college. Another teacher missed because she was on maternity leave. Those are the only events I can think of.)

This means, when one is covering the first day of school, one is generally covering a vacant class.

Vacant means there is no teacher assigned. No lesson plans. Nothing set up. Thrown in on the first day with no support...

So, when I got the call the day before the first day of school, I asked. "Is this a vacant class?" I was told it wasn't.

Okay, so technically it wasn't. In actuality...

The official teacher is on a leave of absence. His replacement (long term sub) couldn't start until Monday. So, I had all the joys of a vacant class. Whee!

On the bright side, the school was doing a thing for all students in all classes on the first day, so I had a lesson to teach.

And, work on the first day. This is good. Things don't usually pick up for a couple weeks into the school year. Unless one is covering a vacant class...

(Although, I did see teachers already submitting requests for time off. For the second week. So, it has started.)

(Oh, and spoiler alert: the replacement long term sub flaked. Guess who is covering this class for the next two weeks? Well, at least the summer blogging schedule is now at an end 😎)