Why Do I Bother?

I was out of school yesterday because Maddy was sick. I dragged my sick child into school at 6 a.m. so I could get lesson plans written and left them on my desk. I left a note on the board stating the lesson plans were on my desk.

Why do I bother? The sub completely ignored my plans and found a movie for my kids to watch. Great. Fabulous. Now I'm one lesson behind and any plans for me to show that film later are in the toilet. Lovely. Oh, and thanks a bunch for using the plans I left after dragging my sick daughter along so I could make sure you had something to do that would occupy my students and have them actually learn something. Thanks for nothing.

I'm so sick of subs who don't follow the plans. Seriously, I get that it's a PITA to sub. I subbed for a year. It is PURE HELL some days depending on the class and the kids. BUT FOR PETE'S SAKE! If the teacher is going to go to all the trouble of MAKING LESSON PLANS USE THEM! There is a reason for it. Popping a movie in may be easier, but IT ISN'T WHAT YOU WERE ASKED TO DO! I did what the teacher asked me to cover. If I didn't get as far as she would have liked, I left a note and explained why. Sometimes my fault, other times, the kids were way too wound up and it took forever to get them to where they could learn, other times there were things out of my control like fire drills or an impromptu assembly. Life happens, that's fine, but there is no acceptable reason to plop in a video if there are lessons already there. I mean, he didn't even have to do much! He just had to tell them which textbook exercises to do.

I hate having to be out. Somedays, I'd rather just come in sick than have to deal with the stupidity of some "teachers". I would love to have a sub I can call regularly who actually does what I ask. I've had some, they're fabulous...so fabulous in fact, they get calls all the time, so I rarely get them more than 2 times per year.

Stupid subs! GRRR! :(