Ubalblog

[  Mood: Fed Up WIth Life ]
My son was sick this week and then he had the good grace to pass it on to me. Below stems from my general frustration with a certain type of supply teacher that seems to pop up from time to time. It does not represent one specific teacher. I know there are some damn good supplies out there. I wish the new system my employer has implemented let me book you for me.

Dear Supply Teachers of the World:

First off, thank you for coming in. Supply teaching is a stupid, sucky job. Most teachers have had to do it and we weren’t overly fond of it either. So I empathize.

That being said, if I leave you a lesson plan, it is because I want you to follow it. Not because I was bored or love writing lesson plans. Although I can see how you might think that, given that I have a child throwing up at home or I am running a 100 plus fever.

You might have thought that you were being thoughtful to use your Cat in the Hat lesson instead of the one that took me 1.5 hours to type up and prep for you. I’m sure it is brilliant and earned an A for you in Teacher’s College. But that’s not what my class is working on right now. But that’s OK, I will just wrap up your lesson and reteach the lesson you were supposed to teach when I get back. And I will also teach the follow-up lesson that I was supposed to teach when I get back.

And about my small math group you worked with. I’m sure they found it helpful that you took the time to find a worksheet on adding and subtracting four digit numbers. Especially since you were supposed to be working with them on the decomposing and recomposing single digit numbers activity I left for you. Never mind that the activity was to help them understand how subtraction and addition undo each other. I bet the child working at the grade 1 level who really doesn’t understand numbers above 9 found it particularly helpful. I also sure they covered this in Teacher’s College when you, like me, took your Special Education Part 2 or when you, like me, got to participate in a research group at the university because you were considered a leader in math education in the board.

Note: You may have notices the use of the pronoun "my" a lot in the last few paragraphs. That’s because they are my classes, not yours. I know them quite well as I have been teaching them since the beginning of the year. Some of the children have been lucky enough to work with me for several years. And I have programmed for them, based on their strengths and needs, as well as the provincial curriculum. Would you believe I even have an annual plan for when I am going to teach what? And Unit plans and weekly plans? Shocking, but true.

And yes, I know you want a class of your own. Who knows? You quite possibly even deserve one. But you know what? So did I when I was a supply teacher, but I did what the teacher I was replacing left me, because I was not so arrogant to believe that I knew better than a veteran teacher.

But don’t worry, I’m sure while I’m cleaning up the messes you left, you will be off teaching a Grade 6 class all about the American Revolution when they are supposed to be learning about the European Exploration of North American. But hey, no worries, it’s happening on the same continent isn’t it?