Strassen Schaden

New Assignment:

Special Education Writing.

I have totally enjoyed my substitute journey so far.  I have worked at 10 different schools in the district ranging from Kindergarten to High School.  I've worked with general education, special education, English language learners and been a test proctor.  I have worked a crosswalk, a playground and a lunchroom.  I don't like those tasks, thankfully I did very little of each of them.

Typically I go on to this handy website and look at what jobs are available for subs, at what locations and then decide where I want to work.  I've only been called at 6am for a random surprise job once, everything else I knew about in advance.  I try to work different positions at different schools so that I can get a better idea what is out there in this district and maybe narrow down what I would like to do full-time when/if that comes up.

Twice now I have been offered a full-time permanent job and turned them down.  And twice I have been requested as a long term sub and passed on those as well.  I love the flexibility and the ability to be picky with the hours, jobs, and locations that I work.  

A few weeks ago I took a random sub job at a middle school as far away from my house as possible without being in a different school district.  I took the job because I didn't see anything else better on the list, and I didn't have anything pressing going on in my life.  So even though I had no desire to drive the full 12 miles from my house, passing at least 10 schools to get there, I took the position.  I always take notes about the schools and positions I work so that I don't accidentally take a job that I hated.  I noted that the school and teacher I was working with seemed nice, the job was helping in a remedial writing class, the kids were well behaved and the hours were super convenient.  Leaving 20 minutes before school gets out makes a big difference in getting out of hectic parking lots and all the way across town to take the boys to their after school activities.  

About a week after I subbed at this particular school, I got a call from the woman I subbed for.  She was planning to be out again for a few days and the teacher she works with asked her to please call me and see if I could work for her.  I was available two of the three days she needed and returned to the school this past week.  While I was there the teacher made a comment that if she had her way she'd be seeing a lot more of me.  I told her I wasn't really looking for a full time position right now (especially at the furthest school from my side of town) and that I was enjoying subbing.

This Friday I received another call from the woman I subbed for.  She asked me if I would be interested in subbing for her in a long term position.  Her husband has been battling cancer for the past year and at this point it has become clear that he will not recover.  Doctors have given him a few months to live and she would like to spend those days with him.

My heart broke for her and for the first time since I quit my last full-time job, I felt a "green light" to commit to a long term position.  I'm a little sad that I'm giving up my flexibility and freedom to do whatever I want, especially with the holidays coming up, but I also feel really great about stepping in to this position.  I've committed to the job through this calendar year and I'm open to staying there until the woman returns.

I'm going to miss the thrill of not having a clue what I am doing when I walk into new schools, classrooms, and positions each day.  I'll also miss meeting new people every day. I've met so many interesting people over the past few months, its been like speed dating for a job, except I don't really know that because I've never speed dated.  But thats what it seems like.
And finally I will miss the gratitude.  It is so weird, I went to work each day for 3 years at my last job and nobody ever said "thank you" for simply coming to work.  Don't get me wrong, I had a sweet gig at my last job and my team definitely appreciated my role, but I'm talking about people saying "thank you so much for coming today",  like just thanking me for coming to work.  That is super fun.  In a regular job nobody thanks you for just walking in the door.

So here I go, same place, same people, same job for the next few months.
Time to dive in and make some connections with these kiddos and the teacher.