10th Grade World History

Today was my first day subbing at the high school I graduated from just 4.5 years ago.

Upon arriving to school for my second day of subbing, I briefly freaked out when I could not find lesson plans from the teacher in the paperwork from the secretary or in the classroom. Luckily the teacher had 1st period prep, so I talked to the secretary, and she said to wait for him to call or email. When I checked back, he had just called to say he was on his way in to explain his lesson plans to me.

We chatted for a bit and he shared a lot of his life story to, essentially, tell me it's been a very tough year for his family and now his mom is in the hospital with congestive heart failure 3 hours away and he was leaving to be with her.

The class was to be preparing skits to demonstrate lives of various social classes in Russia around the time of the Russian revolutions in the early 1900s. Because the next period would be starting soon, he decided to begin class himself so that I could see exactly what he wanted explained to the students and what they needed to be doing.

It was very helpful, especially being a new sub, to see him interacting with his students and to know exactly what behavior he expected from them while I was gone, how to manage his class, and how to explain the project. He made my job very easy today!

After he left, I had this conversation with a student...

Student: Hey, do you remember me?
Me: No, sorry...
Student: I've been to your house! You took me and your brother and your friend with the crazy hair to the amusement park that one time.
Me: Oh, you're my brother's friend? I'm sorry, I don't actually remember that...
Student: I can't believe you don't remember me.

The hazards of subbing at a school that my younger brother still attends...