Minimum Day, No Way…

Thursdays are “minimum day” in this district. Substituting on a “Thursday” means a full day’s pay for about half a day’s work. Teachers cherish “Thursdays” almost as much as a regular school holiday.

It’s no wonder that substitutes don’t get many calls to work on “Thursdays”.

This morning’s automated call at 06:00am was as unusual as well as it was unexpected. After hearing the assignment, I knew why it was being shopped around.

The assignment was for the worst school in the district where I’ve had problems in the past. It’s also the only school currently on my boycott list.

It was for SDC (Special Day Class) -- in the worst school in the district. (Did I mention that already?)

It was for a two day (Thur/Fri) assignment -- in the worst school in the district.

After what I had experienced, it was a no brainer decision to decline. It was also no surprise that the automated system called ninety minutes later (15mins before the class started) to “offer” it again, as no other substitute in the district wanted to take it either.

NO WAY, TODAY!

SDC...

I have usually avoided “Special Day Class” assignments because of all the horror stories others have told me about. But I took this assignment today because there doesn’t seem to be much of the “regular class” variety.

First up, NO LESSON PLAN. The class DID have two aides for the sixteen students.

If those aids weren’t there, I wouldn’t know what I was supposed to do or even how to do it. There was a mix of mentally retarded, autistic, and really below grade level mix of 4th, 5th grade students.

One kid has something called “Williams syndrome”, another autistic, another one spent part of the movie eating Styrofoam (…not sure if he swallowed any before I took it away from him). And a fourth kid was a continually scratching her legs.

I probably won’t volunteer for this again.