Honor Among Subs?
by missrandell
Oh mylanta. Two weeks ago I was a band teacher. One week ago I was an English teacher. This week I was a French Immersion science teacher.
I cannot complain. This is more work than I ever dreamed I would get when I first added my name to the ol’ sub roster.
One of the things that I’m finding hardest about substitute teaching is the sense of competition that exists between us. There is camaraderie, civility, and often friendship, but I would be lying if I said there wasn’t an undercurrent of tension. At the end of the day, we’re all after the same few jobs.
Luckily for me, not many of my friends teach the same grades or subjects as I do, so the feeling that we need to, I dunno, “out-teach” each other is considerably less. That said, I still feel guilty when we hang out on the weekends and compare notes.
“Did you get many days this week? I only got a half-day on Wednesday.”
“Oh man, that sucks! Sorry, dude.”
“What about you?”
“Uh, I got a few.”
“How many?”
“Like… four.”
“Four FULL days??”
“Sooo, you watch COPS last night?”
It’s brutal. Sometimes it seems like just acknowledging that we’re getting work at all is enough to feel like you’re gloating or bragging. Ugh.
