I was hired at the beginning of the school year as an Art Teacher. Because of the timing being right before school, I was put in as a long term sub - ie a temp. I recieve minimal benes and pay is less than a first year teacher. This year was a record-breaking snow year. Today makes 11 snow days for the year. I get 2 personal days - so the rest is without, but I do like being home to work on my art and catching up on school things - but it is mostly school things that I am volunteering my time on.
All along, I said when I asked if I am staying on I would say that "I don't know". I was always afraid to get my hopes up and say "yes!" when I knew that they could hire somebody else - like somebody that could coach or be involved in sports. After yesterday, I am saying "no". I am considering my future without subbing. This made my 11th year and I am ready for something else. I was going to do something else this fall but got sucked into this. The Senior High students work and have good behavior, you can tease and have fun conversations with them. The Middle School students are rough around the edges. It is hard to make a difference in their lives when they are sneaky, argumentative, loud, talk and interrupt constantly and break my supplies. There are many, many good students in the group but the few wreck it for the rest.
Even without the kid issues, a big part is the support from the top down. That goes wherever you are. I did not get a mentor because I was a sub. All info and program issues I ended up hunting down the answers. There was not any plans, curriculum, information on procedure, grading, etc and a new principal. Emails were not answered, problems, behavior issues not dealt with from above. A lot of times I felt out to sea because when I needed help I had to find it elsewhere. There was no welcome packet with every password and information of all the programs you are going to be using - you are just on your own to hunt it down. I have a new laptop sitting on my desk still waiting to be .set up but haven't had time to focus and do it because it was lessons, grades, orders and everything in between.
I gave them extras - a lot. The big storage room was a major mess with a vintage pool table down the middle heaped with stuff. I got that out and found tables to go in their place so my independent study students have a place where they can work with nobody touching their things. CESA came through and said everything had to be at least 2 feet from the ceiling so the stuff on the top shelves came down and I found a way to squeeze them in. I was told the upstairs storage had to be cleaned also - there were 600 ceramic molds to get rid of as well as going through stuff from 2 art teachers from the past 30 years. I still have some molds up there and a few piles of trash and misc things to go through. I found treasures that I could and have used like a printing press and stacks of linoleum blocks and printing paper. There were also vintage silk screen frames, a roll of ss fabric and a new roll of Ulano blue 3. I have hauled down several boxes of carving wood. So much has mouse poop on it too so when I grab a box, I do not know if a friend is going to come out of it or not. When I came, supplies were low so I ordered and now have to do another order, but there are things to work with and hopefully the worst of the stuff is cleaned out so they can start fresh.
So, the reset, cleaning, is my gift to them. This is the first school I signed up to sub at and know the children and teachers. That really helped walking in for this job. I was given classes that were only a thought in the past teacher's mind - like Video Game Design and recently the Print Shop that I had to develop from scratch. It might be good to bring that experience to the next place if I do apply for a teaching job somewhere else.
So, for this year, I did have a job offer elsewhere that I turned down, there was this year-long sub job an then I also turned down a Middle School Art teacher long term position because I was already booked. I really need to find something different. We will see how the search goes. I want to walk away from this one with positive feelings. I did my best for the time and materials I had. I gave the students experiences and projects that they haven't had before but should have. I hope when I leave, I will also leave behind good memories of me in the minds of the staff and the students. That is the best I can hope for.
