everybody's working for the weekend

To fund my many misadventures, I became a substitute teacher at my old school district. But unlike teaching in Georgia, the faculty, staff and students at the schools I now work at not only understand English, but have access to internet and like to fire or sue folks who yap about certain things. Here goes living up to the reasonable and wise expectations laid out by my employer…

First day: I got a wake-up call at 8am for an assignment as a 5th & 6th grade PE teacher. Turns out, these poor pre-middle schooler’s have 10 class periods. Ten! I wound up spending 5 periods watching kiddos play Knock-Out basketball, 3 listening to band concerts, 1 assisting the first “inclusion” class I’ve experienced, and 1 sitting in front of the principal’s office.

I was given the best weather for an outdoor athletic class! How great, to not have to wake up earlier than I need to for work, and only have to throw on comfy workout clothes to meet dress code? When they ran the 5 minute warm-up with pop/dance music bumping from the half-blown speaker, I remembered doing the same thing to 90’s power-pop. Not gonna lie, I got into it and was grooving by myself next to a florescent green cone. For lunch, I ate epic leftovers and almost took a nap sitting back in a chair with my legs in the sun, rethinking the hours of country dancing spent the night before.

You don’t return to your old stomping grounds of 18 years expecting to be anonymous; but really, this was ridiculous déjà vu. I was subbing for a girl who graduated a year before me. A guy who I used to know, whose mom I remember as a teacher, was coaching alongside me. The head coach was the same woman who’s been around since before I was a student, and even though it had been 11 years since she’s seen me, she remembered me. Thankfully, she didn’t remember the awkward, sweaty, insecure girl that I once was.

When the band came out to recruit new performers through a concert (including a rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance,” which I could not distinguish 3 times in a row), my former band director was there. We shook hands, because I guess I’m an adult now and that’s what’s professional.

In my 9th period, I helped 5th grade kids brainstorm for “Trail of Tears” board games. One kid was excited about borrowing the concept of Monopoly for his theme: land on certain spaces and get/ or lose land. I didn’t know if it was insensitive to say that in history the American Indians always lost and the government always won in that game, so I just said “great idea!” instead.

For the 10th class period, I delivered notes across the school, and again saw how little has changed in 11 years. My old 5th grade teacher had been named teacher of the year. Saw the cheesy Hawaiian shirt on the back of the same guy who teaches “Oceans” class (so good to grow up on the sea!). I passed by the library, recalling with some embarrassment the daily school news broadcasting program I used to be a part of there. I remembered (with more embarrassment and a grin) when I gave a strategic wink during the school-wide video sign-off, as a confirmation to a boy who liked me that I would indeed be his girlfriend.

I wrapped up the day wasting time in the office, sitting next to a kid who got a talking-to about a rumored after-school “ruckus” and “scuffle.”
Excited to see what’s in store next!