I graduated (yay!) and the side effect of that occasion is that I am thrown out into the cold world (it is January) to be an "adult." Which I guess means working and earning money.
There are no full-time teaching positions available right now. If they're out there... they are hiding really well or they're going to people who are married to principals. Teacher's intents on the next year aren't due till around the end of this semester, so I have to wait a few months before endeavoring on a true job search.
For now I am spending my time as a Substitute in the same school district I student taught in. When I went to the Sub Orientation, the speaker started the shingding with the statistic, "By the time a student graduates high school, they will have been educated by substitutes for approximately one year of that education." The brat in me wanted to raise my hand and ask how such a statistic was figured, after all there were no sources cited on this stat, was I supposed to just blindly believe? But I didn't say anything.
I got a spiffy red and white badge with a typically unflattering photo of myself on it (and the subtly long word SUBSTITUTE down the side in notice-me-red) and on the back a list of all the color codes for the various lockdowns my school district can possibly experience. That's comforting... but not surprising. I've been in this district a year already.
At the orientation, I was informed that the automated sub-finding system (didn't battleships have those in World War II??) would be calling us starting at 5:30am so we could be informed of the substitute jobs for the day and have time to get ready to wrangle the children.
My first eligible day, I woke up on my own around 8am. I check my phone- no missed calls. I think to myself, Hmm. I guess the sub system didn't call me today. Freeeeee day!
Like any other recent college graduate who doesn't have any obligations for the day, I slept in, and when I did get up, I lounged around the house in my pjs.
At 10:30am, I'm outside with my dogs, and my phone rings. The system has found me. I answer the call and am informed of a sub job, for today's date, starting at 7:10am.
I'm confused.
I have to reject the job because:
1. I'm confused. I don't understand why I would be called for a job that started like 3 hours ago.
2. I'm standing in the driveway in sweats with my hair in a nest condition any bird would be proud of. No way can I shower and get to my school district in any reasonable amount of time. FYI- My school district is far away.
I shrug this call off as a fluke. Pssh that'll never happen again.
Till 11:45am that same morning, just over an hour later, when I receive ANOTHER call, to be an aide from noon till 4.
Surprised, I reject the job, though at least the system was kind enough to give me 15 minutes warning this time.
I feel discouraged by the fact that I had to pass up two jobs in one morning, though I'm still confused about how that went down. I reason with myself that those jobs were probably emergencies... someone went home sick, or suffered a tragic accident in the copy room.
Enter the next day.
It goes pretty identically to the previous day. I wake up (this time at 7-ish) and find no calls from the sub system. I get up and start my day with really exciting things like eating cereal while watching "How I Met Your Mother" on my DVR.
11:00am: PHONE CALL.
The sub system has found me again. Can I come in for a job that started at 8:50am? I check the clock. No, sub system... I can't do that. I'm so sorry. I hit the #2- reject job. I sigh. This is not how I thought this worked.
Enter the next next day.
I'm ready. I've learned. I set my alarm for 5am. This day is mine. I'm up, showered with really well-done hair if I must say, and have a teacher outfit laid out.
It's 6am.
Call me automated sub-finder system. I dare you. I'm ready. I'll take any job. I can run out the door totally prepared in the time it takes me to squeeze myself in my classic black pants and a LOFT sweater. Heels? I can shove them on in the car at the first red light, no problem. I'm ready. Game on.
Guess how many calls I got.
Go on. Guess.
ZERO. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
No calls! 3 calls in two days when I'm wearing pants with an elastic waistband and no calls the day I'm full-on prepped. Where is the justice.
I wasn't discouraged the first day (ok I was a bit), but I did the whole 5am-get ready routine the next day as well. No calls.
I didn't get another call the whole week.
Now it's the weekend. I'm looking forward to the next week. I like to think that I've broken this system's learning curve. I regret that it took me two days to figure it out. But to be fair- this was not explained in that lengthy orientation. So I fault the orientation.
Or I'm just way more stealthy than I ever imagined and the sub-finder system can never find me till mid-morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment