I needed somewhere to vent about this. I’m a long term sub because it has great flexibility and it pays pretty decent (California here, $275 a day for 7 hours). Well I got assigned a long term position which was awesome because it meant guaranteed work. Well the first day I get there the principal tells me “We don’t know where the kids left off but you have to come up with lesson plans regardless as that’s your job” okay…. So no guidance on what the kids are learning then? No clue whatsoever.
Well I looked at past work and decided to go from there. I made a couple of worksheets for them just to get the ball rolling. The principal then tells me “oh that’s boring. Come up with something else or they may get a little angry and hard to control”…. Okay? What does that mean? Turns out the school is for at risk students. I didn’t mind that but I was never told. To put it into perspective it was students who failed regular high school and were given a second chance to pass. Again I didn’t mind this, but it would have been nice to know at the beginning.
The first week was hell. The students cursed at me, threw things at me and I didn’t even have a phone in the class. When I called on the radio for assistance they asked what was the problem. I told them that they’re being rude and not listening to me. The supervisor that came in just looked at them and then left.
Well I asked the principal if they have detention or rules against phones. I was told they’re too small to focus on that type of stuff so no. Nothing in place for that.
Well at this point I have absolutely no power whatsoever. I’m there as a punching bag pretty much. I decided to suck it up because no job is perfect and every school has its rough students.
I got used to the terrible treatment and the lack of help from anyone. I put up a video on physics and energy. The video was a crash course and I told students to take notes because it’ll be on the test. No one listened to it or me. So I said okay, well that’s your grade not mine.
I had to ask the principal to approve the test and he said because no one listened and took notes that I’m not allowed to give them the test because they’ll fail. He mentioned that for this school we have to guide them completely because some students don’t like to write on their own.
So pretty much I have to be there as a punching bag, and can’t even attempt to teach them something because it can’t ruin their grade and we’re their second chance. I’ve had students walk out of class, students who assaulted each other, cursed at me, threw things at me, and I can’t do anything about it because that’s my job.
The final straw was when I asked a student to help pick up the mess his group did since he didn’t do anything for their project. He cursed at me and said to expel him because he isn’t anyones maid. I called the principal to see what can be done and they started to clean the mess for them. 🤷️
Peace out to that shit school.