And So It Began With One Unexpected Ring

Yesterday morning the phone rang to reveal that the secretary was planning the following weeks substitute schedule. She asked me if I was available on Wednesday because I teacher is planning a longer Thanksgiving holiday. While I was planning to cook myself that day, I accepted because it would be my first day of subbing and the subject… World History! Perfect for me. I asked her what time calls come if someone calls out for a day but she explained that it rarely happens that they call in the morning but it would be around 6. A.M., I ask? All was set for the following week and I hung up with full knowledge that I had a little over a week before I needed to panic.

This morning the phone rang at 6:15 and I kicked Kimono Hubby in the back, mumbled something about getting that because it was surely for him. He was back upstairs in a matter of seconds with an evil grin on his face and the announcement, “It’s the school.”

Down the stairs and to the phone, in my cheeriest morning voice I answer. "You need me today? A day after you said this doesn’t happen? Yes, yes, I’ll be there."

Face washed, teeth brushed, half ironed clothes on and I am on my way. Only once I am behind the wheel does that moment of panic happen. I break the law and pick up my cell phone to call home to engage in the freak out.

Calm again, I finish my breakfast of champions, a Nutty Bar and Diet Coke, as I pull into the parking lot. In the office I hear for the first time that I am teaching freshmen Physics. I do everything I can to squelch the laughter that boils up. Me… Physics. Ha. Haha.

Typically one has more time to prepare when you know you are going to be subbing, especially in a subject you frankly hated when you were in school and now barely recall. I get exactly one tiny minute in the classroom reading the material before the students pour in.

So introductions went well – check. Roster – check check. Lesson plan – Newton’s Law of Motion and Centripetal Force. Again a bit of laughter threatens to materialize. For an hour and a half, I struggle through the lecture with activities, reading and the worst… they asked questions. My own nervousness probably prevented the best of answers but I gave it all I could. However, the blank looks of a few faces probably is a clear indicator that I didn’t quite succeed. Or maybe just that teenagers have learned to sleep with their eyes open.

Class two is a free period which sends me back to the office and gives me a chance to regroup and study the material.

My favorite period followed – lunch. Which I may add that I was quite successful at least in that task.

Back to another class and this time, I swear I nailed it. The nervousness was (mostly) gone and I knew exactly what I was trying to say and said so (mostly) that they understood.

Last class was partly an assembly which we had to group up and walk to only to regroup and head back to class. How am I supposed to regroup 15 students that I only had met for five minutes before we left the classroom? Interesting but they all managed to get back to that last period in my room for seminar.

Best line of the day was from a rather precocious, headstrong girl who when asked if I could help her with something on her assignment asked me if I could help make her interested in Physics. No, I cannot. But I did get her to finish the assignment which she fought at the beginning to do.

All classes challenged me but I didn’t let them get away with it which was probably my number one fear in working with high school kids. Two boys switched names on the role call and I called them by the wrong name for an entire class. I don’t necessarily care as long as they were both indeed there and were doing their work.

I even got to give them homework. That is one powerful feeling, my friends. I almost told them to write a 2-3 page paper on the US Sedition Act of 1918 and whether it limited civil liberties or not. Somehow I knew I would get caught on that though.

Today was a day of ripping off Band-aids and I think I did pretty well. I have two classes scheduled in the next two weeks, the first being World History and the second Japanese. Pray they don’t ask me to speak it! What do I know about it? I’m just a pseudo teacher.