Lunch Room Whispers

A Lesson I've Learned and Lived By (thus far in my teaching experience):

Stick close to the custodians and secretaries. They are the lifeblood of a school.

Today was a long day. We have report cards due this coming Monday. ::::exhausted sigh::::
I have spent entirely too much time at school and still haven't hit a point where I feel comfortable with the workload of grading I have left. I could feel guilty about blogging, reading my mail, checking email and surfing facebook for the last hour but I feel like I have most certainly put my time in.

Monday and today were both 12 hour days AT SCHOOL with a little extra time at home. Now, for experienced teachers this is probably not the case. It seems like many of them roll in at 8:15 and book out of school as soon as the clock hits 4:15. How do they do it??? AND some of them don't even take stuff home! I am still in amazement of that.

I think that part of it lies in that my sub position started mid-quarter so I have to figure grades out for a few things I didn't do with the kids. And it's my first year doing all of this stuff on my own. Last year with student teaching I was on my own but could easily seek the guidance of my awesome cooperating teacher! I am typically the first to arrive with our secretary and the last to leave. I actually like it though. I did the same when I worked in theatre. I love having time alone in my space...whether it be a dark theatre or a colorful elementary classroom. One nice thing is that the custodian always chats with me while he sweeps the day's debris out of my classroom; so, it's not deafeningly silent.

Anyhow, today I walked into the Teacher's lunch room and nuked my food. As usual, conversations are bubbling among the teachers, so it's hard not to overhear conversations. Well, there were a few subs in our building today who were sharing the lunch period with my level. They were discussing how day-to-day sub jobs get snapped up so quickly in this particular district (which I have heard!). When all of a sudden, I heard this come from the mouth of the young man sub:

"Yeah, I was up for this one long term job here in 4th grade. It starts later, like April, maybe."

{Me starting to wonder if perhaps the principal changed her mind about me taking the job I mentioned in this post. }

And he continues: "All of a sudden I can't find it on the posting list. I am definitely going to talk to the sub coordinator (our secretary) today."

I started to worry that I had misinterpreted when the principal stopped me in the hallway last week, after our email exchange regarding the placement. She simply said, "Are we a go on that subbing?" To which I responded, "Most certainly!" With a nod, she turned and walked away and that was it!!!

So, this afternoon, I took advantage of the fact that I had an aide in my room who offered to stay with the three kids who are NOT in band or orchestra. She too had heard the lunch conversation and simply advised I "get on that" and make sure it was my position. I walked down to our office in search of our sub coordinator/secretary/office goddess. She wasn't in but I was directed to where she was and moved quickly.

I found her and tried to politely ask if she knew the status of the position. She responded that she didn't know but asked for the dates of the teacher's leave. I told her that I just wanted to make sure and didn't want to put her in any sort of awkward decision-making role. She said, "Oh, honey. You aren't putting me anywhere. Get me the dates and you are in. We don't want anybody else!"

And this evening, as I checked my mail, I found this:

And this:

Let's hope a mistake wasn't made and that this was in fact cleared by our principal! I am pretty excited about staying on with this school. Despite the hours I've been keeping (I figure it's akin to a first-year teacher's schedule sans the PDP!), I'm really enjoying what each day holds with my kiddos and the faculty and staff! They all keep me on my toes!

HURRAY!

Also, I've also created a new header out of boredom during my "scheduled" down time last night! Check it out!