Another Subbing Complaint

I subbed for a third grade teacher who was out with a sick child. In the middle of the day, she called to find out how things were going. At the time, I had told all of the kids to put their heads down, because they were talking when I was trying to tell the whole class something. While I was on the phone with the regular teacher, she asked if I would return the next day for a partial day. I agreed, because I generally think it is better for the kids to have fewer, rather than more subs; and the class, while a bit too talkative, was basically a nice class.

The next day, I arrived at 11:00 and the teacher proceeded to talk to the kids about their bad behavior the previous day. She said that the kids had reported that I was nice and to her that meant that they took advantage of me by abusing my niceness. She was probably right, but it made me very uncomfortable - to be sitting there while she lectured the kids about me being too nice to them. It felt like she was really upbraiding me for not being meaner.

And, again, she was probably right. I really am not mean enough to be a good sub. I am smart, knowledgeable, resourceful, kind, interesting, interested, etc., etc., but I am not mean. I suppose that is my downfall. Maybe I should find a job where you can be nice to people and not get yelled at for being like that. I wonder if there is a job like that.

Subbing - Bad Days

I have just come off of a couple of not so good days subbing and I am questioning whether I should continue doing it. It isn't that it was horrid, it wasn't, but I feel like it was a lot of hard work for not enough compensation. Kids aren't very respectful of subs. They weren't when I was a kid either. I remember stealing the shoe of one sub (who took them off when he sat at the teacher's desk) and passing it around the class until one kid finally put it outside the window on the roof next to the classroom. And that was more than 40 years ago. But the question is whether _I_ want to put up with it. Maybe, as my brother keeps insisting, I should get a "real" job. Too bad there aren't more half time jobs. I like working, but I also like to have time to myself.