A Groggy 5:36 AM

Being a sub means that you get to choose your own schedule.  I could take a couple days off for a trip to see family in Iowa or I could decide that I only wanted to sub every other day.  I could do only half days or construct weeks on end wherein I am at two schools every day.  At 2:30 today I will be leaving my house for my other job.  Originally I thought this would mean that I couldn't sub--then I realized that there are ample half-day needs and planned on doing a half day.

I was already tired before I left a friends last night at 9 PM.  I read for a while and then fell asleep shortly after 10 pm.  At 5:36 AM, my phone rang.  It was for a sub job, the sub job.  High School.  Language Arts.  7:20 to 10:55 AM.  Perfect.  I would get up, get ready, teach, and still half a bit of a breather before my other job.  So I went to press 1 to accept.

I missed and pressed the tiny little 4 on my cell phone.  I hear, "I will not call you again today." 

I had pressed the button which rejects the job and stops further calls from that district.  Part of me is an English teacher at heart.  When I think about classroom management strategies or rubrics, I think of how to apply it to a high school language arts course.  Then I remember that I'm a licensed art teacher.  I would have loved to spend a couple hours in the language arts classroom; however, the subbing system is internally consistent.  If I reject it on the phone, it's take off the website listing as well.

This gave me a fear of pressing the wrong button throughout the morning in the four more calls I received.  At 6:18 AM, I woke in a panic--wondering if I'd unintentionally accepted some other sub job. I awkwardly reached over to my laptop on the nearby desk--too lazy to get my entire body out of bed--and signed in online.  I checked my schedule, and to my relief there were no jobs that I'd sleepily accepted.  I groggily listened through other calls from the staffing service, but was still mourning over the loss of an opportunity to sub in a high school language arts classroom.

Now my sights are turned to Monday, as I wonder what subbing opportunities it holds.