At a crossroads...

[ladyiapetus]

Well, the school year has officially started here in town, which means that the library will now be relatively kid-free for a majority of the day. It also means that my other job as substitute teacher's aide has begun again.

And I'm not sure if I want to keep it up.

On the one hand, I like being around kids especially preschool aged ones. People say I'm good with them. I did have fun on most of my subbing jobs last year. Plus it was something to do other than sit at home when I wasn't working at the library.

On the other hand, I'm not sure it's really worth it anymore. Waking up at 6 every morning listening for the phone to ring to know whether or not I have to go in and sometimes only getting one subbing job a month for a paycheck that barely scrapes $50? I may only work about six days out of the month at the library, give or take when I'm covering someone else's shift or Pen asks me to work another day, but those are steady hours. And I'm also hoping that Pen will offer me the chance to work more hours again (and this time I'll take 'em!).

So I don't know what to do. I'm seriously considering dropping the substitute aiding thing, but I can't get the thought out of my head that if I do so, my mother's going to be disappointed in me.

Comments

[ladytimedramon.livejournal.com]

Are you only subbing as an assistant? Have you considered subbing in a different area?

I know that, at least in Dallas, different districts pay different salaries for subs at all levels. If you're lucky enough to get a long term sub, pay levels go up quite a bit.

Sometimes I still miss subbing. Yeah, I hated the early morning phone calls - but sometimes I would get booked up 2 months in advance for sub calls. I did like the "come in, keep the kids under control for the day, do what the teacher wrote, leave and worry about nothing else" aspect. No lesson planning (except for long term for fill in position until a teacher was hired), rarely grading, and in a couple of rare occasions, refusing to go back to a class (and one time refusing calls at a particular school).

Right now, I'm missing the computer lab - I knew my curriculum inside and out. But I'm not missing the hectic day and the teachers screaming that their computers don't work. I've been switched by the district to a 6th grade reading/language arts class. I do like the older grades (more independent), but for reading there's a ton of work that I'm not familiar with, and I'm floundering.

I don't know where you're subbing, but where I was, we could set specific days for subbing. So while I was going for my masters degree, I could take all my classes Tuesday and Thursday and sub MWF, or take classes MWF and sub TTh. Could you do that with the library and with subbing?

[ladyiapetus]

I have thought about it, but not seriously. The previous semester was my first time as a substitute teacher's assistant, and I decided to stick with my hometown school system since I was familiar with it.

And that's basically all I do when I get called in, is play assistant for the teacher because the regular teacher's aide is gone. I liked the younger grades because I interacted with the kids more; in the higher up grades all I did was check papers and play referee.

Also with the library I only work every Tuesday and alternate Saturdays. They already know not to call me on Tuesdays. Not that they called me a lot on the other days...

[blackjackrocket.livejournal.com]

I worked as a teacher's aide once. It was so boring...all I did was run errands to the office or walk the kids to the computer lab.

Although they *did* let me teach the class once...

By the way, if you want something else to do, I started a new fic community, digi_challenge

[bravesbelle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your comment in clue_the_movie(my Clue comm). I can't delete tweetyfan898's post because I'm having the LJ abuse team look into her spamming communities I maintain/am in.

I appreciate OTHERS agreeing that there was no reason for her to do that.

~Jillian

[ladyiapetus]

No problem. It makes me wonder if she flashes her ring at perfect strangers she sees on the street or in the store and tells them that she's engaged.

[bravesbelle.livejournal.com]

she's rubbing it in the faces of MY friends and me, because we're friends with her ex boyfriend.