Another Sub Bites The Dust

I had jury duty yesterday and came back to find a note saying that the substitute was "extremely disappointed" in my students' behavior and that she won't be coming back. This is probably the fifth or sixth such note I have gotten this year, and shows exactly how "special" my class is.

The only sub who has done more than one day in my classroom this year is a woman who knows exactly how to deal with this group of kids. She's in her early seventies, a very short, chain-smoking, African-American woman with crazy gray hair that sometimes resembles a birds' nest and polyester pantsuits. She covered for me one morning when I got stuck at the drawbridge AND the railroad tracks and was about 15 minutes late. When I walked in, she was explaining to Jowan: "By the time I count to eight, you WILL be sitting down, you WILL have your hands folded, you WILL be quiet and respectful, and you WILL have a smile on your face!" He did.

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Bronwyn Harris, Author

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