Floating Sub

I took a Middle School substitute job today, signed in at the main office, and was sitting at the teacher's desk in the empty 8th grade math class waiting for the first class period to begin when, lo and behold, the regular teacher walks in.  "Who are you?  I don't need a substitute today."

We go to the office and determine that someone (not me) hit the wrong key when placing a substitute order for the same teacher yesterday.  The secretary calls around to see if someone needs a sub, no one does, so the principal makes up a schedule of classes for me to go to "help out" if needed.

I am now officially considered a floating substitute, or floating sub, which is what I guess you want a sub to do.  However, in the minds of many of the students I was suspected of being the kind of sub that moves under the water for stealth purposes. 

"This is Senior LaBarge" the Spanish teacher would announce to her class.  He is here to help me out today".  Well it's soon obvious to the kids that the only help I'm providing is to pass out some work sheets, to look at the seating chart, but mostly to stare at them sternly during the class period.

"Are you a substitute or a helper?" one would ask.  "I'd smile and say, "Yes, I'm your teacher's special helper today.  "Are you an undercover agent, FBI?" the kids would whisper as I walked past them, looking over their nervous shoulders.  "Is there something I should know about?"  I whispered back.

On a different note, one of the classes I watched today was 7th and 8th grade Choir.  I never had Choir in school so I don't have anything to compare this class to, but it was an amazing experience.  Consider this, the teacher had almost 60 middle school kids to work with, and not only was he in complete control the entire time, but both he and the entire class looked and acted like they were having a wonderful time.

The teacher was young, engaging and full of energy.  When he stood on his conducting stand and the class began going through the song WINTER WONDERLAND, the effect was almost magical.  They would applaud themselves when they got a part right, they would cheer the kids selected for different quartet solos, and sound of their harmonies was actually pretty good for Middle Schoolers.

Half way through the class a guy who used to be the Middle School Choir teacher but is now the High School one enters the room to help out for a different number.  The teacher asks if the class wants to sing WINTER WONDERLAND for this guy but they all respond,  "No, we want to sing HALLELUJAH!"  So the teacher asks a student to come up and play the song on the piano, the class does well with the singing, the piano girl is great on both the instrument and her little solo at the end,  and you could sense the pride these kids had with their performance.

The high school teacher then does his bit, playing the piano as well as working with the different sections of singers.  He too is good, in command and achieves a lot.  But it's different.  He says to me after the class.  "I was the Middle School Choir teacher for many years until I moved up to the High School.  Things have sure changed here".  I thought, "You have no idea".

Truth be told, after officially making me a floating sub for the day the school could easily have sent me on an early cruise home.  But what fun would that have been?