The slow times (and on calling the sub caller)

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Home : 2001 : December : 23

The slow times (and on calling the sub caller)
By Steve

Well, I'm at the moment out of the sub game entirely, but based on several years experience with several districts, my experience is that things are generally slowest at the following times:

-First couple of weeks of the
school year - not many colds or ed. seminars at that time, plus most teachers don't want to take time off in the first days before they get things rolling.
-The week before Christmas break - as has been noted, some districts restrict their staff from taking time off except for dire need during that time.
-The last week of school (though last year I worked every day for the last three

weeks of school, including the last day. I got saddled with 8th grade special ed on the last day of school - arrrgh!)

-It can also get thin around end-of the quarter time when teachers are trying to tie up loose ends and get grades figured, etc, and are more reluctant to take a day off or schedule anything.

Anyway, don't sweat a lack of assignments for a week or two. Now, if it stretches into a several weeks, or you find out other subs are working regularly and you're not getting called, *then* you've got something to talk to the sub caller about...

And, not to change the subject, but I've never been partial to the idea of subs calling up the sub caller to drum up assignments (unless it's been a dry spell for work for a week or two - then it might not hurt to check in) - to me, that seems like stealing food off the table of your fellow subs. I knew a sub once who had worked a very long term assignment but then once it was done called the sub caller nearly every day to drum up work. The result was that she sometimes got jobs that might otherwise have gone to other subs in a fair rotation (I know for a fact that on several occasions the sub caller passed her over for a job to give it to another sub because she had been "hogging the assignments" and the sub caller wanted to spread things out to be fair.)

I guess one can argue that "hey, it's a competitive world, and if I'm motivated enough to call three times a week and the other guy isn't then tough for him", but I tend to look at it as "we're all in this together." If the school seems to be reasonably even-handed in doling out the assignments, then don't horn in on a system that's fair and works. Folks can disagree with me on that if they want, but that's my 2 cents on that issue.