... as that notorious 'offer you can't refuse'. I was sitting down reading the newspaper last night, when my phone rang. I had a suspicious feeling it would be the 'sub. finder', looking for replacement teachers for today. And sure enough: the job was for a para.pro. at one of the elementary schools. I declined. And finished reading the sad, sordid, miserable, distressing, home-wrecking, nation-rending, planet-destroying, sorry news.
Deciding since there was nothing else on my calendar, I later went to the computer to check for some sub. work, and found the same job waiting for me. I moved on, did not accept, puttered about. Went out to water things that were panting, scratch the cat, etc. And my phone rang again - same job. After it popped up on the radar for the third time, with literally hundreds of other teachers on the calling list and No One else took the job, I thought: 'hmmmm, must be just for me.'
So I will spend the day monkey wrangling. I recently talked to a retired teacher, who has signed on to do sub. work (I think she is pretty particular about which schools she will work in). She went to the 'All Must Attend' meeting back in the summer, where you have to re-sign your 'contract' for sub. work each year. And reported that in order to stay on the active/in good standing list, we are required to take two jobs each semester. So at least I will have fulfilled my obligation.
It is a mixed blessing, working as a para. pro. I am pretty much sold on the idea of not being the only one in the classroom with two dozen kids I don't know, who don't know me, and don't think they have to do what I tell them. But it pays about half of what a teacher would get. There is the 'dollars vs. discipline' factor, and it seems like I lean more and more towards the ease of just trying to keep all the chickens in the barnyard rather than feeling slighted over not making more for a days' labor. Plus there is the knowledge that if I had stayed at home, worked in the yard or mopped the floor, it doesn't pay diddly either.
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