the school district...

...requires everyone who thinks they would like to have the thankless job of being a substitute teacher to attend a training session in the middle of summer. I went today, along with about 799 other people who seem to think they would like to have an opportunity to take on the thankless position as well. We were actually divided alphabetically, with A-L meeting early in the morning, and M-Z coming in after the first half left.

It was an absolutely-positively-required meeting, as the email a couple of weeks ago stated. You had to print forms to sign and turn in, as well as put your signature on a sheet to document attendance. Then spend nearly two hours going over policy and procedures, as well as get a lesson in how the new program that finds classroom replacements will work when schools start up in a few weeks. The old program is obsolete, discontinued by the company that bought it out, and updated, to the program we will have to acclimate ourselves to. Technology will drag us into the future kicking and screaming, but plopped down in that electronics-generated world regardless of our tantrums.

I am profoundly ambivalent (is that an oxymoron?) about sub. teaching. I don't know if I want to do it, and find that when I do accept a job, by mid-morning I am wondering: why? I often think it does not pay enough to make it worth the time/effort. But today we were told that the pay in our local school district is higher than average for the state, and surprisingly more than is found in some bigger systems, with greater populations. Plus I expect that inner city schools have a serious problem with finding day labor/substitutes for replacing teachers who call out due to mental exhaustion/frayed nerves. No amount of money would  lure me into that type situation, in a place where I would think I should be wearing body armor to work.

But I did attend the meeting, mostly thinking, in the same vein as one believing 'it is easier to seek forgiveness than ask permission'. That it is easier to stay on the list than it would be to get on the list.
Pretty much the same theory I was apparently using when I sent in my $20 money order to apply for teaching re-certification. Knowing it is a whole lot easier to keep in good standing than to go through the process of searching out, paying for continuing ed., attending classes and re-applying if it should lapse. But sadly not sufficiently motivated to aggressively seek out the teaching positions that would provide the maximum pay rate for sub. work in the classroom. It does not seem worth the effort....