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Default Dec 05, 2022 at 11:11 PM
  #1
I always knew that substitute teaching was only temporary when I signed on to do it. It's flexible and pays better than restaurant or retail or barista jobs. But it's not steady work AND if students act up in your classroom, the school can exclude you.

So far this fall, a student pulled my hair to be funny, in a 4th grade classroom. A 5th grade student intentionally hit me in the face with a dodgeball after I'd stopped the game bc it got out of control, and some 3rd grade students messed with the teacher's Point Point Slide Deck when i had my back turned while helping some students.

So, because of these things, my substitute teaching account was suspended and the HR director wants to meet with me, to terminate me as a substitute teacher.

No, substitute teachers don't have teacher unions for support. You're an hourly contract employee of the district, so you have no job protection. Not even HR cares.

Since I have been a substitute teacher for a few years, my goal is to go to the meeting with the objective of sharing my POV and experience as a substitute. My hope is that the HR Director will let the schools I have good relationships with, act as professional job references for me.

Otherwise, I have to go through my network of people to ask them to be a character reference for me since the people who respect me, don't work in schools.

This is so annoying. I'm so fed up with temporary work. I just want full time work. I joined some agencies again today and have about 5 weeks of funds left. I can't borrow anymore than that from anyone, unfortunately.

I bought a nice used car this summer that has a loan attached to it. I already used 1 of 2 loan delay payments (where they stick the payment at the end of the loan). Most banks won't let people do the two consecutive loan payment delays back to back because that is 2 months of no car payments.

But, in case of emergencies sometimes that is people's only options. I find out tomorrow if the bank will approve my consecutive loan payment delay for December. Otherwise, I can't not pay the car payment b/c the bank will just repossess the car, after 30 days. I need to check. If they wait that long, I may just take a risk and hope I get a paycheck before 30 days from today, to pay December's car payment Otherwise, I have to surrender the car to the bank and forfeit the loan payment. What a pain.

Even if I start working next week in a temporary role, it will take the payroll 14-21 days to process my paperwork to pay me.

So, I'm a tad stressed out right now. And, I read again and again how people lose power over their lives when they reveal everything they're going through to others. So, I'm keeping mum about my situation as hard as it is.

Remember, I lived with that mentally ill woman in her house for a year where she got fired and stayed in bed for the year I lived with her; I had to feed her and take care of her cat, and set traps to exterminate all of the mice that built nests in her kitchen. And she found a job after that year, and lucked out with a huge inheritance after the death of her mother. So, she kept her house and her car and her friends.

Me? I don't feel like my friendships are real friends. They are more social acquaintances who would not be interested in giving me emotional support. So, I have to stay mum about my situation, and get emotional support from a walk in counseling center.

I can get SNAP food benefits restarted and I can seek out rental assistance programs in my city and county to help me with rent. That part is tricky because most nonprofits won't cut a rent check unless you have an eviction notice. And even then, some landlords will proceed with your eviction even if they get a rental assistance check. I don't know how my landlord would respond. I've always paid my rent on time. I can email the tenant coordinator and ask. Their finance guy is a real piece of work. He texts tenants threatening them, from what I've heard in my bldg.

I'm not "freaking" out b/c that won't help me. I am trying to stay focused and proactive but I'm emotionally upset that students' poor choices is why I'm in my situation.

The only people we can control is ourselves. Substitute teaching is difficult due to the lack of respect and lack of support by teachers and other staff. You'd think they'd want their substitutes to be successful and would provide their substitutes with as much help as necessary. Nope. Paras are few and far between and their absence in the classroom is why students get away with horryfingly bad behavior towards teachers and substitute teachers.

Hopefully, I'll find some other work while I continue job hunting for full time work. Its hard to be taken seriously by prospective employers when you don't have a 30 year career resume but a resume full of contractual roles. Although I know the technical IT field is contractual and pays good $$. I just don't have that kind of brain. Otherwise, I'd pursue IT classes for jobs. But I can't do that type of work.

I really wish I had a good support system but I don't. I'm 51 and feel like the culmination of choice and circumstance is why I'm in my present moment, and I'm really upset about it. At the substitute teacher luncheon, one woman I conversed with, previously was a 15 year executive assistant for a law firm. They laid her off when Covid hit and she's been an hourly $15/hr lunch para. She went from making $40/hr to $15/hr. She lives off her social security and her lunch para wages which aren't that much. So there's a lot of people in my same situation.

It just feels unfair and it stinks. And I'm feeling sad and exhausted and defeated. So I'm writing about it here. Sometimes I really despise people. This includes elementary aged students who screw with their substitute teachers livelihood by acting outrageously. They get to come to school again but their substitute teacher gets fired.
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Default Dec 06, 2022 at 10:18 AM
  #2
I'm so sorry you are going through this

Two ideas: can you ask at your meeting if you can get other employment at the schools, like as a para?

Also, sounds like it is time to apply here for an MSF grant, asap. That should buy you a little time.
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Default Dec 06, 2022 at 02:32 PM
  #3
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Originally Posted by unaluna View Post
I'm so sorry you are going through this

Two ideas: can you ask at your meeting if you can get other employment at the schools, like as a para?

Also, sounds like it is time to apply here for an MSF grant, asap. That should buy you a little time.
Hi unaluna,

No, that transition from substitute to para isn't an option and I wouldn't take it if it were, since the pay is drastically different (para's make $10 less than subs). Based on the way I was treated by the HR staff this week, I decided to be done with substitute teaching permanently.

I luckily got a temp job for the next 6 weeks, that starts tomorrow. I emailed the District Mgr's secretary to ask if he could just call me to discuss his concerns and she was adamant that he would not. Then, I asked her to ask him to email me the purpose for his meeting i.e. an agenda and she got hostile with me, "Motts, I told you that's not going to happen. You don't get to have this meeting your way."

This is someone who is in charge of hiring staff and teachers for an entire school district. And this is how he and his secretary respond to reasonable requests.

You have the professional right to ask for a meeting's agenda before you show to the meeting so you can prepare and not be ambushed.

Clearly, I dodged a HUGE bullet by getting this temp job today that made tomorrow's meeting impossible and the District Mgr's refusal to simply call me to discuss the issues.

I sent his secretary a 3 sentence resignation letter and cc'd the district payroll office on it. I basically said I was resigning for a,b,c reasons and included all of the schools I subbed for (from my phone calendar) as proof of my employment in case they try to avoid paying me.

Here's the timeline of their toxic and very unprofessional behavior:

Substitute appreciation luncheon- Friday
Monday - My substitute account is frozen without any heads up from the district, and no explanation given when I asked three different employees
Tuesday - Distr Mgr refuses to disclose the reason for his meeting with me and refuses to reschedule or do a phone call or video call when I let his secretary know I had the temp job.

My prediction is that I will be 100% employed in a real job by the end of spring of 2023. I will never substitute teach again. It's a thankless, horrible, horrible job with no protections for the substitute teacher and no consequences for student abuse and disrespect towards substitute teachers.

Anyone who thinks education isn't a f*c$ed up place, hasn't worked as a teacher or staff member. I'm so relieved to be done. I will never do it again.
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Default Dec 07, 2022 at 06:14 AM
  #4
Substitute teaching is hard. Students tend to pull things because they know these teachers are temporary and don’t grade them. Also when children misbehave there is little a teacher can do to reprimand them, so the students take advantage. You are not alone in being frustrated.
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Default Dec 07, 2022 at 07:28 AM
  #5
There’s zero consequences for students with substitute teachers. I had students physically assault me, and nothing was done.

Of course I was blamed for being physically assaulted by students. It’s my fault (according to school principals) that their students choose to pull my hair, or choose to hit me in the face, or choose to spit on me, or call me racial, slurs, or throw their desks or chairs because they’re mad It’s not the students fault. Right?!

Why should the student be held accountable for their own behavior; that’s unheard of right? Students are not responsible for their own choices, according to school principals.

So, from my perspective, the past three years of employment as a substitute teacher is time wasted. I reached out to several teachers whom I had good relationships with, to ask them for character references for future jobs. They all emailed back that no, they wouldn’t be comfortable. Word travels fast.
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Default Dec 07, 2022 at 08:32 AM
  #6
I will also add that my fear is the District Mgr will retaliate against me (scapegoat me, as a substitute teacher) because I refused to let him and his secretary ambush me, by not emailing me ahead of the meeting he wanted to have with me. Suspending my substitute teaching account without any warning or explanation, until after I called the district to ask why, then the secretary being hostile with me on the phone, when I set the boundary of asking what the meeting is about, and then asking him to call me since I couldn't make it to the meeting. I am worried that he will retaliate against me now, legally, for resigning as a substitute. Such a toxic environment, this school district. I'm relieved to leave but frustrated that now I have nothing to show for the past few years of my work history, since I can't use any teachers I subbed for as references (the ones I contacted all declined).
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