Fact: to sub in a Michigan public school you only need 90 credit hours of college (any college so long as you pass) and a clear criminal background.
You don't even have to interview, have a teacher certification, or do anything to prove competency except fill out 30 pages of paper with the help of a trained professional.
So I'm in.
I signed on as a sub-teacher/sub-secretary and now I'm working in the book depository of a high school. It gets two thumbs up.
Thumbs down to the woman who was there before me (now on maternity leave). She must have done absolutely nothing while she was there. The place is sooo easy to keep up so why were there huge backlogs of unshelved books and books in need of repair when I got there? No clue. Particularly seeing as I've taken care of all the daily stuff that's come up and made a huge dent in her backwork. Anyway.
Thumbs up for not being in an office that has to deal with parents. Trust me, when it comes to high school, parents are more of a pain than a help unless they volunteer their time. They're not there enough to know what goes on but they're constantly "concerned."
And thumbs up for there being some hot men walking around that building. No, I'm not going pedophile here, I'm talking about adult males employed by the school. This is the first time I've been in a "work place" and seen that many good looking young(er) guys. Normally the young ones are awkward and ugly and the good looking ones are too old.
N. B. Student-teachers look so young. And most of them look so scared.
Why are you so young and scared? This is just a high school. These are just suburban teenagers. Live in Chicago's South Loop for a few months and these kids won't seem scary at all.
The exception to the scared bit are the student-teachers that teach specialty science classes. The guy who's the student teacher for Physical-Science is pretty confident. Possibly because it's an accelerated class where the teacher has been at it for 20 years in only that subject with a reputation for being tough. The student teacher benefits by proxy.
When I spent a day proctoring a test with the student-teachers and other staff, the student-teachers seem to seek me out. Like I was part of the club. I'm obviously not middle aged, and they know by now that I'm not part of the full time permanent staff. They think I'm part of their world. That I'm in their box somehow. I don't think of myself this way. Possibly because this is the high school I graduated from. I've been a student there but never a student-teacher. Possibly because I'm already out of college, and this city doesn't phase me after Chicago. Probably it's because I don't feel as scared as they look.
