First Sub Day

Yesterday was my first sub day of the year. Sub plans has always been one of those things on my "Why I Love Middle School" list. It still is but I had a huge AH HA about choosing a sub this year for my Read 180 class. These are not typical middle school students. Many of them are not fluent in English, most have been failing for a long, long time and don't really like school. So I guess it takes a special someone to handle my little darlings. I wasn't ready to leave them with a sub because we were just beginning to have a shared focus. So I told my sub I would be there and she could just monitor independent readers or just hang out and watch the program. She responded by telling me that she wasreally interested in tutoring adolescent readers and would love to be there. So 2nd period rolls around with no sub. I start teaching and she comes in and plops down at the small group table. Once rotations begin, I tell her that she can go read with anyone in the independent reading area. She takes off and as I'm beginning my small group lesson, I see her approach a couple kids but I don't see any reading going on. She slinks back to my table and says, "I don't think they want me here" and left the classroom. Oh if life could be that easy and we could just leave when they don't want us.