picture day-shmicture day

Today was the annual picture day at WL. This joyous occasion always "falls on my shoulders" because I just happen to be the teacher who is in charge of the yearbook. Here's a little glimpse into what my day was like:

I had to call in my sub job (I couldn't prearrange one, they were ALL taken, seriously!), which I always worry about because you never know what kind of sub is going to show. The job was filled and after a crazy long day yesterday, I got to the school a little after 6:30am to get things ready for the sub. I was frazzled in knowing what to do, seeing as how the sub was also responsible for getting all of my 8th graders down for pictures. I made the copies, wrote detailed plans, and even created a really good map for the sub to follow when bringing the students down.

During 2nd period--the first period I teach English--the sub brought the students down, said hello to me, and then vanished. My students waited and waited for him to bring them back, until one student came to find me and told me, "The sub left. Do we just go back to class." I supervised them as far as I could up the hall, since I was kind of the overseer of everything else with pictures. A little later in the period, I asked my friend, another English teacher, if my students were still in the hall. She went back to check and returned to tell me they were in my room, but that the sub was just sitting at the desk, on the computer, and the kids were all over the place. Great.

Well, to be brief about the sub, here's the rest of the day in a bulleted list:
* I asked the VP to check in on my 3rd period because I was concerned that the sub wasn't doing his job...the VP came back to tell me he "took care" of the problems. Great.
* I didn't see the sub ever walk down with my students again until 7th period. Students from 3rd, 4th, and 5th periods told me the sub told them to just walk down and return when "they wanted" (!!!!!)
* After 4th period, two of my students come to me in tears claiming that someone in class stole one of their cameras during pictures. They were suspicious of the sub because he was "looking at them weird" all class period and saw him snooping around in my desk (!!!!!) I had them report their missing camera to the detective and I still don't know what happend (luckily nothing was out of place in my desk!)
* During lunch, I stopped in my room and noticed that the sub had turned on my computer and was logged in...under one of my 1st period students ID/Login. Who knows what happened there??

The other issue of the day:
We have several parent volunteers to help give students their picture card, which they, then, give to the photographer so they can sort the pictures. We had it set up by last name, A-G, H-O, and P-Z. The majority of my parent volunteers were Hispanic and (this is nothing against Hispanic people and I am very grateful they were willing to help) a few spoke limited English. They just have to ask the students their last name, find the card, and hand it to them. If there isn't a card, they have to write one for them. Well, the Hispanic ladies DIDN'T KNOW THEIR ABC'S AND WENT THROUGH EVERY FREAKIN' CARD in the bunch. I finally had to literally teach them how to find the cards quickly. It really held us up and took much longer than ever before. For the first time in my experience as picture day lady, some students had to stay after the bell, into the next period, in order to get their picture taken.

So, overall, I wasn't impressed with the sub and had to deal with several little issues. I got back to my room after school and it was TRASHED! I quickly logged on to the computer to put in the attendance, which I'm surprised the sub even took, read a few e-mails and then came home to crash on my couch. Picture day was a lot more tiring than a normal day teaching, which is surprising!!!

Good thing tomorrow is Friday.