Erin picked up my substitute teacher's permit from the local school today when she took Colton down there to meet with his speech teacher. I am officially "permitted" now. Woo Hoo. Why is it that I have both butterflies and a sense of nervous anticipation? Oh yeah... I know why.
The superindant's secretary wrote me saying she'd let the elementary and high schools know I was available to sub. I asked her to just send it to the high school. This isn't some extra-income thing for me... If I asked the me I knew 4 years ago if I'd be doing this, I would have laughed MYSELF out of the door, or at least had no idea how God would bring me here. But here is where I am, and I'm living in it, and going to enjoy it. Erin told me she had a few "good lucks" to pass along to me from the office, and I think they think it's kind of funny that I want to do this. Oh well. I do.
I was surfing the net a while ago looking for some stuff on subbing, to see what I might expect. I found this site, which is actually pretty well put together:
http://www.qnet.com/~rsturgn/
I may have to put my own site together, or at least journal his whole journey and somehow categorize it so I can come back to it, because I know it's going to be "a trip." As I browsed through the site, and as my mind has played tricks on me over the last few days, I've wondered... "Is this really something where I'll be able to make a dent in lives? Where change can happen? Or am I just going to be a babysitter? Will "the system" let me reach into lives more than just giving them busywork?" The first page I came to on the site above reassurd me:
The Substitute's day is over as soon as they leave the school. But during the six to seven hours that you spend in the classroom, you will have an influence on approximately 150 students. While it is a big responsibility to be in charge of this many students, it is also a welcomed responsibility to many Substitute Teachers.
Influence. That's the word I was looking for. Whether I teach a group of kids about math, watch a video on history, or spend time in the hallway watching them traverse life in this time of their lives, I am being thrown into it. And I choose to walk into it, to both get and give all I can to it. I am excited.
For my own reference, here are the links from that site. I'll be coming back here, I'm sure.
Directions: Click on a topic below to see more information on it.
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And a few other links that look interesting.
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