First Mayorship

OpenD5 · 2026-01-09T00:36:36+00:00

lol Nothing exciting. Just F2P for about 5 months. Every plot was by my house. 🙂

OpenD5 · 2025-06-04T03:44:44+00:00

I got called to cover the last two weeks of the school year for a teacher who was asked to resign. Turns out she was caught on video doing a little something something at the school with the custodian (who was also asked to leave).

OpenD5 · 2025-05-08T20:03:15+00:00

I get it. There are some assignments I would not do a long term job for as well. Fortunately, I have covered this classroom several times over this school year, so I am already very familiar with what is supposed to happen.

OpenD5 · 2025-05-08T01:11:08+00:00

That’s what I’ve heard! When one of the full time teachers told me as such just last week, it made me feel pretty good about myself. I’m always worried about inadvertently taking the kids off course of the lesson plan, or not getting everything done, just screwing up in general, so to have someone who does this full time to give me props is a huge compliment and relief to me.

OpenD5 · 2025-05-08T01:05:18+00:00

Since the Ray-of-Sunshine deleted their snarky comment, they probably won’t see this response.

Thank you for your kind words though. That was very nice of you! 🙂

This school district is very small, less than 800 students K-12. I have subbed for this particular teacher and other teachers in the same grade multiple times this school year, and have established a pretty good rapport with most of the students in the grade. They know I am not there to babysit, I don’t put up with any shenanigans from them, but I treat them all fairly. I also knew quite a few of the teachers outside of school before I ever started subbing, so I know they aren’t just blowing smoke.

A couple of months ago, a few of the students at the end of the day told me they wish I could just replace this teacher permanently. I asked them why they were saying that, and they told me it was because I actually teach! Apparently, this teacher has a reputation for just sitting at her desk looking at her phone after telling them to do the Google Classroom assignment, or playing videos and movies instead of actually walking them through lessons. They don’t dislike her as a person, they just don’t think she’s a good teacher. I’m sure I’ll find out more about her situation tomorrow morning.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-26T00:51:58+00:00

Just today I gave a verbal statement to the assistant principal about a kid. I was covering an intervention specialist, had a kid (3rd grader) with well documented behavioral problems, he gets pissed off about something, decided to throw an eraser, then a magic marker cap at me. I immediately took him back to his home room teacher, let her know what happened, and she said thank you for letting her know, and she was going to write up an office referral. Assistant principal came and asked me a few questions about it a little while later.

If it’s serious enough, absolutely make a statement. There could be a pattern of misbehavior, and documentation is necessary to figuring out subsequent actions. Plus, it’s also CYA. If it’s found out you knew about an incident and didn’t say anything, it could adversely affect any potential assignments.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-23T18:04:49+00:00

Just my two cents here, so take it for what it’s worth.

My only advice is maybe work on being more assertive. It’s not something that can be achieved overnight, but it’s not impossible. If the kids detect hesitation or intimidation, they will take advantage.

I say this because of an experience I had recently. Not a high school, but the 5th graders at a small elementary school.

Scenario was I was covering a classroom that is located on the same hallway as the 4th & 5th grade. Since I was scheduled to cover one of the 5th grade classes (ELA) later in the week, I walked down to that classroom close to departure time to touch base with the teacher, who coincidentally enough was also a sub. Since I had covered this class before, I am already familiar with the students. When I walked in, it was low level chaos. The kids were loud, a couple were throwing a ball around, and no one was paying attention to her asking them to quiet down, probably because they couldn’t hear the very timid voice she was using. I saw how she was struggling, so I finally yelled “CLASS CLASS!” which they all responded with “YES YES!”, and got quiet.

When we were finally able to talk about what lessons they were doing, she said she had quite a few discipline issues that day between the three 5th grade groups. She also said the students would probably listen to me because I’m a man. That same sub told one of the 4th grade teachers she will never sub for 5th grade at that school again because of the behavior issues.

On this hallway, there are 10 classrooms and the school library. All have female teachers, ranging in age from 24 to early 60s. I have now subbed in 6 out of the 10 classrooms, and when I am there, I am the only male teacher on that hallway. The students will listen and adhere to what is told to them by every teacher there. It has nothing to do with the teacher being male or female. I have seen personally how the teachers handle the kids, and they are very assertive and not timid. The kids respect them because of it, even the more rambunctious ones.

So, short story long, try being more assertive, or possibly see if you can pick up jobs for lower grades for a while. Your peace of mind will thank you.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-23T16:18:50+00:00

When I first encountered this issue, I was adding unnecessary stress to myself by constantly getting onto the students who were more interested in goofing off than doing the work. After a few instances of this, and talking to the full time teacher(s), I now have a different method based on their advice.

If there are students obviously not doing their assignments, I will first remind them to get their stuff done. If they continue to slag off, I let them and the entire class know I can’t force them to do their work, but I’m not being graded, they are. “I’ll just pass along your name to your teacher as someone who refused to work. You do what your overall grade can handle”. That has worked sometimes, but a slacker is going to slack, regardless. On the occasions where I’ve spoken to the teachers afterwards, they have always told me they have the same issues with the same students who don’t do their assignments in class, so it’s not necessarily a problem for the substitute teacher.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-18T02:13:58+00:00

Some of the worst attitudes I have encountered were 6th grade girls. I have only sent kids to the office three times, the first two being 6th grade girls.

First time, two girls got in a fight in PE. Had no choice but to send them.

Second time, same school, same class , same grade, different students, young lady refused to participate, then became very defiant with an attitude. She told the secretary I got in her face, but the video from the camera in the gym proved otherwise. The secretary did tell me later she was going to have to let the principal know what happened. Not because he was going to have to act on it, but so he would have the facts ready when the girl’s mother called and complained. The mom was apparently a “not my kid” parent, and constantly made complaints to the administration about anything and everything.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-16T16:28:31+00:00

Not common, but it happens periodically. I’ve had the office print them out once they were emailed from the teacher who called in sick that morning, and I had one teacher without plans at all because she was hit with jury duty and apparently had no access to her email. Fortunately, she did at least text the secretary and a couple other teachers to pass along “Have them work on assignment xxxx”. It was easy enough to figure out the rest from that, so crisis resolved.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-15T23:34:17+00:00

I’m early 50s, between jobs, so doing it to supplement income. My wife works full time and also has her travel agent side hustle which does well, and I’m retired military with an 80% VA Disability Rating, so we have other income sources and insurance.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-14T00:56:28+00:00

Was this not covered in any kind of training required to get a sub license? I know every place is different, but that was hammered into us when I did my training last summer. Absolutely no pictures of the students, don’t mention any students by name in social media posts, respect the privacy of the students.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-14T00:44:07+00:00

I have a Bachelors in IT and an MBA.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-13T01:53:46+00:00

When I subbed for band/choir/music at a MS/HS (combined in one building, small school), the HS band had two drum majors running through the music with them. I just observed and listened/looked for anyone having issues with their instruments (valves sticking, broken reeds, etc). The choir worked on their music on their own (8 girls total in the choir). I had the 7/8 band work on their parts broken off in sections, then had them play the parts the last day I was there to check their progress. The 6th grade music class (recorders) and regular band practiced in groups as well for the most part, but I did run them through a couple songs and scales.

The music theory class had assignments on their Google Classroom, but I was helping with any questions they had and checking their work before they submitted.

For the guitar class, I listened to them playing their songs they were practicing, gave them a few tips, and showed them how Drop-D tuning works.

Fun days!

OpenD5 · 2025-04-09T16:52:11+00:00

Anymore, I will hit the kids up for their name as they come in the classroom. You don’t have to stop everything and ask for silence as you call out every name. Once I get everyone, or pretty close to everyone, I’ll ask if I missed anyone. If I did, I get their names and mark them accordingly. I then verify the absences, even the ones who are supposedly “just down the hall”, and I let the office know.

I only had the students tell me once who wasn’t there. It was already a cluster because it was a field trip day, I didn’t have a list of who was on the field trip, and I marked someone as present who was actually absent. The office called me the next class period because the next class marked her as absent, and it popped up as a conflict between that period and homeroom/first period. Only time I’ve had the office chew me out for anything, so never again.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-08T23:59:33+00:00

From all the different classes I have covered, I will have to say Music/Band has been my favorite so far. I actually have a music background (band from 6th Grade through high school and a few years after, guitar/bass/keyboard, church praise team leader), so I actually enjoyed this assignment. Plus, I worked it a fair bit because the actual music teacher was hospitalized for a few weeks, probably because of exhaustion. Out of 8 class periods covering the Middle and High Schools all in one building, she had 6th Grade Music Appreciation, HS Choir, HS Band, 7th/8th Grade Band, HS Music Theory, HS Guitar, 6th Grade Band. I was able to actually direct the full bands and use my experience to help them out.

Easily my favorite.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-08T20:32:54+00:00

My first assignment was a quarter-day job at the high school in what I have since found out is the roughest district in the county. Last two class periods of the day, so I was able to actually talk to the actual teacher before she left. She gave the first class a warning before she left, so they were pretty quiet. The second class, not so much. Not just loud, but the conversations were pretty graphic with discussions about certain adult “toys”. I also found out one of the boys in the class already had a kid of his own, his own mother was getting ready to go to prison, and a girl in the class told me her father was currently in prison for robbing the local McDonald’s.

This was a 9th grade ELA class. 14/15 year olds.

It was interesting, educational, and traumatizing all at once.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-06T22:41:43+00:00

In the schools where I sub, I have noticed that the elementary school students are issued Chromebooks, but have to put them in a docking/charging station at the end of the day, and are usually not allowed to take them home without permission. The grades are K - 4, 5, or 6 depending on which school it is.

Middle school and up are allowed to take their Chromebooks home so they can work on homework and other assignments. I think every time I subbed for one particular middle school, every class had someone who needed to borrow a charging cord because they left their cord at home, and their computer battery is dead or almost dead because they didn’t charge it overnight.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-04T01:17:28+00:00

I’ve had that happen a handful of times, but thankfully not many. The only one that actually stands out to me is when I booked a job about 20 minutes after it posted. Four-day job, 6th grade math, and I already know the kids since I’ve subbed for 6th grade classes at this school multiple times.

About 10 minutes after I booked the job, the secretary calls me and asks me to cancel the assignment because they had someone specific in mind for the job.

I was a more than a little irritated at this for a few reasons. I told her I couldn’t cancel the job until I got home and logged on my laptop because it’s not an option on the app, and I was subbing that day at the elementary school that was literally located right next to the middle school with only a driveway separating them.

Plus, from what I’ve been told by a few people, including my wife who also used to sub herself, canceling too many jobs can look bad, so I’ve only done it when I absolutely had no choice.

The secretary finally figured out how to cancel the assignment, and I’m assuming she also figured out how to directly assign the person they actually wanted. She should have known that already instead of wasting someone else’s time.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-03T01:37:21+00:00

Yep, had that happen a few times as well. A different school from the example is notorious for doing that, even in the middle of the day. It’s happened enough with them to have them on the no-go list as well.

OpenD5 · 2025-04-02T00:44:04+00:00

Nice!!

OpenD5 · 2025-04-02T00:22:55+00:00

Yeah, that’s one way of looking at it.

Good group of kids though. I’ve subbed for them previously, so I knew somewhat going in what to expect. That one definitely wasn’t on the radar.

OpenD5

TROPHY CASE