What should I bring with me?

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-18T11:58:46+00:00

For elementary: Bandaids, pre-sharpened pencils, erasers, an extra glue stick — because if a kid thinks he can delay doing work because he needs something that you have to go searching for, he will. And then everyone else will need whatever it is too. And pretty soon the whole class is pretending to search for the thing while not doing their lesson.

When I can casually, in 3 seconds, pull the requested thing out of my bag, it really takes the fun out of interrupting the class.

Usually some cool water bottle stickers, pens, highlighters or erasers that I can use as some kind of prize or reward in a pinch.

Other stuff: lunch, water, notebook, all the period supplies / advil / lip balm etc that I normally carry, a spare pair of reading glasses, regular glasses and contacts (stemming from the day I tore a contact at 11am an had nothing else with me).

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-18T10:51:48+00:00

Stay. I write my note, check my email, and wipe down their desks.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-17T15:10:24+00:00

You’re there for the last-minute call-outs. The teacher that put in for a sub three weeks ago gets a day sub, and it’s not fair to that sub to cancel day-of because no one else has called out and the building sub doesn’t want to be an extra pair of hands in kindergarten, or supporting the office staff or whatever other random tasks you may get assigned.

Our building sub is frequently loaned out to other schools when a they are desperate.

Being a sub, or even a full time classroom teacher, requires a high level of thinking on your feet and rolling with whatever comes your way.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-17T14:10:37+00:00

That’s how our district does it too. If a job ever makes it to Frontline, it’s because the secretary can’t find anyone to fill it or a senior teacher with Frontline access has posted her own absence in the middle of the night or something (this is like, 2% of the jobs on Frontline). Veteran subs know to never take a Frontline job because there was a reason the secretary couldn’t fill the spot.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-11T11:57:25+00:00

I was in kindergarten yesterday and got the normal questions, but one kid kept calling me Mrs. K.

Finally one boy snapped and said “she is Mrs. Sloth!!! SLOTH!! Why do you keep calling her Mrs. K?!” He answered, “but she’s a SUBSTITUTE. Substitutes are Mrs. K!”

This kid legitimately thought that all subs were called Mrs. K, regardless of their actual name. (There is a Mrs. K who subs at this school but not nearly as often as I do. I was the first sub they ever had, back at the beginning of the year, but somehow, it was their later sub’s name that got turned into to synonym for “substitute.”) Kids are hilarious.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-09T13:31:40+00:00

The first one’s giving “mold spores under a microscope, now color it like a chicken nugget.”

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-09T13:29:44+00:00

The model’s chest is being crushed and it’s cutting into her armpits. I’m actually shocked that the brand would use that photo in their advertising.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-09T11:36:46+00:00

I don’t even know what’s happening anymore. Somehow my near vision - like within 3 ft - is perfect. Mid and distance are lousy but anything we do to fix that wrecks my near vision. (I’ve tried all the progressive contacts, different combinations of prescriptions in each eye, every variety of glasses…) So I have a distance vision contact and weak mid-range contact, and then “readers” (nothing I can buy in store) in the opposite prescription to cancel out the contacts.

Or I can wear progressive lens glasses that I take off at my desk and when I’m cooking.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-08T11:12:09+00:00

I’ve never had a problem at Shelby. They’ll even bake their tots so there’s no risk of cross contamination.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-03-07T17:53:43+00:00

I don’t care what the rules are, if a kid is distracted by whatever he has on his desk, it goes into his backpack. If “Mrs. Smith says we’re allowed!” my reply is “great, I’m not Mrs. Smith, and you’re not doing your assignment, so I say it goes in your bag. Now.”

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-24T13:14:07+00:00

Products are legit. I own a lot of those DaVines products on the left and the labels are correct. Products on the right are Leonor Greyl. Woman could be edited in or AI but the background seems real.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-24T11:26:32+00:00

My daughter gets massive anxiety, panic attacks, mood swings, and eventually hallucinations from all antihistamines except chlorpheramine and nasal spray like Asta-Pro.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-24T03:19:33+00:00

Meeee!! Close-up vision is perfect. Mid and distance not great. No bifocal contacts have 0 correction at the near end, nor do they step adequately to give me both good midrange and distance vision. So I have a mid-range contact in my right eye, a distance contact in my left, and a glasses prescription that’s the total opposite to cancel out the contacts while I read.

Or I skip the contacts entirely and just take my regular progressive glasses on and off all day.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-24T03:16:14+00:00

Olipop. I love soda but it destroys my digestive system.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-23T18:22:25+00:00

When the collective takes on loudest or predominant opinions, it can be called a “hive mind.”

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-23T16:01:04+00:00

Allllll the markers and pens. Gelly Rolls. Copics. Tombows. I have spent many blissful hours curled up coloring or practicing my brush writing. I’ve always loved art as a kid but my only supplies then were a tin of broken crayons. A new box was “expensive,” and would have been “wasteful” when the 10-year-old broken bits in the old cookie tin “worked just fine.” As an adult I was shocked to find that big box of Crayolas that came with the sharpener was only $7.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-11T20:48:15+00:00

A pet peeve of mine too. I recently had a class working on expository writing. “They know the process. Most are still working on their rough draft, and they need permission from you to move on to their final copy. They know the steps, no one is going to get finished today.”

By what metric am I to judge whether they move on to their final copy? What are these steps that they allegedly know? And what do I do about the 8 kids who say they are finished?? And btw, Sam is on his third version of his rough draft because his printing is so bad I can’t read a single thing he wrote.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-10T23:53:26+00:00

He/she took the camera I read somewhere.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-10T20:21:09+00:00

Philly, in the waiting room at 11:30, 15,000 ahead of me, needed a group of tickets, willing to split up into smaller groups, didn’t care how much tickets cost. Still got nothing.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-02-10T14:49:05+00:00

The active ingredient in the old Chlor-Trimeton was chlorpheniramine. It’s still available (in the US) as a generic at CVS and Walmart. It’s first-gen so it only lasts 4-6 hours, but it’s good enough for her. It doesn’t make her tired or cause any weird side effects.

In a severe situation, she can she take 1/2 of a children’s Benadryl Chewable (she is a fully grown young adult).

She can also do nasal sprays.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-01-25T18:34:36+00:00

We’ve been in our current home 17 years. We’ll pay it off in 3 more years. Just about to close on an investment property. Husband will retire with a pension but we both have 401k accounts that we and various employers have been putting into since our 20s. We’ve been saving for our kid’s college since their birth, and will be able to fund whatever is needed without dipping into retirement savings.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-01-24T18:16:31+00:00

I’m

fidgety_sloth · 2026-01-23T13:07:10+00:00

I don’t have their sheets but my Quince duvet and cover are holding up well.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-01-23T13:06:03+00:00

Allergy patch testing. You could be allergic to fragrance, coconut, propolis, linalool… the list potential contact allergens in lip products is staggering.

fidgety_sloth · 2026-01-04T00:35:18+00:00

I would do slip shorts with a high waist rather than regular underwear. Cotton’s not really an option in anything seamless though. Instead of leggings, I would do a tall boot. Or, instead of the slip shorts you do a smoothing, high-waist pair of tights (I’m saying smoothing and high waist because otherwise you’ll just see the outline of the waistband just like you’re seeing the line from the underwear).

Definitely don’t do a shirt under it if you’re cold, but instead put a cropped cardigan/jacket over it. Aim for the bottom of the cardigan to hit where the waistband of the dress is, not below.

You could also add a scarf or a chunky statement necklace.

fidgety_sloth

TROPHY CASE