The Specter Family Blog

Matt -- Steph -- Faith -- Mari -- Robby -- Hannah -- Salsa -- and........



Saturday, September 3, 2011

I have now subbed. I am now old.

During the past month or so I have called or emailed a lot of districts locally and done a lot of legwork to get on sub lists for the current year. One of those contacts led to a possible short-term sub position for a band director in a district about a half-hour east of Cincinnati. It's a district I'm familiar with, with a good reputation, so I was eager for the opportunity.

His wife was due in late September. We got everything worked out for me to come observe on Thursday, so I could learn his schedule and figure out what the kids were used to. Well, Wednesday afternoon the district contacted me and said his wife went into labor...and could I sub tomorrow?

What followed were the two craziest, scariest, most intense days of my life. I have a lot to say about all this, but I haven't had a great deal of time to process it yet. So in condensed form:

* I can throw a general music lesson together on the fly. I had about 20 minutes to prepare with very little to go on. (I don't blame the guy, his wife just had a kid - I know I wasn't thinking about work when the kids were born.) The general music part of my day went really really well. And it was reassuring to see that my skills can be transferred to 7th grade with very little modification.

* I am rusty as a band director. Did okay with the Middle School group, but being back in a High School setting was weird to say the least. It doesn't help that most of the kids tower over me. The group I am working with is the typical group of band kids - which is to say there is nothing typical about them. Honestly, a lovable bunch of the most diverse mix of personalities you're ever likely to encounter. I'm being careful with what I say because these kids may end up actually reading this thing, so I will put it this way. They are totally a mash-up of every imaginable kind of weird you could think of...and that is positively wonderful. I love it. They totally own their weirdness and wear it on their sleeve in a way that I wish I could have when I was their age. I admire that.

* The trouble is - they are clearly a tightly knit group. They're very close, possibly the result of a 'circle the wagons' mentality that is often necessary to get through high school as a band member. Which makes me very much an outsider to them and with only a week to spend with them it's an odd position to be in. I am in charge of them, but I am not their leader, and I am not one of them. I know nothing about their histories and the stories behind their personalities, or the inside jokes, so I am missing out on the best part of them. It's weird. It is a little lonely. I think it's a lot tougher then single-day subbing will be (especially at elementary level) where I will be a novelty act. Being there for a second day the novelty was already gone. The next few days will be interesting.

* But, I am now clearly old. I can not handle the 17-hour days of a band director. I feel this morning like I've been hit by a bus. I can't handle standing out in the hot sun for hours on end. I'm a wimp, I guess. But this morning I felt old. Really old. Capital O Old.

More to say as this continues. But I have not seen my own kids since Thursday and I miss them. I want to go spend time with them.

Matt