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This is Greg Collins Substitute Teacher's

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Lounge , episode 255

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. It is January 30th 2024

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. First time back in the

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studio for several weeks . I'm happy

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for that , although I greatly enjoy my vacation

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. But I finally got

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back to substitute teaching this month

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and there's so many things that happened to me

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this week that were unusual that

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it reminded me of the perks

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you get as you not

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just become a substitute teacher

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but become an

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experienced substitute teacher . So

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let's talk about what

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you have to look forward to if you're just

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starting , or what

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you should be experiencing

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by now if you were in fact

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a substitute teacher for

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quite a while . You

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know what's funny ? I looked up the word

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. I didn't know how to really spell

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perks , because I'm kind

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of a perfectionist when

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it comes to spelling words right

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. And perks is a

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short form of perquisite , which

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P-E-R-Q-U-I-S-I-T-E

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perquisite . I'm looking

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at the dictionary . It

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says they think regarded as a

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special right or privilege enjoyed

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by the result of one's old

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position . So

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I'm thinking , you know , if you're spelling

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it with a Q , then the short forms got

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to have a Q too P-E-R-Q

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. Right Now , I started to put that in the title and

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then I'm thinking well , let me look and see what's

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accepted and it's

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become acceptable

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to spell it P-E-R-K . Now

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I'm sure that's the way you've seen it . I'll

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have to get past my desire

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to spell it P-E-R-Q , but that's

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not even the dictionary . We're going to talk about

2:02

perks today . Let me

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first share a story

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or two that

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I was going to make the episode

2:12

today about what

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to do when

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you ain't got nothing to do , and

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I think , well , that almost sounds negative

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. And I thought , well , why was I put

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in that position this week ? And

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then I decided , you know what ? It was

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sort of a perk , as much

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as as bad as that sounds . They

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did it because of my

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reputation with the school and

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how friendly the schools are

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, and we'll talk about all of that . Let

2:43

me tell you I just got back

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to subbing this week . Between Vacation

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and in Kentucky in

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our area , they

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had to be out for six school

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days . They did half . They

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call it NTI here . That's where you

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take work home and

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do it while you're home . But let's face

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it , most of the kids hadn't done it when they came back

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and you spend the first day back at school finishing

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your NTI . Some of them were pure

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snow days . Regardless

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, my first day back to substitute

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teaching was , in fact , scheduled

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for the day after they

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had been off six days , and

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I think I scheduled it three weeks before

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that . It was a friend of mine , actually , back

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in 2020

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to 2021 , when the

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school had hired me had legally

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hired me as a full time substitute

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teacher , and I was there for the whole year . Full

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time was in the math department . This

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is a math teacher . We

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became friends , as I did

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with all the other math teachers

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in the building all the teachers in the

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building , for that matter and

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when I saw her name pop up , I said that's perfect

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. I love going to her class , mainly

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because , even if she's moved , even

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if she's got different kids , I know how

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organized she is and how much fun she

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makes her classes , so I was looking

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forward to meeting those students . Here's

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what happened . Now , let me

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preface this by saying this I

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want you to think about something as I'm telling this

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story . When you show

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up for a day of substitute

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teaching and then

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you realize you

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really I'm going to use colloquial

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words on purpose you

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ain't got nothing

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to do . What's your reaction

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? Is your reaction to cheer

4:33

and say , yes , easy money

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? I'm going to say that's the majority of you

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. I'm one of those weird people

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that I get bored to death . Let

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me tell you what happened the first day

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. Okay , I went

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to a school , showed up for

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this job I had signed

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up for three weeks ago and the secretary said

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oh , greg , it's so good to have you back

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. Listen , you're not going to

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be teaching for Miss . I'll call her Smith

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. That's not her name , I don't want to identify

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her . You're not going to be teaching for Miss Smith today

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. After all , her

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workshop got canceled

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. So she's here today . So

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this teacher

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over here we

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think she needs some help in the first

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period because she's got some paperwork

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, things about field trips she

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needs to organize . Why don't you go down and help her ? Well

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, I did . She

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didn't really need my help , friendly as she

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can be . In fact , some of her not some

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of her kids have been students

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of mine . That I've , you know . I really

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have enjoyed teaching . So

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then I went across the

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hall to where I was supposed to go before

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, just to kill some time , because

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I found out later that

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they had , in fact , one

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of the assistant teachers

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in that class had to be off the first

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period . So I went in there , but I

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really didn't have anything to do . Then

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they sent me down second period and I

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really the teacher

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had a handle on it , even though I was feeling

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him for a teacher that was not there . He

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really didn't need my help of any kind

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. So I told them about

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halfway through that you know

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I hate my . I

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could have stayed there all day and done basically

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nothing and I finally said listen , I

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hate for the school to have to

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pay for me when

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you all really don't need me here . And

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I worked a half a day . That's what

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I ended up doing . The reason all

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that happened is because of one

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of the kind of it's

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not a specific perk , it's just kind

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of an indirect perk . They

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had had me in the school long enough . They

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didn't want to cancel me Now , not

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just to be nice I

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mean , they're very nice , one of my favorite

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schools but they didn't cancel

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me because of my

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reputation . And the

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teacher told the principal

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the night before listen , my

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seminar got canceled , I'll be in

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, but I hate to cancel Greg . And

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the principal said well , why don't we bring

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him on in ? You know what's

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the odds of us not needing any

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substitute ? So I came in

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under that pretense and

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it sounded more negative than I needed it to

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be , and

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I'm not sure they would have called me

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in had I not had a good

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reputation at that school before

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. They wanted

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me to feel good about coming

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back , and that's the first thing we'll talk

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about . One of the indirect perks is

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building up your reputation

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as a substitute teacher . If you

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just go in and

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get excited because you have nothing

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to do , don't show any initiative

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, occupy a chair , you

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know they see that . They

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really see that . If you instead

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interact with the kids , interact

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with the teachers positive , of course , positive

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interaction with both of those groups

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well , not only

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do the teachers see that , they

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see the way the kids react

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when you're back in the room another day

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, when they're happy to see you . They

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know that you've

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got a good reputation with both

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the teachers and the students

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. Strive to be that person . I'm

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one of those that gets bored

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if I can't interact with the students . I've

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jokingly said to one of the best-behaved

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, most intelligent classes I've ever

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taught this year I try to

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get them to talk and they won't

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talk much , they just like doing their work . So

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it's really funny that I feel that way

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. That's my personality . But the

8:50

perks that go along with substitute

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teaching . Let's back up and talk about the direct

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ones first . Our area

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just redid their pay

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structure so that they

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basically gave all of us a

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$25 a day raise

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and that's

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regardless of what position you were

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in . I'm not a credentialed teacher , but

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I do have a master's degree

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. I have an MBA . I get paid a little

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bit more that somebody that comes in with a bachelor's

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degree or with a high school diploma

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. My wife gets paid more than me

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when she goes back and substitutes teachers

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now because she's a credentialed teacher , she's

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a retired teacher and maybe

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the biggest thing they did is , if you go

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longterm now , it goes

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up trying to . I don't wanna give

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you the exact dollar amount , but

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it goes up $60 over the amounts

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I was just quoting . So that

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is a significant

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increase because you've committed to

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do that and if

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they see how well you have performed

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in the classroom , that's another perk

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. You know normally if

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they're gonna look for a longterm

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teacher , they

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don't advertise much . They

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instead go to the teachers

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. They make a list of teachers that they

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at first time I did . I'll give you an example . The first

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time I ever went longterm was just a couple

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of months after I had started substitute teaching

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and I heard the story . When they

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found out that a teacher was gonna have to leave

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at a certain time , the principal

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went to the secretary and said call Mr

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Collins , see if he's available . And that

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made me feel so good . I was

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their first call . I

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think maybe I'm overshooting my importance

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a little bit , but I was their first call

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. I had built up the reputation

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. So one of the perks that comes along

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with that is the administration

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likes having you in the building enough

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that you're gonna be close to the

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top of that list . That's

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probably the perk of perks right

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now . You won't have to

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play the substitute

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teacher roulette every morning where

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you gotta pick a job , pick a job , pick a job when

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the alerts pop up . Instead

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you're gonna get a majority of your jobs

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just from teachers that contact you

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directly . That's by far the biggest perk . Money's

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important A lot of you . I'm not

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gonna say money's not important to me , but I'm not

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doing this as a cost

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of living source of income . I'm

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retired and retirement

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benefits for my previous accounting

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job are enough

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to quote . Live on . This is

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my vacation money

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. We like to take vacations , my fun

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money . I like to go to basketball

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tournaments . I like to go to sporting events

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, all that good stuff . You build up

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a good reputation and you're gonna start getting

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the perks . In addition to

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the money , you also receive

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the peace of mind that

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you know that you've established your reputation

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and they're gonna call you quickly and

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they're gonna feel bad if they have

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to cancel a job . And

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that meant so much to me this week

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to do that . I also had a day where I went in

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student teacher who was extremely

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knowledgeable . I was glad it was at least

12:11

a topic that I could

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discuss . It was eighth grade math

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. We were doing things like

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you know , plot and points

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and things like that and

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linear Relationships

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and all that good stuff . And before you all

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turn this off , I'll stop talking about math

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. But my point was I

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went in and

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I saw the Teacher's

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notes and I'm thinking , boy , he's

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assuming now I could

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teach it , but is he assuming

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that the substitute teachers that come in there

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no enough about this topic

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to teach it in the way he's left notes

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. And then I realized the student

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teacher showed up and he was going to teach the class

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. So I really didn't have that much to

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do that day either . I wasn't

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bored because it was math , I

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got to walk around and help students . I knew

13:02

enough about it to be able to help them see

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if they were plotting points in the right place

13:07

all that good stuff . So you've

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got a choice to make and unfortunately

13:13

Now let me say

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it this way if you're listening to this podcast

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, you're probably one of those

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. I would be 95%

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sure in saying that you're one . If you're taking the time

13:24

to listen to a podcast For substitute

13:27

teachers , you're probably one of those

13:29

that likes to stay busy . You're one of those

13:31

that likes to do a good job . You're one

13:33

of those that likes to build appropriate

13:36

relationships with the teachers

13:38

and the students in a classroom

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situation so that they're comfortable

13:43

. When you're there , they like

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it . When you're there , those

13:48

perks come along and you move to the

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top of the list , maybe

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bypassing those who

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are probably in the majority , maybe

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the ones that don't listen to the podcast

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and really just show up

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to occupy a chair . I'll tell

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this story one more time and I apologize

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, but I know some of you haven't heard it . I probably

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told it four or five times throughout

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the life of these , what I say

14:12

245 episodes . I

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was at one school . I heard this story third hand

14:17

. I'll just share it with you the way I heard it

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. One substitute teacher walked

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in , sit down in the chair

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, turned his back this is at a high school

14:26

turned his back to the students , put

14:29

his headphones on , started

14:31

listening to music and never To

14:34

use an old phrase never gave them the

14:36

time of day . Well , the principal got

14:38

wind of it , went up there , looked

14:40

in the window of the door , saw

14:43

what was happening . He knocked . He

14:45

didn't pound , he not yet a key get

14:47

in when he wanted to , but he knocked . One

14:51

of the students got up to let him in and he just held

14:53

his hand up To tell

14:55

them don't let him in . He kept knocking

14:57

to see if the substitute teacher heard him

14:59

. Never did hear him . He opened the

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door , walks over

15:03

to the desk , calls

15:05

out the teacher's name . Teacher

15:07

didn't hear him , had his headphones on

15:10

, had the music turned up loud . Well , the

15:13

principal took a book , slammed

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it down on his

15:18

desk so hard that you could probably

15:20

hear it halfway down the hallway and the

15:23

guy jumped and turned around and the

15:26

principal just looked at him and said You're

15:28

done , you're not gonna be subbing this school

15:30

again . I hope that's not

15:32

you now . Obviously that is an

15:35

extreme case , but maybe

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not so much extreme . There's

15:39

a lot of substitute teachers that are

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hoping , praying , that

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they'll go in and have nothing to do . I

15:46

can't do that . I get bored , and and

15:50

the more you show

15:52

the teachers and the students

15:54

that even when you have nothing

15:56

to do , you make it a

15:59

good day in the classroom

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. My first day there wasn't hardly

16:03

anything I could teach . I was there with another

16:05

teacher , so I made the most when

16:07

I ran into students that hadn't seen me a while

16:10

in the hallway . When I went in to ran

16:12

into teachers , some of the teachers hugged

16:14

me because I hadn't been there in a few months

16:16

and it was really nice

16:18

to see that . So keep yourself as

16:21

a good Reputation for that school

16:23

and the main perk you'll get , in addition

16:25

to the movie , is Moving up

16:27

to the top of that substitute

16:30

teacher list so that you're one

16:32

of the first ones they call when

16:35

they have a substitute teacher need .