Too Late Indeed

I’m a substitute teacher. It’s an interesting job and boring days are practically non-existent. I was teaching eighth grade a few weeks ago. It was the middle of the day and the kids were anxious for lunch but they had to get ready for standardized tests since more emphasis is placed on eighth grade test scores than other middle school grades. So they had a practice test. My experience with eighth grade has been mixed. They’re not as immature as younger kids so they’re less likely to play and throw paper airplanes. However, they have a lot more mouth. The sass is a newly acquired brand of defiance that replaces the cute rambunctiousness of younger grades’ misbehavior, and they love to try it out on the sub.

I had instituted a no talking policy. It had worked 2nd period, but 3rd period had trouble staying silent. I hate it when they know it’s a practice test because they’re less likely to take it seriously. Halfway through the class I had kicked out a kid, convinced the class that despite being short I was actually a sub and not a new student, along with rewarding the loudest girl in class with internet privileges just to keep her quiet. What can I say? I’ve still got a lot to learn about the whole substitute teaching thing. Finally these nice but loud, rude, sassy teenagers were doing their work.

All was quiet. I could sit down read a book or just relax. Beautiful. Suddenly, “It’s too late to apologize. It’s too late.” It was somebody’s cell phone. Cell phones are banned from classrooms. Who was it? Who dared to have their cell phone on during a test after I had just fussed at the kids about noise? Of course it was me. On top of that it was text. On my phone a text will play the entire song. I ran to the teacher’s desk to turn off the phone but it was “too late.” to put the phone on vibrate. Needless to say the class had been disrupted. Waves of laughter crash upon the class and some were singing along. Although I did at least get a few compliments on my choice of ring tone, I spent the rest of period trying to restore order. Actually it was still a good day.