Vent (maternity leave/teaching sub)

pitterpatter129 · May 2013

I was on maternity leave for 12 weeks and went to clean a little today in my classroom (yesterday was the last day of school.) There were ripped books and broken manipulatives everywhere. My wooden puppet stand I've had for 10 years that my Dad made for me my first yr of teaching was broken in two!! I'm so sad my sub didn't take care of my things, and obviously had no control of the classroom! She was even a certified teacher. I kind of feel like she should have to replace them! 90% of my classroom things I've purchased myself. I can't imagine leaving someone's room in that condition, and my first job was as a long-term sub.

mommymegan831 · May 2013

I'm sorry your things were destroyed, but live and learn. When I'm out for a day I make sure all my stuff is locked away and on maternity leave I clean out my class, although I had my babies in March and May so when I left on leave I was done for the year. I'm not sure what your school is like, but classroom management can be extremely difficult. Teachers usually take long-term positions in hopes to get hired full-time, so I would assume she probably was doing the best she could.

pitterpatter129 · May 2013

mommymegan831:
I'm sorry your things were destroyed, but live and learn. When I'm out for a day I make sure all my stuff is locked away and on maternity leave I clean out my class, although I had my babies in March and May so when I left on leave I was done for the year. I'm not sure what your school is like, but classroom management can be extremely difficult. Teachers usually take long-term positions in hopes to get hired full-time, so I would assume she probably was doing the best she could.

We have an open school, no walls, and share items a lot. My school is urban and very poor, but has very few real behavior issues. I thought if I packed away all the things, there would be literally nothing but textbooks for my kids (1st graders who were extremely well behaved for me!) My principal even asked me to leave my items. I'd gone out 12 weeks with DS1 with no issues. Guess I'm glad we are done having kids!

honeybee111 · May 2013

I'm sorry. I'm a teacher, too, and I would be really unhappy if I came back from maternity leave and found that things were destroyed. Did you get to pick your sub? When I had DD, I had an AMAZING sub. I understand putting personal stuff away, but you can't put everything away otherwise there would be nothing for the kids to use. I'm due with our second kid soon, and will be taking the last week of school off. I'm kind of type A, and the thought of having a sub come in and end the school year and pack up my room for the summer is causing me a lot of stress.

dragon_chica · May 2013

honeybee111:
I'm sorry. I'm a teacher, too, and I would be really unhappy if I came back from maternity leave and found that things were destroyed. Did you get to pick your sub? When I had DD, I had an AMAZING sub. I understand putting personal stuff away, but you can't put everything away otherwise there would be nothing for the kids to use. I'm due with our second kid soon, and will be taking the last week of school off. I'm kind of type A, and the thought of having a sub come in and end the school year and pack up my room for the summer is causing me a lot of stress.

This. It's absolutely ridiculous to expect a teacher to pack away all the things that she paid for. If I had to do that this would mean all my chart stands, pocket charts, calendar, art easel, etc would have to be locked away. So to say "lock up your stuff otherwise too bad so sad" is basically giving the kids and sub an almost barren room.

OP, I would go speak with your principal about this and go from there. IMO, any destruction of property should be compensated.

Reilly626 · May 2013

I'm a teacher and I'd be ticked off! You can't pack away learning things the sub and kids need, only personal things like photos, desk stuff, etc. I have no idea how my stuff survived. I did leave a note saying I pride myself in the books that are organized can you keep it that way, but that's up to her! Ugh! Sorry that happened!
Can I ask what state are you in with an open school? I taught a year in CA and that's the only place I ever saw that but definitely read about it in college!

jefk · May 2013

I'm worried about this too. I'm FTM, going out on leave next week with 3 weeks to go in the school year. I'm the school librarian, so my end-of-year procedures are very different from classroom teachers - calling parents to make sure all library books are in, covering shelves with tarp so the books don't get dusty over the summer, making sure all A/V materials are accounted for, etc. I'm extremely anxious about my sub having to do all of that, but I have wonderful volunteers who know what to do and the computer teacher said she'd help out, too. I just keep telling myself - it is what it is, it's out of my control.

pitterpatter129 · May 2013

Reilly626:
I'm a teacher and I'd be ticked off! You can't pack away learning things the sub and kids need, only personal things like photos, desk stuff, etc. I have no idea how my stuff survived. I did leave a note saying I pride myself in the books that are organized can you keep it that way, but that's up to her! Ugh! Sorry that happened! Can I ask what state are you in with an open school? I taught a year in CA and that's the only place I ever saw that but definitely read about it in college!

I'm in Tulsa, OK. We have quite a few. I student taught in another nearby town that also had a few. It was some big experiment of the 70's. Then people decided that schools really did need walls. It gets pretty loud sometimes when we are all doing projects at once, but I like it. I like that I have other adults within ear shot at all times. Parents and kids and teachers are in and out at all times; you have to walk through other people's space to get places. It makes a tight knit community of the staff. I guess that's another reason I'm sad. We all really respect each other, but our new friend didn't seem to pick up on that.

rboisvert · May 2013

The bump keeps eating my reply but I second talking to your principle. Stuff happens but it sounds like there was a real lack of attention and control happening. I go through this most days it seems. My special ed preschoolers leave at 1:30 but the daycare students stay until 5:30. I come in to missing, broken and disheveled classroom materials all the time. This has me thinking that my next leave I'm going to have to lock my stuff in my office and trust my assistant will have my staff move stuff back and forth. Sucks when people don't take care of needed materials.

mommymegan831 · May 2013

pitterpatter129:
Reilly626:
I'm a teacher and I'd be ticked off! You can't pack away learning things the sub and kids need, only personal things like photos, desk stuff, etc. I have no idea how my stuff survived. I did leave a note saying I pride myself in the books that are organized can you keep it that way, but that's up to her! Ugh! Sorry that happened!Can I ask what state are you in with an open school? I taught a year in CA and that's the only place I ever saw that but definitely read about it in college!
I'm in Tulsa, OK. We have quite a few. I student taught in another nearby town that also had a few. It was some big experiment of the 70's. Then people decided that schools really did need walls. It gets pretty loud sometimes when we are all doing projects at once, but I like it. I like that I have other adults within ear shot at all times. Parents and kids and teachers are in and out at all times; you have to walk through other people's space to get places. It makes a tight knit community of the staff. I guess that's another reason I'm sad. We all really respect each other, but our new friend didn't seem to pick up on that.

I still feel for your sub, unless she literally sat at the desk and let the kids do what ever they pleased I'm sure she was trying and I don't understand why another teacher didn't step in and offer some support if you're all well aware of what goes on in one another classrooms. I remember subbing a few times when I was in college and having a very difficult class and one of the experienced teachers would come in and get the kids on task.

Manda-Kay · May 2013

I'm a high school special education teacher and I third talking to your principal.

I had DS right before school started (8/5). I wasn't due until the 16th so they took their time finding my replacement. We didn't interview the candidates and hire until 8/1. My water broke 8/4. I had no time to train her on how to run my room but I figured a retired teacher with 33 years teaching experience (with 13 of them being special education) she could handle my room. I was wrong. I work in a wealthy school corporation so the parents have high expectations. My 2 freshmen students' parents were livid with my sub. I had to go to school and have meetings with them to reassure them that things would be different when I came back. I had a student move into the corporation but because the sub was so bad, they had to keep him in a differen classroom part of the day.

Thank goodness I had 2 other adults in the room so none of my stuff was ruined, but I feel like my students missed out on 10 weeks worth of education. My students' parents think so too.

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