a horse is a horse, of course, of course....

unless your name is "Ed" and you're just a horse's ass.

i worked with a real idjut yesterday. i was subbing at one of the middle schools...7th and 8th grade, Special Education class. my first period i did inclusion with another sub, whose name was Ed. i'm sure he had a last name, but he never introduced himself to me, even when i intro'd myself. someone told me what his first name was later. so he greets me at the door, i explain who i am and who i'm subbing for. he shows me the lesson plans, mumbling the whole time bout "not wanting to glue and cut and paste" and announces we're going to go with his alternative lesson plans. those entail watching the original movie version of "Hercules". yeah. that really matches the lesson plans of rotating groups, one of which reads to themselves, the other works on the computer reading program, and the third works with the teacher on a poem created by cutting out words and phrases from the newspaper and gluing them (gluesticks not liquid glue, btw) on paper. how tough can THAT be???? not very, really. i tried to explain the process to Ed. but he cut me off. he just would NOT listen.

but, Ed couldnt get the VCR working, so he had to go ask for help. well somewhere along the way, someone told the office that he was watching a movie because the teacher hadn't left lesson plans. the teacher was in the building in a meeting. she came FLYING into the classroom, threw a box across the room, and demanded to know why we weren't following her lesson plans. i just raised my eyebrows and mouthed, "He's an idiot" yeah, so not professional, but whatever. she'd just thrown a box at the man, and he was stuttering his stupid excuse for watching a movie. the teacher leaves after her hissy fit, which included turning off the TV and shoving the lesson plans in his face. he looks at me, still sputtering. one of the kids made a smart comment bout the whole thing. i said, "as clever and amusing as that was, it's not appropriate. ok, everybody go to their rotations." and in five minutes, the class was doing what they were supposed to be doing. Ed looks at me and says, "You didn't tell me you knew what we were supposed to do." "Well, I tried. But, this is your classroom, and I'm the inclusion teacher. I'm not going to override you in your own classroom." "WHY DIDNT YOU SAY ANYTHING???" i was SO proud of myself, i did NOT raise my voice. instead, i said, "I tried to tell you, but you cut me off."

now, part of me had felt sorry for Ed. until he tried to blame me. and furthermore, he never thanked me for getting his class back on track. then, we ran into one another at lunch, and he told me that the rest of his classes weren't as good as the first class. and they just didn't "get the assignment". he went on to say that Hercules would have been a lot more useful than what they were doing. turns out that his movie, and he takes it with him, so that when he doesnt like the lesson plans, he can use that as his "alternative". sheeesh. you, Ed, are what give substitutes a lousy name.

and, yes, i know that working with idiots is inevitable. but i do NOT have to like it. :)