A New Order

Last week I was subbing at Warren Woods for the new science teacher they had hired. The teacher had been officially hired but was finishing up her position at another school with block scheduling. The students hadn't had an actual teacher for the first few weeks of the semester, just subs giving out worksheet after worksheet. When I'm subbing for a class I tend to be much more laid-back than when I have my own class. I let students listen to their ipods or sleep and move to other desks just as long as they're not bugging me or other students who are actually working. So the students had me as a relaxed sub who didn't lecture or check their work or yell at them from Monday thru Thursday. Then the new teacher was there for Friday but they wanted me in the room since I had been with the students all week. She came in and right away started laying down some ground rules and making them put their ipods away and assigning seats. So she sets them to work sitting quietly in their assigned seats and watches like a hawk for ipods or talking or any behavior she didn't approve of. Even I was a little scared of her. At one point she left the classroom to go to the office and one of the students looked at me with an imploring look in his eyes and whispered, "Help us."