Today I worked at my old high school substituting for my old soccer coach. He teaches junior English, and since I am a newly certified English teacher, I was excited about actually getting to teach English. Alas, it was not to be today. Since it is the last day of their semester, students were working on late assignments and putting the finishing touches on their book report packet.
But today wasn't all monotony -- in fact, it was full of interesting coincidences and "it's a small world" moments. I even had a packet of apology letters to read from a choir class that bombed while I tried unsuccessfully to teach them earlier this week. It was sweet, and I appreciated it, although I'm sure none of the students actually meant any of it.
To start with, a few of the students in 3rd period recognized me -- not because I subbed for their class before -- but because I am my brother's older sister. I had walked around the room at the beginning of class to make sure everyone was on task, and walked away from a guy telling two other guys "Yeah, that's Nathaniel's sister." I thought, how could you possibly know we're related? We look a little bit alike, but not so much that you can put two and two together. Another thing, 'Scott' is a fairly common last name, so I'm not sure where they instantly recognized me as his sister. It is a sad day when you're known only as a younger sibling's sister.
Now 3rd period was kinda a disaster class. They were disrespectful and rude -- neither one of these traits scored points with me, so I was glad when they left for lunch.
4th period rolls around after lunch and I looked forward to a new batch of students. Any time I have a poor batch of students, I always hope to do better with the next class, so I was hoping to avoid some of the situations from 3rd period right away. First off, I noticed right away that I had two foreign exchange students in my class, one from India and the other one from Holland. It's always nice having foreign exchange students because I like learning about their country/culture. Although both boys were nice, they were very social, and I had to remind them several times to stay on task and be quiet (as I had to do with the rest of the class). Again, I was referred to as "Nathaniel's sister". I need my own reputation apart from family members.
However, a young man comes up to me before the bell rings and asks if I remember him. I asked him if I should remember him. Come to find out he is the younger brother of an old friend/classmate of mine. Coincidentally his father was my first boss and he used to come into the shop all the time with his parents and hang out. Wow, he looks different with a full on beard and braces.
After school I talked with a teacher I am hoping to do a long-term sub job with and find out that he's a WOU graduate too. Not only that, he and I went there for two years together for undergrad. It's a wonder I don't recognize him from campus.
It truly is a small world after all. I feel like singing now. All this about 6 degrees of separation is freakishly true -- only for small town people, I think it's more like 2 degrees.
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