Substitute Teaching

Wifegrit has two bachelor degrees relevant for motherhood: Nursing and Elementary Education. For the past almost 12 years, she’s worked part-time, (every other weekend — four days a month), as a nurse in the mother/baby unit of the local hospital. During the week, she’s a stay-at-home mom.

In the last couple of years, she’s also picked up a few days substitute teaching at our boys’ elementary school. She hasn’t done this much. Maybe a dozen days over the past two years. It’s really convenient with the school literally just two minutes walking distance from our home. She already walks there every morning and afternoon to take both, or now one boy to or from there each day, anyway. And she’s always been an available volunteer at the school, as well — she loves working with the kids. So really, it’s a pretty good fit with her normal day’s routine, as well as her personality.

Just this week, she subbed in for the “literacy intervention” teacher from Wednesday to Friday. Usually, she’s only subbed one day at a time; maybe two days a couple of times. So this instance of subbing was almost like a regular work-a-week job for her.

She drove Calfgrit13 to middle school in the morning, as usual. Later she walked Calfgrit9 over to the elementary school, as usual, but then she stayed and did her teaching thing. In the afternoon, she helped with the carpool duties, then walked CG9 back home. She texted me during the day, during breaks between classes/kids, to tell how her day was going. She was having fun.

It’s odd, but even though she’s been a nurse for over 18 years, and she only briefly taught school class during her college career, I still can picture her more naturally as a teacher than as a nurse. I see her in her nursing scrubs, with her stethoscope around her neck, every other weekend. I’ve seen her in a hospital or doctor’s office setting dozens of times over the years. I’ve only ever seen her in a school setting as a parent, but still, in my mind, she looks more like a teacher than a nurse. That really makes no sense to me. I bet most people couldn’t tell a nurse from a teacher if they were in a line up without an obvious uniform on.

But I like thinking of her as a teacher. There’s just something . . .

I’m glad she’s subbing only for elementary school kids.

Bullgrit