Time for a Rant

Sorry guys, time for a rant. As if substituting isn't hard enough, the teacher today had to make it more difficult. I subbed for the eighth grade today, which is already quite a challenge. The teacher had four social studies classes and for those classes he had prepared a packet.....read the chapter, answer the questions.....easy for the kids but kept them busy. Once they settled down (and I kicked one loud-mouth out) these four classes were nice and quiet and did their work. The teacher also has a reading class. In the teacher notes, he said "I TOLD the kids they could sit in any seat they wanted for this class (as opposed to sitting in their assigned seats) and they could TALK". WHY? WHY? WHY? would you do that to a sub? This class was one hour long....do you really think 8th graders can sit and quietly talk for a whole hour???? And why waste that time? It was a READING class. How about making them READ???? And finally.....today they had "extended advisory" (advisory = homeroom for us old fogies) at the end of the day for another HOUR! They had this because the SIXTH graders had an all-team band practice in preparation for a concert. Now why the sixth grade schedule should have any impact on the eighth grade schedule I have no idea. But again....THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO. I tried to tell them they needed to use it as a study....but of course they claimed they had NO homework, NO studying, NO projects to work on and alas...NO books to read. So they just COULDN'T be quiet! They said the teacher usually lets them go outside and play football. Now is that good use of their time? I guess that's what ticks me off the most. There are teachers who literally have so much to do they can't fit it all in and get aggravated when there are assemblies and changes in schedule. They need to use every second of time they have with the kids to complete the year's curriculum. Letting a bunch of 8th graders waste TWO WHOLE HOURS out of a six hour day is ludicrous. Besides driving the substitute insane! I have to go back tomorrow. I'm subbing for 8th grade again, although thankfully for a different team. The kids today weren't too happy with me by the end of the day and I'd hate to have the same group again! If the teacher left classes where she says the kids can just "sit and talk"....the kids won't know about it. I'll make up an essay or something for them to do. I'm not spending another day like today.......I'M NOT, I'M NOT, I'M NOT!!! *stamping foot*