A New Respect

I'm a teacher. I try to be at school everyday because I am responsible for the knowledge my students are required to gain throughout their year in second grade. However, just like everyone else, I occasionally get sick enough to have to stay home from work. And every once in a while, I just need a "mental health" day. But the concern of every good teacher is what a substitute will do with their class (think back to a class you had on a day when there was a sub - movies, talking, playing, no work, etc). Because I am a very organized person in general, my sub lesson plans are very detailed, often even down to the words I want the sub to say to explain a concept to my students. However, I never really imagined what it would be like for a substitute to walk into a classroom of students and be expected to teach, regardless of how well planned the lesson - I will admit that I have frequently been irritated with my substitutes for not getting done what I've left for them to do.
On Tuesday and Thursday, I was a substitute for one of my co-teachers for her summer school class. It was 4th grade (I've never taught anything but 2nd) and it was reading (I do teach this, just at a lower level). When I arrived, I found very detailed lesson plans which she had gone over with me on the phone the night before, but I still found I was very nervous when the students walked into the classroom and often felt like they were listening to nothing I had to say - a couple of times I asked "Is this how you act for Mrs. W?" They replied no. On Tuesday, it was all I could do to make it to the end of the day, wondering if this was really worth the $20/hour I was getting paid. Thursday morning was fabulous but that afternoon I wanted to pull my hair out.
Now that it is over, I've decided that it was worth the $20/hour - 2 days, 8 hours a day...but I have definitely developed a new respect for substitutes. In the future, when I have a sub, I will be much more understanding if they don't get everything done.