Substitute teacher tells all

Substitute teacher tells all

Grandmother shares survival secrets as high school sub

By Laura McDonough

Youngstown State University

The class of 2008 at Shenango Junior and Sr. Hgh School in New Castle, PA. deserved to be punished and Roberta Wells, the mild-mannered 57 year-old grandmother who had been their substitute teacher, decided to seek revenge against the unruly teenagers.

Wells and an accomplice, her friend, Sandy Wells, baked a batch of gooey chocolate brownies with what they told the class was a “secret” ingredient. The class thought they were getting a treat from a submissive substitute.

While the students sat at their desks, enjoying the chocolate goodness Roberta decided it was time to reveal the secret ingredient.

She told the students that the secret was “dog poop.”

Recalling the incident, Roberta still laughs about it and said that the students were shocked and horrified, and of course disgusted to find out what they had eaten. They began to cough and spit out the brownies.

Roberta finally revealed they were normal brownies and students reacted with a mixture of anger and relief.

Roberta had reason to seek revenge.

 The class of 2008 where she substituted since 1981 earned the brownies containing imaginary dog droppings in many ways.

Roberta laughed as she spoke about how the group ordered pizza from Pizza Joe’s during lunch. The food arrived at the front office around 1 p.m. and she received a call in the classroom she was substituting saying that her pizza had arrived. The confused woman was apparently meant to pay for the pizza that students ordered without her permission as well as give it to them. The pizza, of course, went straight back to the store.

Roberta has been a substitute for 33 years, and in that time she’s been married, had two children, and helped to raise her two grandchildren, ages 3 and 7. Being a mother and a grandmother gives her an advantage in the high school.

A towering figure

While many students tower over her, since she only stands at five foot two inches, her eyes make up for being vertically challenged. Her brown eyes sparkle with love, but they can produce a stare full of disappointment when pushed over the limit. Her personality is bright and bubbly, and her crooked smile can be seen throughout the day, attempting to spread her good mood to others.

Another boy towards the end of the 2013-2014 school year thought it would be funny to bother Roberta while she was working in the library. He walked up to her and asked if it hurt. “Did what hurt?” she responded. The student asked if it hurt when she fell. Confused, she replied, “When did I fall?” The student then proceeded with the cheesy pickup line that got him in a lot of trouble:  “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” Roberta yelled at him and went straight to the office where his mother was called. His brunette mother was red in the face with rage and made him formally apologize to Roberta for what he’d said.

Not woodshop

Her position in the school gives her an advantage over other substitutes because she is in the building all day whether she is needed or not rather than on call as a substitute normally would be. She arrives at school a little after 7 a.m. and when Mary Fornataro, one of the secretaries in the front office, arrives she is able to go and find out what class she is substituting for. More often than not, she can pick the class she wants to sit in on such as English, and leave the less desirable classes such as Gym for someone else.

The worst class to get is woodshop, she said. When the teacher is not available, the students are not to touch the equipment, meaning they cannot work on assigned projects. There is no seating in the room, and with a lack of television there is no way to put a movie on for the students to watch. “There is nothing for them to do. It is 45 minutes of NOTHING. There is nothing down there except dangerous machinery,” she said.

Unfortunately, all that can be done is declare study hall. Some students seek passes written on the back of old post-it-notes to attend gym class, go to the library or computer lab, or sometimes even to the art room down the hall.

“As a substitute, I don’t have to teach the same topic over and over all the time. I can do three different subjects in one day,” Roberta said when asked why she wanted to become a substitute teacher.

She receives $85, which works out to be approximately $12 an hour before taxes per school day. “I definitely don’t do this for the money. I get paid peanuts. Subs are the lowest paid people in the district I think. I think we’re paid even lower than the cafeteria staff.”

Even though she isn’t in it for the money, Roberta would only ever consider becoming full-time if she were able to become the schools librarian. She is able to work in the library as an assistant and is qualified to keep it open when the full-time librarian is not present.

Some of the duties she takes on are covering new books in plastic as they come in, shelving, and removing outdated books such as scientific material which contains information that is no longer accurate, such as Pluto being a planet. Other duties include checking out material including books and movies to students and teachers, and other various tasks including an activity called “Book Talk.” She loves being able to head the talks because she gets to introduce the freshman students to new books and help them choose something to read that they’ll love for their class assignments.

Losing a best friend

Roberta loves getting to take over book talks because reading is her passion, especially historical fiction. She doesn’t like when books aren’t realistic or cease to make sense, such as the novel, 13 Reasons Why. One of her all-time favorite books is the classic, To Kill a Mockingbird because it follows the idea of realistic historical fiction she loves. Her favorite time to read is after the sun goes down and the moon begins to rise, giving its weak light to the country road. “If a book is really good, I can stay up all night to finish it. If it's really long I read it while I'm eating, walking down the halls at school, while watching TV, doctors office.

 “Last week, we went to the Pirate’s game and I sat on the sidewalk reading waiting for the gates to open and during the game. Finishing a book makes me sad. It's like losing a best friend,” she said.

She would really love to put pen to paper and write a new novel that will one day be considered a classic such as the work of her favorite author, Charles Dickens.

Currently on her reading list is The Maze runner, Hollow People, and Dorothy Must Die.  Roberta frequently reads more than one book at a time, living in multiple worlds at once when the stress of life begins seeping through the cracks. Picking up a well-written book is a good way to relax, and having more than one is a great way to relax.

Despite some of the undesirable situations she encountered so far during her 33-year career, she has fun; otherwise she wouldn’t have remained an active part of the school for so long.

A towering experience

Approximately seven years ago, she was correcting papers in a chemistry class and when her head was down, students began stacking their chairs in the middle of the room. They stacked one on top of another until a student scaled their masterpiece and Roberta lifted her head to see one student nearly hitting his head on the fluorescent lights. This was completely shocking because she had been less than 15 feet away from them, and their tower had been created so quietly she didn’t even notice.

At the time it had been scary, but as she relived the memory, her crooked smile flashed with sparkling teeth and she let out a laugh from deep inside her belly.

The students can sometimes be disrespectful or over active, but she refused even the idea of switching to another school district or retiring.  “I have a good relationship with the majority of the kids. I know their siblings, parents, and grandparents.”

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Produced for Journalism as Literature Class at YSU., Fall 2014. For more information or to use this story, contact Professor Alyssa Lenhoff at ajlenhoff@ysu.edu.