Encountering Students in the Real World, Part 2

Silhouette by artists Miller & Shellabarger

I work infrequently at a local art studio, running workshops for kids. Recently I was asked to come up with a workshop for a class of 8th graders who would be visiting on a field trip. I worked out all the details with the studio manager over the phone... and then he told me what school the kids were coming from.

It was a school where I refuse to sub anymore because of the trouble that I've had there.

Oh, snap!

I decided to keep the job, but I was frankly pretty nervous about it. What if the students remembered me as the sub they tortured? What if they were out of control in my art classroom? What if my project sucked and they hated it and decided to mob me??

Ok, so I might have been a little more nervous than need be. I'm the adult in this situation. Right?

I ended up coming up with a neat project for the students based on these super fun silhouettes made by local Chicago artists. And what do you know, they got really into it. Everyone did an awesome job and no one recognized me as their evil substitute teacher. I even had a kid thank me "on behalf of the class" for teaching them.