4th Grade Drama

My blog has been silent for the last week because I did not get one sub job all last week! I got up, got dressed and ready and then sat around waiting for a couple hours for a call that never came. It was frustrating.

However, my long-suffering (haha) was rewarded today with job call at 7am! It was nice to not have to sit around waiting and wondering again this morning.

So this job is at a school in east Salem, in an ESL 4th grade. This isn't my favorite school of the lot, but you take what you can get you know? The day went pretty well for the most part. The teacher had left detailed plans (except she forgot to mention that I was supposed to go out with the class during their recess and I didn't. There were other teachers out there, so it wasn't the end of the world - just made me look a little bad), and the kids were mostly good. A couple boys had a bit of an attitude near the end of the day, consisting of things such as being a smart-alec, not doing what they were supposed to and instead doing things they weren't supposed to, and scoffing at me occasionally. Charmingly typical forth-grade behavior. Especially in ones who mistakenly think they are cooler than the whole earth. Once I just landed on the kid and told him he was being rude and that he'd better knock it off or I'd be leaving detailed notes on his behavior for his teacher. The other time (with a different kid) the instructional assistant in the room decided it was her job to take care if it. It was kinda nice of her, but also kinda frustrating because it just makes me look like a wimp who can't handle the kids. This happens to me from time to time and I think it's because I'm young and look young and most of the time the assistants are older than me, and often have been working in the school for many years, so they feel like I surely won't know enough to handle the situation so they better just do it for me. This assistant wasn't really that bad, there were just a few times she jumped in...but on other occasions I've had an IA butt in in the middle of me giving directions to lecture the students on how rude they were. That was really annoying. But back to today...

Another odd part of the day was related to a wardrobe issue. You see, a few hours into the morning one girl in the class noticed that she had a hole in the armpit of her t-shirt. She came up to me and wanted to go to the office to call her mom to have her bring a new shirt to school. I just said that no one was going to notice, but she was resolute that they would and that she just could not go on without a new shirt. I then suggested that she put her sweatshirt back on (she was wearing it earlier) but she refused that suggestion by telling me the tale of how her grandmother was sick with hives and that she caught them, (can you catch hives?) and if she got too hot then that made her hives itch and if she wore her sweatshirt it would be too hot so she couldn't do that! I eventually gave in and sent her to the office to have them figure it out. She comes back later and says nothing so I just don't think about it. Then, before recess she is coming up to me again saying that she wants me to call the office or that she wants to go to the office to see if her shirt is there. So I ask her, "Did they call your mom?" Yes, the called her grandma who was going to call her mom. "Did they say they'd call the room when she brought a shirt in?" Yes, they did. So I informed her that since they hadn't called that there was no point in going down there to bother them again when they aren't going to have anything for her. I assured her that they'd call when it came. She was stressing about the other kids seeing the hole at recess. I told her to wear her sweatshirt. She informed me of the hives again. I told her it was colder outside and she probably wouldn't be too hot out there. She was pretty sure she would be. I said that she should just not raise her arms them and made her leave. Recess passes without crisis and we come back into the room to wash hands for lunch. Is the holey armpit discussion over? By no means!! She comes up to me while the rest of the class is lining up. We have the same discussion about her wanting to go to the office again. I said no, that it was lunch time and she needed to have lunch and that no one was going to see. Well, by this point she's making SUCH a big deal about it and absolutely not relenting but just standing there in front of me waiting for me to pull a new shirt out of my magic hat that the other kids start to notice and saying things like, "she's crying!" and snickering. So now I'm having to shut them up and get this girl to drop it and get in line for lunch. She is very persistent however and keeps harping on me about her woes. I just kept saying over and over how I was sorry that she was having this problem, but that there was nothing I could do for her - I didn't have a shirt for her to wear, so she could either wear the one she's got and keep her arms down or put the sweatshirt on and risk being too hot. Eventually we leave the room and I drop them off in the cafeteria. I turn around to go back to the room and here comes the girl with her sweatshirt on without her arms in the sleeves shuffling down the hall begrudgingly. We then proceeded to have the SAME CONVERSATION all over again. I'm not exaggerating. At this point another teacher happens down the hall and knows the girl so she ask what the problem is, I explain and this teacher suggests that the girl eat lunch in the office then. She finally agrees to this solution and I get some peace!

I was exhausted by the ordeal though.

When they came back from lunch the girl has a new shirt on. Don't know where it came from and don't care! I was just relieved to be done with that conversation. Moral of the story is: always check your shirt for armpit holes so you won't torment yourself or your teacher with the horror of that particular wardrobe malfunction.