Finally Friday!

So after the last few weeks of various challenging classrooms and stressful situations I was finally rewarded with a pleasant, easy day! Yay!

The class I was in today is a class I've subbed for several times already this year.  The kids know me well and seem to like me. :)

They've always been a pretty good class, but today was even better!  The two kids who were the most chatty or disruptive the last few times I've been there are apparently no longer in the class - moved I guess.  So the group was really pretty calm.  A couple hyper-ish kids, but half the time the stuff they were telling me was so funny I couldn't really be annoyed.

And it was a fun day - they had a "homework celebration" at the end of the day where everyone just got free time to play games.  I brought a few spatial puzzles with me - a wooden box with 6 pieces of various sizes that you have to get to fit inside the box, and two of those metal puzzles where you have to get a certain piece off of the rest of the puzzle.  They liked playing with those for a while although they didn't really have enough time to figure them out.  They were quite amazing that I could do the medal ones in like 30 seconds (I practiced last night).  Now, onto the weekend and two more weeks of school!

Middle School Fever

Lots of the kids in my class today had this. It was a 4/5 blend, and the fifth graders were acting a lot like sixth graders - loud and sort of smart-mouthy. But they weren't too terrible. My biggest problem was a couple boys who just could NOT get along. I was forever telling them to stay away from each other.

The rest of the class was just really chatty. And oddly, also eager to "help" me - meaning, whenever I'd look like I was about to say something they'd all yell out to rest of the class, "Everybody BE QUIET!!!". Yeah, didn't help so much.

Thankfully, we had an assembly at the end of the day so I didn't have to do anything for 40 minutes or so. And the teacher was at the school so she came back to her room after the kids were done and basically told me I didn't need to stay - so I left a few minutes early.

No More Hating

Today was a lesson in flexibility for me.  I got a call at around 9 for a job with a start time of 9.  So I had to race around to get ready and leave.  And it never fails that when you are in a hurry you drop things and forget things and generally annoy yourself by being slow.

So I got there as quickly as I could to find the class already started.  The teacher isn't there anymore, but the school counselor is filling in while they waited for the sub.  The kids were doing stations, so that helped to have them already busy.  We spend the next 30 minutes (me, the counselor and the classroom assistant) trying to figure out what the teacher's plan was for the day.  She'd left in a hurry and had left virtually no plans.  We eventually figured out something to do for the day.

The class was really pretty good. However, come the afternoon they were fighting with each other a lot.  I found a note that one kid had written saying "I Hate so-and-so".  So we had a long discussion about respect, politeness, treating each other they way we'd want to be treated, and how hating is a bad thing to feel.  As I was in the middle of my "hating only makes everything worse" speech, one of the boys raised his hand and chimed in, "Well it's like in God's eyes we're all brothers and sisters and so we should be nice to each others."  However, soon after, another child contributed, "Well, some people believe we evolved from Orangutans and I believe that too, and maybe the Orangutans got alone but when we evolved to humans people started fighting."  She had quite the well thought-out story with dialog and everything! Yeah.  Then we had to end the discussion.

Oh, and the picture above is one drawn for me by one of the kids (named blurred out) - notice his spelling. :)

Another Day Down, 13 To Go!

Can you believe there are only 13 days left of school? I can't.

I subbed today in a second grade class. The kids were pretty good considering how close it is to the end of the year. Their biggest problem was that they couldn't seem to get along. I had to have a lot of "if you don't have anything nice say, don't say anything at all" conversations.

Other than that it was fine.

And I have absolutely nothing else to say. :)

Forgotten Casanova

I forgot one of my funniest stories from yesterday so this blog is going to be partially about yesterday as well.

It was during the end of the day when the kids were working on that crossword puzzle that a few boys were kind of goofing around.  One of them had gotten a fake red rose from somewhere.  I started hearing whispered voices saying every so often "teacher".  They weren't trying to get my attention, they were talking about me.  So I turned around to see what they were up to when one of the boys come strolling up with the rose clamped between his teeth like he's about to do the tango with all of the others trailing behind him.  He walks up and says to me in his Spanish accent something along the lines of "let's dance", and reaches out to grab my hands.  Oh my gosh it was just so funny!  But of course not a good idea AT ALL to be seen with a student like that, so I'm trying not to laugh and gently push him away.  He persisted for a moment, grabbing both of my wrist ands swaying himself back in forth before he and the others couldn't contain their laughter any longer and drifted away.  I then saw some of them dancing together before I finally had them put the rose away.  Oh my.  

Anyways, on to today!  I went back the the first grade class I did most of last week for the afternoon.  It was super easy.  When I got there I took them to recess.  After recess we went to reading buddies (which was the class from yesterday), then they had music and PE.  So I only had them for about 30 minutes.  Some still managed to be little pills, but most of them were good.  No funny stories for today though.

Now onto the 3 day weekend!  Only 14 days of school left this year, can you believe it?

UFOs, Superheros, and Bees

While I was talking via Skype with my brother this afternoon I got a call for an afternoon job.  Good for the paycheck, but bad timing!  I had like 3 minutes to get ready and leave which really just is not fun.  I can do it, but really, why would I want to?

So I tootled off to sub for some 3rd graders.  It was a pretty light lesson plan - the whole afternoon consisted of reading and writing for the kiddos.  They had to write for a long time!  The first hour they were writing stories about a UFO landing at their school.  Then we had silent reading (which was not silent at all, but it was hard for me to quite them down while still doing battle with my half-voice.)  Then they were supposed to spend the next half-hour writing about some superheroes they were creating.  Some were eager to work on this but most were all "wrote-out" so I gave them a word search the teacher had left in case we needed it.  They liked doing this and it kept things relatively calm until the end of the day and clean up time.

As for the bee: when I got home I was out watering my plants and a bee flew into the apartment!  It was absolutely gigantic and I was pretty much terrified of it.  I'm sure my antics would have made for a great sitcom bit.  I was trying to coax it out of the window and out the door by throwing an empty hot pocket box at the window blinds from about 6 feet away.  But that blasted bee would NOT come out of the window!  I ended up going outside to scope out what the bee was doing from a safer vantage point and then my neighbor came outside!  I told him my trial, and he kinda laughed at me, but then came into the apartment and pretty much just picked that dang bee up on a piece of paper and tossed him outside.  So I felt like a moron, but at least it was gone!  

Oops!

I totally forgot to write a blog last night! (Yes, despite this being dated as last night, I am writing it Thursday morning.) I suppose I was too wrapped up in American Idol to much think about anything else.  I read the spoilers when the show ended on the east coast, and then it took me about a half-hour to make my peace with my favorite not winning (haha) and then before I knew it the show was starting here.  So in all of that my blog slipped my mind.

But I did work yesterday.  No work on Tuesday, and right now I have nothing for today.  I subbed for a fourth grade yesterday.  They were sweet, funny kids that I really enjoyed.  They were talkative, and I do not have my full-voice this week due to some weird allergy stuff, but honestly, I wish all days were this easy.  

I talked briefly about American Idol actually in this class.  I was trying to get them to understand how they were supposed to be writing down ideas for a poem rough draft and they just weren't getting it.  Some thought they had to actually start writing the poem, so were totally caught up in trying to make things rhyme.  So I finally just stopped them and started writing on the board, "American Idol is a TV show.  It's on FOX.  Simon in a judge.  He is mean, but usually right.  Paula talks too much." so they'd realize they were just supposed to list everything they knew about the topic they picked.  This sparked an American Idol discussion though. They wanted to know my favorite judge (and were outraged when I said Simon), and who I wanted to win (which gathered mixed-reactions).  However, once I finally got them back to work they seemed to be doing better.  

There you are folks.  Idol in the classroom. :)  

100th Episode!

That's right - this is officially my one-hundredth post!

And unfortunately, I have very little to say.

I got a late call this morning - they called me at 8:30 for an 8:30 start time.  So that wasn't the awesomest start today, but I got ready at light-speed and got there pretty quickly.  Turned out that the class I was in had a student teacher, so I taught about half of the day and she taught the other half.  The kids weren't bad, but they were pretty chatty.  The student teacher seemed to think that they we really badly behaved, which was funny - apparently I have a very high tolerance because I was just thinking how it had been a pretty decent day!  I guess I just have a lot of patience, and I've seen some true terrors in the last few years - so some chatter seems like the least of my worries!

Life After Friday

I have made it!  I have survived yet another week of madness!

And since it is now mid-May, all kids everywhere are just about 25% naughtier than they usually are...maybe more.

So today's class wasn't terrible, but they weren't really fun.  It was worth the money, that's about it.  A couple were bratty at the start, but got better.  A few were just annoying (like the kid who every time I turned around had is notebook out and was drawing.  I should have just taken it away, but every time I caught him he whipped it back into his desk.)

Anyways, there's really not much to say besides that.  One kid asked me if he could call me "Miss B" (which is very common for some reason), but he asked me in the last 10 minutes of the day!  Weird.

Tonight I was at Target with my mom and I heard a girl's voice call out my name, and I turned around and saw one of the students from the forth grade calls I subbed for last week.  And - I remembered her name!! Go me.

There is Hope!

Well, at least for part of the day there was.

The kids were better today!  Like yesterday, I carried a class list around with me all day and I made notes on specific behaviors by the students.  When they were on task I put a star next to their name.  When they were not, I marked next to their name with a letter.  "O" was for "off task or out of seat", "T" was for "talking", "D" was for "disrespectful", etc.  I think I had 9 letter codes - one was "M" for "being mean to others" but I never had to use that! Yay!  Anyways, my two trouble girls from yesterday were, for some reason, really into the chart today, and kept coming up to me every 15-20 minutes asking how many stars they had.  Whenever they had more from the time before they got really excited.  I also had to send one of the girls to recess timeout because of yesterday, but she didn't put up a fight about it, or turn surly on me.  She seemed to think that she deserved it, so that was good.  I was afraid that was going to ruin her afternoon for me, but it didn't.

The 3 troublesome boys from yesterday however only improved a little.  Two of them didn't seem to care one little bit about the chart, but at least it worked for some!

I was feeling good by the late afternoon because I'd had no disrespect problems from the class (which I had a lot of yesterday), and while they weren't perfect, they seemed to be making an effort.  

But then they went to PE.  And when I went to pick them up from PE I learned that 2 girls (my two I'd been working with all day) had been sent to the office, and only SIX of the students had been following directions every time.  Oddly, the ones the PE teacher told me had been good were some that had not been good for me, and lots that had been good for me were among the misbehaving group.

So by this point they were feeling ornery again, and the last 30 minutes of the day was a bit of a struggle.  But it was better for a while at least, and I didn't leave feeling as defeated as I have for the past 2 days.  Tomorrow, I have no job yet.  I guess this teacher is coming back, but last night she decided she couldn't come after 8pm, so that could still change.

Death By First Graders

....continued.

Back to the same class today.

They were a tiny bit better...for about 45 minutes.

Then they were not so great again.

I'm going back tomorrow.

I need my sleep, so that's all for tonight.

Vote for the Title

So I've considered two titles for this blog entry:

1) "Terrible Tuesdays?" - because last Tuesday was difficult and today was even more challenging!

2) "Death By First Graders" - because I was near death today while trying to deal with a exceedingly naughty class of 26 first graders!

3) And other suggestions?

So yes, I do not have the energy to completely rehash my day, but here it is in short:

Kids were loud

Kids did not stay in their seats

Kids did not listen to me while I was talking

Kids hit other kids

Kids rolled around on the floor

Kids yelled out "TEACHER!" all day long

Kids didn't do their work

Kids made a mess

When the kids finally went home I was totally spent!  And since I'm either stupid or brave, I'm going back again tomorrow.  I have a plan of attack though, so hopefully we will see improvement.  I don't think it can get much worse!

I am on a Streak!

Last week I worked five straight full days and I got another full day today! The teacher I subbed for Friday was still not feeling well so she requested me back for today.

There's not much to blog about tonight however. The kids were fine. The day went by really fast because we had a guest come talk to the class for a half hour, then had an hour-long music program practice followed by PE. So I only had the class for 30 minutes in the afternoon. And it was less crazy today than on Friday, so that was nice.

I'm going back to this class again tomorrow. I think there will be less extra stuff happening in the afternoon so I'll have more time with the class - perhaps this will provide with me with some more interesting stories for tomorrow night's blog! Hopefully interesting in the cute, funny way not the driving-me-crazy sort of way. :)

Survival

This week I actually worked 5 full days!  And for at least 2 of those days I got called for jobs even when I wasn't requested for them.  I'm hoping that things are starting to turn around and the system will actually call me instead of just my roommate.

Today was really busy.  I spent most of the morning helping kids wrap their Mother's Day presents.  I also had to assist a couple kids who still had to make their presents.  Meanwhile, the assistant was working with the class on a writing project.  I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but we did finish everything.  

However, the afternoon was pure madness!  For lunch most all of the students had pancakes with maple syrup and a piece of cake with pink frosting - and they were feeling the sugar shortly after!  We were supposed to meet with their reading buddies, but we couldn't because the buddies had testing.  We tried to have partner reading in our room but the kids were really wound up!  Then they had a practice for their music concert, and then PE.  After PE we had another half-hour before the end of the day and we were supposed to do calendar, but once again, the class was just too crazy to get anything done.  I ended up talking to them for 15 minutes or so about what they should be acting like in the classroom.  They weren't terrible - just the high sugar-content of lunch, and this being a Friday near the end of school year all got together to make the kids a little cuckoo.

Oh, and one funny story (although not nearly as funny as the one from Tuesday which only my mom has read.  It's one of my top 5 funny stories, so if you haven't read it - do it now!):  When I took the kids outside at the end of the day to go home, one little boy (not from my class or any other class I've subbed for) came up to me and announced, "My mom is pregnant!"  That's all he had to say.  Funny stuff.

Finally, A Fun Day!

After paying my dues for the past three days in some of the more challenging classes of my year, I was offered a slight reprieve today in returning to a first grade class I've subbed for a couple times this year.  They are a bilingual class, but wow! - I noticed significant improvement with the English fluency and the confidence in speaking it.  I had no trouble communicating with the class, and while they had a couple little moments of chattiness and not sitting still, they were really good.

Quite a few of them colored me pictures, which, come to think of it, I think I left them there.  Oh well, they were mostly just pages ripped from coloring books.  It's always sweet when kids want to give you something they made though.

We almost had a problem partway through the day when we were going to start a Mother's Day project.  The kids were supposed to be painting little clay pots, but we were 2 pots short!  The assistant tried to call the teacher, I went to ask the teacher next door if she knew, but we both came up with no answers.  Then we started looking around everywhere while the kids just kind of watched.  The assistant opened the cabinet, and while we were both looking it in all of the kids started pointing and yelling, "There! Right there!"  Then we realized the extra pots were on the top shelf and that all the kids had spotted them before we had. :)  So we had enough pots and we got started painting!  All the pots turned out really cute, so I'm sure they'll have fun finishing that up tomorrow.  I just hope I will have something fun to do again tomorrow as well!

Tired

I am tired.  This has been a challenging week.  So far I have had no days that I would consider "smooth" or "easy".  They've all been hard.  The last two days I spent with chatty, bickering, and often disrespectful fourth-graders.  Today I taught a group of rambunctious, mischievous, LOUD first-graders.

The whole day I was battling to keep the group relatively calm, and getting everyone to sit down and listen.  They certainly weren't the worst behaved I've ever had, not even the worst this year, but I was just so tired!

And then at the end of the day we had a birthday party for a kid who's name I could hardly remember how to pronounce.  I was just glad I was waving goodbye to them before the chocolaty, sugary cupcakes had a chance to fully infiltrate their bloodstreams.

Not the Offer I Was Hoping For

One funny story for today despite the general annoyance that was my day.  Felt like I was fighting a constant battle for order.  I'm glad to be going somewhere new tomorrow.

But onto the story: during a work time today I was talking with two boys - let's call them Joe and John.  Joe was telling me how he was making a Mother's Day card.  John said he was doing the same.  They then started listing things they could write on their cards, one of them being, "I love you mommy."  A girl nearby overheard this and commented, "Ew!" The boys then started teasing her a little for not telling her mom she loved her.  I said something about how you should always tell your mom you love her, to which Joe agreed.  Somehow the girl misheard and asked me, "You're Joe's mom?!"  Then I had to tell her that no, I was not his mom.  I told her I was not old enough to be Joe's mom.  Then another girl joined in the conversation, asking, "Do you have any kids?"  To which I said no.  She then asked me if I had a husband, to which I again replied no.  It was at this precise moment that John yelled out eagerly to me, "You're single?!  My dad's looking for a new wife!"

I could do nothing but laugh, it was so so funny.

Starburst Creates Admiration

I don't think there is going to be much to this entry.  I subbed today in the forth grade class that I did a few weeks ago when the first substitute left before the end of the day.  The kids were ok.  Very chatty.  A couple annoying ones.  A few that could NOT stop bickering (that was incredibly annoying!)  But it was okay.  I survived.  I'm going back tomorrow actually.

I hope the kids will be fine tomorrow as well.  Their last memory of me for today was me handing out Starburst candies to the whole class (because they cleaned up quickly at the end of the day.)  This prompted much praising for how I'm "the best teacher ever!" haha kids love candy.