Kindergarteners are busy.
Today was a bit of a lesson in chaos.
I get a semi-late call (it was just barely an hour before the start time, but the school's not close, so it only gave me about 30 minutes to get ready). I got to the school though with plenty of time though. However, I soon discovered that there were no plans, no lesson book, no schedule, no sub folder. Thankfully, I knew and aid was coming soon, and hopefully she'd have an idea of what we were supposed to do.
She arrived soon, and realized we had no plan, so she ended up calling the teacher to check what she wanted us to do. Once we had a plan, the aid had to leave for some meeting.
The day was interesting. Some of the time it felt like trying to give directions to a brick wall - they just weren't listening! Sometimes, even when somebody was calling a kid's name, the kid just didn't respond - it actually reminded me a lot of subbing in head start. Hopefully this was just the end of the year, substitute behavior, and not an all time thing, or I'd feel bad for the teacher!
A few things that were weird/frustrating/distracting:
There was a volunteer mom there with her younger child, who I'd guess was about 2. The little one was pretty fussy and kept trying to escape - I was distracted by this a lot. Fussy crying and seeing doors opening out of the corner of you eye grab your attention pretty quickly.
The aid told the kids to get a book if they wanted before we started the Magic School Bus video. I guess they look at books when watching a movie. I didn't understand this, and I think I've decided that will never do this in my class. Most of the kids didn't pay attention to the movie at all, and they were so talkative over the books that they made it hard for the other kids to pay attention.
A giant moth got into the room at once point and it was pretty interesting I'm sure to watch me and the aid try to get it out. (We succeeded.)
It was one girl's birthday so we had birthday popsicles. I never want to have popsicles at school again. I'm sticking to dixie cups, cupcakes or cookies. That's it. Popsicles are drippy, sticky, melty messes.
And with that, I'm signing off - grateful for Friday. Only one week of school left! We will see what the week holds for Captain Substitute!