No Costumes!

I was hoping that I'd get to wear my Halloween costume at school today, but alas, the school I was at was not doing Halloween parties or a "book character day" - which is more common.

The day was pretty good. A lot more chaotic at the end of the day, but it wasn't too bad considering they had a cookie party a half hour before going home and it was the day before Halloween. I didn't have the greatest plans to go off since the teacher I was in for was not expecting to be gone and unable to write plans up, but I made due. The other teachers were very helpful as well. The kids were happy because I let them draw for a bit, and I let them sit wherever they wanted for silent reading, and for free write. And we also played Mad Libs which pretty much guaranteed they will think of me fondly for the rest of time. :)

Familiar Room, New Class

Today I worked a half day for a teacher I subbed for a lot last year. It was weird being in the room again with a totally different set of kids whose names I didn't know yet! Thankfully, they were a nice class, and my morning was pretty easy.

I also saw quite a few of the kids of last year's class in the hallways and they all smiled and waved at me, some even gasping in excitement, "Hi Miss Barnes!!" So that was fun. Hopefully, I'll be going back there some more in the future.

I Convinced Them

Got a job last night before I went to bed at one of the schools I haven't been to yet!

It was a fourth grade and I really liked them! They were really quick to listen, hard workers, and just plain funny.

I think they were unsure of me when they first got there - I overheard one girl whispering to her friend something like she was apprehensive about the new sub. Then I heard the other girl reply, "She looks nice though."

By the end of the day I had them all convinced. I made jokes, let them draw or such when they finished their work, and played Mad Libs with them at the end of the day because we had extra time (like I said, they were hard workers). On their way out the door they were "aw"ing with disappointment that I wouldn't be there tomorrow. :)

Revolving Door

I really don't have any great stories for today. The day was pretty uneventful. Except it seemed like the kids needed to go to the bathroom every 30 seconds! Even after a whole-class bathroom break, I had kids coming up to me and asking to go again and insisting it was an emergency!

What can you do? I just sent them one at a time. It was annoying, but I decided it would be more annoying if someone wet their pants.

On the plus side, I discovered another good book to read aloud to a class today. It's one I've had for a long time, but I've just never read it to a class before. It's called "The Runaway Pancake" and it's a lot like The Gingerbread Man story. Today I finally read it, and they really liked it. It has a lot of repeating phrases, so the kids enjoyed reading those parts with me.

Storytime

It's Sunday afternoon now, but I'm going to date this as Friday. I DID work on Friday - I've just forgotten to write about it!

After my day with the pouting master, I was hoping for a slightly less-demanding group for the last day of the week. Little did I know that I would not only have that, but also a student teacher who did pretty much everything! Here is a summary of lovely day:

The kids came in and did puzzles in the morning. (Apparently Friday is "puzzle day".) I helped a variety of student with their puzzles.

After puzzles the class did calendar activities. The student teacher led this activity.

Then it was time for the class to read together from their poetry books. The student teacher led, I sat next to kids and read poems.

Next came reading groups. The ST dismissed kids to groups and led the groups. I went around the room and sat down with various students and had them read to me.

They had lunch. The ST walked them to lunch. I pushed play on the VCR - Friday was also video day. You can see how much I've been exerting myself today.

In the afternoon I read a story! Then, after the story there was an activity in the lesson plans that didn't say "the student teacher with do this" next to it, so I thought I would actually have to work today. But when I'd finished my story the ST came up to me with the stack of papers and acted like she wanted to take over. So I asked her if she wanted to do it, and she said, "Yeah!" So I sat in the back and listened.

After this we had a birthday party for a student. Again, the ST took charge of this.

I did however, make myself useful near the end of the day. When the class was in PE an adult brought in a small stack of papers that needed to go home with the kids whose names were on them. I passed out the papers but found one that wasn't from our class. I took it back to the office, found out where it was supposed to go and then took it to that classroom.

And yes, that is all I did. Deliver a note, read a book, and listen to kids read. Pretty nice way to end the week!

Pouting Master

I met her today. And the performance was quite spectacular!

But let's back up a bit to the beginning of my day. I was sitting around being lazy this morning because I couldn't quite get the energy to actually get ready when I didn't know if I was going anywhere. Unfortunately, this usually backfires on me. You'd think I'd learn, but no, I don't. So I got a call at around 8:15. The job started at 8:15. It's in Keizer and I'm in my pajamas. So I got dressed faster than a superhero and ran out the door. Made it to the school around 8:50. The kids are already there and the principal is leading a reading group while the other kids are reading by themselves or with another group led by an assistant/parent volunteer. The principal was very nice to give me a few minutes to get settled and look over the plans for the day. After that I took over the group.

Shortly into the day I learned that this was a very immature group of 1st and 2nd graders. There was a lots of tattling, whining, pouting, name-calling, and just general belly-aching among them. I found myself often lecturing them on not "acting like babies". It was about 30 minutes into my time with them that the Queen Pouter made her appearance. And that is our story for tonight:

This little girl came up to me with a book during their silent reading time and asked me if she could read it. I said sure. (I mean, it's a book, what do I care?) But another girl in the room who decided she needed to police everyone turned around, outraged, and exclaimed to me that the first girl could NOT read that book because it was a yellow dot, and that girl can only read the red dot books because the yellow dot is too hard and she can't read them, she needs the easy books. The first girl protested, and the second girl argued back with her. I basically had to yell at them to get their attention again. I clarified that I knew what their problem was and then told the second girl I didn't really care about the dots today and that the first girl could read it if she wanted. (This was an unpopular judgement for girl 2 who was pretty sure I'd just destroyed the world by not following the system.) However, the first girl was so mad at the butting-in girl that she was pouting. I mean, full arms-crossed, bottom lip-out pouting. I tried to give her the book, but she just scowled. So I said, "Ok, nevermind then" and threw the book on my desk. This activated the "turbo pout" and my little pouter ran over to the corner of the room, knelt down, then bent over herself, started rocking and sobbing and huffing about. It was ridiculous. I just left her there. Then, upon noticing my lack of attention, she got up and walked over the the door near the desk where I was sitting. She crossed her arms again, (bottom lip out) and faced the door. I still ignored her. She started softly banging her head on the door. I ignored her. She kept banging her head and started huffing/growling again. At this point I told her, "If you'd like to come talk to me like a big kid and not a baby about your problem, I'll be happy to listen to you anytime." She begrudgingly came over and told me that she COULD read that book, and that the red books were too easy for her. So I pulled it off the desk and told her I was going to give it to her earlier but she was too busy pouting. I then opened and asked her to read a page to me. And yes, she COULD read it! In fact, she read it very well. There were some hard words in it and she sounded them out perfectly. I told her she needed to talk to her teacher about the red books being too easy. I gave her the book and told her that if anyone tried to tell her she couldn't be reading that book to tell them to ask me, and not to argue with them herself. She went off to read and that was the last of the pouting for the day! Yay!

Not to say that the tattling, whining, name-calling or belly-ached stopped, but hey - one problem at a time! We still had lots of that, but they got better as the day went on. It was busy, and tiring, but not as terrible as I feared after that first hour or so.

Lacking in Details

Today was equal parts nice and frustrating.

Nice: The kids were pretty well behaved. They were sweet, and fun to chat with, and generally did a good job. We had fun.

Frustrating: The teacher's lesson plan was very sketchy. There were no details whatsoever for all but one activity of the day. The entire literacy block (1.5 hours) was planned in Spanish with no alternative for a non-Spanish speaking sub. The activities that were planned were slotted to take twice as much time as they actually did. So I had a lot of time to fill. The materials I needed for the planned activities were not set out, nor were there instructions on where to find them.

The day went smoothly enough, but I felt very flustered trying to constantly fill time and figure out where stuff was. It annoyed me that the teacher hadn't bothered to put a little more effort into his/her sub plans.

Cough Be Gone!

Back to work today!

Yesterday I took the day off so I could get over my annoying cold that stole my weekend. Yes stole. I did nothing but sit around watching TV and coughing and sniffling for two days. Even missed church I felt so yucky. Monday I was a little better, but I decided to just be safe and wait one more day. Today I went back on the list.

Nice for me, I got called to a class I've done once already this year, for a teacher I know well. The day went pretty well, the morning was pretty busy and I managed to make it through without having a coughing fit. After lunch was easy! After lunch I read them a book, then they wrote in journals and then they packed up! I took them to PE and I was done! After they had PE, they walked next door to music, and the music teacher dismissed them at the end of the day.

I'm feeling much better tonight, although I'm still hoping for easy days the rest of the week!

Feverish Day

So today I got called at about 5:30 am. Yesterday, I had started to feel a little sick, but the job was for the same class as yesterday, and since they were pretty good, I decided I could make it.

That might have been a mistake.

So I got to school, and instead of feeling better after taking some cold medicine, I just kept feeling worse. My nose was runny, I kept sneezing and coughing, and I started feeling really hot. The kids were kinda hyper today, and it was all I could do to stay alert enough to teach. Thankfully, I didn't have to do anything the last hour of the day. They had music, then when they came back they had their "Friday Fun" time which was basically game time. Normally I would go around and play with the kids, but I just sat down at the desk and watched. It was such a relief to walk them to the front door and be done!

Thankfully, I now have the weekend to feel better. Unfortunately, that means I can't do anything fun this weekend! I'm tired of these colds!

I Just Need to Make a Call

Was starting to think I was going to have the day off today when I got called at around 8. The start time was 8:30 and it takes me about 30 minutes to get to the school! So I got ready fast. Thankfully, I got lucky with the lights and made it there early!

The class was 2nd grade, and they were SOOOO much better than yesterday. Very busy, but sweet.

About a hour into the day one girl comes up to me and asks if she can make a call. I ask her why and she says she need to call her dad. I ask her why again and she says something about needing to tell him when she goes to recess. Again, I ask, why? She explains that if he calls when they're at recess then she won't be here and he might be worried. I told her that if her dad needed to talk to her, the office would take a message. She said he might be worried because he wouldn't know where she was. I assured her that the office would tell him, and he'd know she was at school, so she was fine. This did not satisfy her, I could tell, but she also realized that I was not going to change my mind, so she let it go.

I was afraid she was going to be mad at me the rest of the day and be a little stinker, but she wasn't. In fact, at the end of the day she asked me if I'd be here tomorrow and when I told her no, she said, "Awww....I wish you were! I wanted to spend some more time with you!" Kids are funny. :)

The Streak Is Over!

The last few weeks of substituting have been very pleasant. I've had lots of sweet, quiet, cooperative classes. Just yesterday I remarked that I was pushing my luck, and that the first bad day was just looming over my head.

If I'd known I was a prophet I would have kept my mouth shut!

Today was not a good day. I've had worse, but it certainly was not nice, easy or enjoyable. The kids were loud. They did not follow directions unless threatened (basically, "do this now, or go to the office" or, "do this now or owe recess"). They did not stop talking for pretty much anything. They did not sit still. They did not do their work correctly (because they also did not listen to directions!)

It was frustrating!

At one point in the day a boy came up to me because he'd actually finished his project. He asked what to do next and I told him to read a book (what all that were finished were already (supposed to be) doing). This is the rest of our conversation:

"I don't waaaaant to!"

"I didn't ask you if you wanted to. Please find a book."

"Teacher, I really don't want to. It's boring!"

"I understand."

"I don't like reading!"

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

"I'm not going to!"

"The direction was to find a book. You may choose to follow the direction, or you may choose to go to the office and explain to the principal why you did not want to follow directions."

"Urgh! Are you gonna be here tomorrow?"

"No, I'm not"

"Good. That's gonna be a lot better!"

"Yes, I'm sure it is. Have you decided if you are going to follow directions?"

"(grumbling) Fine, I'll read!"

And pretty much that's a snapshot of my day. This was not the only time I had this conversation. I was very happy to say goodbye to the little stinkers! Here's hoping for a better day next time!

Singing All Day Long

The class I subbed for today had a lot of songs! They had a good morning song, a give-me-your-attention song, a clean up song, a star student song, a days of the week song, a flag salute song, a be kind song, a counting song, a line up song, a sharing song, and even then I'm sure I've forgotten some.

Out of all this songs I think I knew 2 - the clean up song and the.....no, actually maybe that was it. Even the days of the week song was one I didn't know - and I know bunches of them!

Unfortunately, while the kids sort of knew the songs, they didn't have the memorized yet, and since I didn't have the words, we sang through quite a few in a very tone-deaf manner! Ha ha. I really hope no one was listening! Some we started to sing, but then all the kids just faded away because they couldn't remember the rest. It was amusing at least. I learned not to be surprised when they would randomly start singing a song whenever we switched to a new activity.

Other than that, the day was pretty typical. It went smoothly, and was usually pretty calm because I only had 15 students! Now that's a nice way to earn some money!

Calle Ocho

Today was one of those nice bilingual days.

I subbed for a bilingual first grade today in one of the few schools I haven't been to yet. The kids were really sweet, and most spoke English really well, which was big help to me. Also, I knew enough Spanish that I could read directions to them and help them with a few projects they did in Spanish. All in all it worked out pretty well. No big communication problems, and the kids were fun. We had a good time reading book, singing silly songs, and doing math centers.

Humorous moment of them day: upon returning from the bathroom I overheard one little boy singing to himself one phrase from a song called "Calle Ocho" - "you know you want me, you know you want me". It was just funny. :)

I'd Like To See You Try It

Well, I have to say Friday was one of the more interesting days I've had in a long time. Unfortunately, it was not interesting in the fun way, but rather the I-want-to-tear-my-hair-out way.

All week I've know that the school was having their jogathon on Friday. Basically, all the kids collect pledges and then at a point during the day their class goes out to the track and runs/jogs/walks laps to raise money. The money goes to buy new equipment or supplies for the school. The teacher I was subbing for wrote me a brief note about this, which I did not read carefully enough to realize that it actually didn't say what it seemed like it was saying. You see, I thought my class was supposed to go during their PE time at 2:30. I had planned for this all week, even mentioned it to other teachers and they nor I never realize that I was in fact mistaken - my class was scheduled to go at 1:30. So I'm going obliviously along with my day, when at around 1:33 the office calls and says they are waiting for us for the jogathon. So I had to pass out their lap recording card/bracelets as fast as humanly possible, and get them up to the track - which is the farthest away thing from our room and still on school grounds. So we race up there and arrive around 1:38 or something. One of the parent volunteers I met that morning was really sweet and actually apologized to me for not coming down to make sure we knew the time. I told her I felt bad we were late, and she and the PE teacher (who was running the show) both told me it was not a big deal, that they only missed maybe 5 minutes.

When the kids' time is up, they get to go over to the covered area and get a water bottle and ice cream bar. I'm walking along with them, collecting bracelets and showing them where to go. At this point a woman comes up to me and introduces herself to me as the mother of one of the children in my class. She then says, "I just wanted to let you know that I'm very disappointed in you. And I hope you do a better job in the future." She's even smiling at me like she's giving me some great helpful piece of advise. I almost laughed because I thought she was teasing me. Then I realized that no, she was completely serious and completely MAD at me. I was so shocked I think I said "What?" or something and then she reiterated the same statements adding things like, "This was really important to the students and because of you they've missed out. You were incredibly late and I just really hope you work harder to do a better job next time." I couldn't believe it! And again, she saying this in such a condescending tone like she's the Pope and I'm the spider crawling on her robes. And the whole time she's looking at me like she expects me to get on my knees and grovel. I tell you, it took every shred of self-control that I have to respond to her politely.

I told her that I was sorry that she was upset, and that I apologized for being late, that it was a miscommunication and I didn't realize I had the wrong time. I then stated that there was nothing I can do about it now, and that the PEOPLE IN CHARGE said that it wasn't going to make that much of a difference.

This was not an acceptable answers to her.

She then said that yes, in fact it was a big deal, and that I just need to do a better job in the future. (She liked that phrase). I told apologized again and reminded her that I was the substitute, I'd only been here for a week, today was my last day, sometimes things like this just happen, and I'm doing the best that I can and then I pretty much walked away.

Oh, I was so mad. I had a fake smile plastered on my face the whole rest of the time out there to avoid scowling.

I still can't believe that people think it's okay to talk to other people like that. I almost wish she would read this blog and realize that my job is a heck of a lot harder than a lot of people's. Every day I walk into the unknown. A new school, and new group of kids, new assistants, new administrators, you name it. Some days you find that the plans left for you are insufficient or non-existent. Often, you deal with children that receive no love, or discipline, or structure, or guidance, or accountability at home. It is my constant challenge to gain respect, cooperation, and understanding from children, and to teach them how to give and receive the same from their peers. I have to be ready to teach anything at a moment's notice. I have to accept that often I will be asked to teach the more "boring" subjects all day. I have to learn the floor plans of 40+ elementary schools so I know where to take them to PE and where to pick them up from recess. I have to be willing to change my plans to fit other's schedules. I have to be ready for the unexpected. I have to adapt to a completely new scenario EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

So if you have kids and ever feel like their teacher has somehow "wronged" your child. Please, take a minute and put yourself in that teachers shoes. Chances are, if you're honest, you might find we all just need to be a little more understanding.

Kids Want Snack Time

And when you threaten to take away snack time, they'll pretty much do whatever you tell them to.

Yesterday the class was not very good at listening and following directions. I had to give the same directions multiple times and they took forever coming to sit at the carpet, or at their desks or lining up. So today I told them we weren't having snack until they could show me they could do it the right way, and if we ran out of time for snack, then they just wouldn't have snack today.

Would you believe that they lined up and sat down silently and quickly the first time? Pretty much what I expected to happen, but it's still sort of funny and yet frustrating at the same time. So I lectured them a bit about how they need to do that every time now that I know they CAN do it the right way. Then they had snack.

The rest of the day was better than yesterday. I only had to move a few kids at group time, and they listened during directions and such that they did not do well yesterday.

In other news of the day, I sat in on a team meeting before school with the other 1/2 grade teachers. They were going over reading and writing standards and writing up a team plan for the year to be submitted to the principal and district or something. That is one thing that I am not sad to be missing out on as a substitute. And while pretty much boring, I was glad to listen in to get an idea of the behind-the-scenes stuff going on. Plus I'm making my face really familiar with the other teachers in the team. I'm hoping to hit all of their rooms sometime this year (not that I want the teacher to get sick, but they're gonna want to use their personal days sometime!)

Tomorrow is (as far as I know at this point) my last day with this class. We have the jog-athon in the afternoon and pretty much the same stuff in the morning as all week - reading groups and math workplaces and such. It is nice to leave the building knowing where I'll be going, what I'll be doing, and the names of kids I'll be seeing ahead of time. I will miss that tomorrow!