Music Boxes and Stop Watches

Today brings me to the (likely) last day of working before Christmas break, for which I am glad. Today I also start my master's program at Grand Canyon University (online). I think I shall dedicate today's posting to my new pal Dustin at the GCU admissions office who keeps answering my incessant questions and fixing my problems.

Anyway, today I visit one of the fourth grades at my school of highest choosing. To date this year, I have visited ALL classes in the school except for 2 half-day kinders, 1 3rd grade, 1 4th grade and 1 5th grade. (I HAVE been to the all-day kinder, all 3 1st grades, 2 2nd grades, 1 3rd, 1 4th and 1 5th). I am quite the spectacle when I walk down the hallways now - about 9 out of 14 kids recognize me and feel compelled to say hello. It is fun to be popular. :)

I knew some of this class from last year or even the year before. One girl actually remembered me from 1st grade when she went to a different school!

Anyways again, the class was a bit eager to be heard sometimes (read, yelling things out to me without raising their hands), but were really very pleasant and easy. This is mostly thanks in part to two management systems the teacher had in place that I particularly enjoyed:

1- When the class was called to attention and did not give it right away, or started talking during instructions, I just started a stopwatch around my neck and waited for them to pay attention. Once they were listening again I stopped it. The time would add up on the watch and then they would miss that time from their recess the next time.

2- When the class go too loud during a working time, I opened the lid of a music box in the front of the room. This was the cue to the kids to settle down. Once they heard the music they all shut up really fast and I closed the lid. I'm not sure what the consequences for this one are - I'm guessing since it was a wind-up box that maybe when the music ran down they missed out on something? I will have to ask their teacher next time I am there for someone else.

Anyway, I liked these things because they worked well, they weren't confrontational, and they were very easy to leave for a substitute to use! Sometimes a teacher has a great management plan that they use, but it's challenging for a sub to implement - either because it's complicated, or I'd need to know every one's name, etc. And it's always nice to shock the class by revealing you KNOW about their music box. :)

Computer Projects

This morning I got one of those really really early calls, even though the job didn't start until 11. At least I got to go back to sleep.

It was a bit of an abnormal day today. The teacher had to go to a couple of things in the afternoon, but she came back to school between her appointments, as well as before the end of the day. I did some teaching, as did she, as did the IA.

We made lots of Christmas-themed books.

And I read a book.

And I helped the IA find pictures of spices online and make posters with them on the computer. She often has me do some computer project when I'm there. Sometimes I teach her how to do it, but today we were short on time, so I just made them.

And I can't think of anything else interesting to say.

So I'm done.

Very Observant

Today I branched out from my K, 1, 2 streak and subbed in a 5th grade class.

They were very enjoyable despite a short period of time when they all started making paper beards and mustaches and not doing their work.

The rest of the time they were on task and quiet and so independent that I didn't quite know what to do with myself! I've gotten very used to the demanding cries of little kiddos who need my help at every turn!

The class was also quite observant today. They noticed my necklace (it was admired by many girls and boys), the very old blond streaks in my hair that are now grown out like 4 inches because I'm too lazy or cheap to get them touched up (the kids liked them though, so I think that's validation enough), and my Invisalign aligners. I've had those for 5 weeks now and this is the first day anyone has noticed them before seeing me take them out or something. I guess it's because the average fifth grader's eye level is about at my chin. When the first kid asked about them I was afraid I was about to get the dreaded lip question!

However, no comments about my lip were made. (Sorry to disappoint.)

The Legend of Forte

Today was a little like a nightmare. At least where one child was concerned. She was gone for a few minutes once - it was a much more manageable room.

I shall refer to her as "Forte" from now on, as that means loud. :)

Forte wanted to have things her way and when they did not go that way, she got very vocal. She spent most of the day crying. Once I made her cry. You see, she wanted to write on a piece of paper when she was supposed to be listening to directions and watching me demonstrate a project. I told her to put it away. She didn't. I told her again. She still whined about how she "didn't want to!" (I'm always marveled at how kids think that's going to make any difference. Get used to doing things you don't want to kids! You'll have to do it for the rest of your life!) Anyways, I then made her give me the paper. I put in on the chair next to me and she gradually started to scoot her way toward it so she could get it back. So I moved the paper to a different place. She inched toward that. I put it in my lap and gave her the evil eye. She tried to slowly take it off my lap. At this point I'd had it with the interruptions, so I took the paper and crumpled it into a ball and threw it behind the teacher's desk. This sent Forte into a whole new level of crying. I broke out the scariest voice I possess and ordered her to her seat to put her head down and stop crying. The look of fear on the other kids' faces was interesting. Their looks of amazement when I turned back to them and returned to using my sweet voice was particularly amusing.

(Some time later I did give Forte her paper back and explained to that she needed to let me do my job and follow directions. She agreed that she would do that.)

First grade promises are easily broken.

Later in the day she refused to get in line for P.E. I threatened to tell her teacher that she should owe recess time for not following directions. She caved and got in line. However, not long after the P.E. teacher returned her to me because she was so disruptive and she spent more time crying at her desk. The principal even stopped by to talk to her. And after she calmed down I talked to her again.

My talks only seem to have about a 15 minute effect. She continued whining throughout the rest of the day until they went home.

I am marveled at how her teacher deals with her everyday!

Slightly Inappropriate Stories

Today was party amusing and partly frustrating.

The kids were okay in the morning. Chatty, but OK. Then they had inside recess after lunch and the afternoon just went downhill from there.

I did a lot of this:

"Look at me."

"Sit."

"Stop moving."

"Put the pencil down."

"Listen."

"Sit."

"Stop talking."

"Follow directions."

"Stop."

"Sit."

"Stop!"

"Sit!"

Argh. Anyway, I hate inside recess.

I've got one story for you from this morning. During writing time a kid was telling me he was going to write about his trampoline. This was overheard by another child, who also had something to tell me about his or her trampoline. Anyway, eventually, once everyone is back to working one girl comes up to me and quietly tells me she wants to tell me a funny story about her trampoline. I say OK and she proceeds to tell me that sometimes her mom jumps on the trampoline. She then points to her chest and says, "You know these things right here? When my mom jumps on the trampoline they go up and down. When she jumps up they go up and when she goes down they go down!" She then giggled to herself and said, "Isn't that funny?!" (Very innocently and having no idea that what she's saying is the slightest bit inappropriate - she's just making observations!) So I just nodded and said, "Oh. OK, go finish your writing." Which she skipped off happily to do.

First grade. They will say ANYTHING.

One Big, One Little

I think the best story from today once again, revolves around my ever fascinating lip. Little did I know when I moved to Salem 3 and a half years ago that the children of this town would be so stricken by my lower lip. And yet, every year, sometimes multiple times, I have a student point out its strange shape, the dent (a.k.a. "hole"), and generally the many ways in which it is weird.

Today I was sitting by and talking to one little girl in the afternoon class before class actually started. She looked at me, then looked away for a second, and glanced back up and squinted her eyes in that, "I think I'm going to say something" manner. She then pointed to her own bottom lip and said, "You have one big lip," then she moved her finger to her top lip and finished, "and one little lip." I laughed and said, "Yes, I do." She had nothing else to say on the matter and went on with what she was doing.

The rest of the day was pretty ordinary. It was fun. I was glad to be back to working! Tomorrow I hear rumors of another sub job....I hoping it comes through tonight!

Pedrito

This week has started out slow but today I finally got back to work. Unfortunately I got called really late and had to rush around to get there on time. On the plus side, I get paid the same amount for less work!

The job came up as K-1 blend but I think it may have just been 1st grade. The kids were nice but they did not listen very well! The teacher had this listen signal that she put in her note: I was supposed to raise my hand and say "pedrito" and they were supposed to repeat it and look at me and stop what thru were doing and such. Except that they didn't do that! I had to repeat it 2 or 3 times and nearly yell at them to "stop" and " look at me"! I don't even know what "pedrito" means! I looked it up and it's not in my Spanish dictionary!

It wasn't all bad though- they did seem to like me and no one was a big problem. I got lots of random hugs and one girl informed me that I looked pretty. Also, one of the girls I knew from head start preschool 3 years ago! She was a bit of a challenge then, but was very well behaved now. I even talked to her a while about when I was in her preschool class and she smiled and said she remembered. It's fun to see kids years later from when you met them. :)

This concludes my first post from my iPhone. (I forgot to write this before I turned my computer off.) Hope it looks normal!

"Your Osom"

That is the note a girl gave me today.

On a bright pink post-it.

Now, keep in mind these are second graders and they still haven't learned the difference between 'your' and 'you're' and the correct spelling of the word 'awesome'. It's the thought that counts, I say.

Today I was back at my favorite "osom" school in a new class. Although I knew the kids from previous years (some didn't get me as a sub last year but did remember me from kindergarten - told you I was "osom"!)

We did schoolish stuff today. I scolded them a once or twice (but really, they were pretty good). There was a freezing cold recess and time in the computer lab, and interesting things being done in music. I think I want to go to the Winter (bah-winter! I want to call it Christmas!) Concert. Christmas exists, no sense denying it! Kudos to my mom for always doing real Christmas songs in her "Winter" Programs. :)

Even After 4 Years...

...I still sometimes see something new!

Today, I went to one of the few elementary schools in Salem-Keizer that I haven't been to yet! There are only 3 left out of the 47 total.

Anyway, it was second grade and they were pleasant.

We did pretty basic stuff during the day. I could list it all but I doubt it would be that thrilling. We played a math "game" that they (surprisingly, to me) really liked. Basically it involved rolling a pair of special dice (one had numbers 0-5 and the other had 5-10) and charting the totals as they came up. I was going to go through and have everyone roll once, (21 kids) but they were so interested we ended up going around twice. They had no concept at the beginning that the numbers in the middle would be more likely to turn up because there are more combinations of numbers to get them, but I sure hope they did by the end! I stopped many times to re-emphasize how we had many more 7s and 10s and 11s that we did 5s or 15s. Then we talked about how many combinations of the dice would add up to 10 and how many would add up to 5. They seemed have a better understanding by the end, and our graph very cooperatively showed the increase in probability toward the middle of the number set.

Yay for math.

Also, yay for Mad Libs: great savior of those last 10 minutes of the day when you have nothing left to do but it's too early to pack up to go home! (And it's educational - parts of speech and all.) ;)

See Ya Boss

I think that's what one of the kids said to me when he left today! Granted, it was kind of muffled, so he could have been saying Miss Barnes and I only heard the B sound at the beginning and S at the end and it just sounded like Boss...

I'm going to decide it was Boss because that's funnier.

Anyway, I subbed for another first grade today (I've now done all three 1st grades at this school - where I also subbed in all the kindergartens last year. So pretty much all of the kids already knew me, and I knew them. Names come so much easier when I just have to re-memorize them!)

The kids were really good. This class is probably the easiest to sub for out of the three first grades.

One of the projects we did had to do with crabs. Except I had a problem actually saying "crab" and kept calling them "frogs"! Which of course the kids noticed every time and just giggled over me saying wrong so many times. Then one boy told me how he remembered in kindergarten that one day I kept calling a turkey and penguin. Which I did not remember until he said that.

Apparently I have problems keeping my animals straight and 1st graders have amazing memories.

Rough Day

Seriously, today was not the best day.

The kids were super hyper (left over Halloween candy?), didn't have enough time to run around (inside recess - yuck), and had a terrible time listening! I'd get there attention, spend a while calling out lots of names to get them to look at me, and then as soon as I'd start talking some kid would start making noises, or someone would come up to me to ask to go the bathroom, or someone would start coloring again, or playing with the pencils, or poking their neighbor, or generally ignoring me! It was maddening.

I don't understand the kids who keep coming up to me while I was talking! I'm standing up front, giving directions, and some kid would just get out of their seat, and come up to me and start calling, "Miss Barnes. Miss Barnes. Miss Barnes!" As if they don't realize I see them and am ignoring them. They just get louder and start poking me, so I HAVE to stop and tell them to sit down. Kid has got some complaint of needing to go to the bathroom or needing a band aid. Then they look at me with shock and horror when I tell them "Not now, I'm talking and you should be sitting at your seat listening."

Kid: "But I'm bleeding"

Me: "You'll be fine."

*Look of shock again*

Me: "Sit down"

*Kid holds finger in my face* (which by the way has a 1 millimeter scratch in it that is kind of red - it's not like I'm denying first aid to the mortally wounded here!)

All. Day. Long.

Sit down. Sit down. Sit down.

Not now. Not now. Not now.

You'll be fine! Tough it out. Get over it!

I sound mean don't I?

But when you're dealing with kids who don't do their work, can't get in line quietly, are prone to pushing and hitting each other, and whine over ever tiny thing they don't like, my last concern is getting a band aid to the kid with a hangnail.

On the plus side, they do listen to a story well. Perhaps next time I just need to give directions like I'm a picture book. Maybe illustrate it as I go. Something to try for next time! :)

Sleepy and Grumpy

I think there were a few other "seven dwarfs" thrown in today too!

One girl fell asleep at her desk when the class was supposed to be drawing and cutting out pictures of crabs. The other children kept wanting to point this out to me and I kept trying to get them to leave her alone. Eventually I think she woke herself up and actually finished the project quite a bit before some of the kids who never were asleep. Curious.

A couple other boys were having much trouble getting along today. They argued, send each other dirty glares, once acted like they were going to start swinging if I hadn't jumped in. It was very annoying.

The rest of the class was just regular and demanding! Every second someone needed my help, my attention, my incredible problem solving skills, etc. After only 3 hours with the kiddos my voice was sore.

Tomorrow I go back and I'm hoping that my contention that full days are easier than half day afternoons will remain true.

Sweet Compliments and Sweet Relief

We'll start with the sweet compliments:

-Today was "Dress up" day (I think I mentioned this in the last post) - but basically it was a day to dress up in your "fancy" clothes. I was wearing a black dress with red tights and sparkly shoes (more on those later). When one of the girls arrived she got my attention to tell me, "Miss Barnes, you look so beautiful!"

-Later in the day a girl (I honestly can't remember if it was the same girl or not) came to me and said, "Miss Barnes, I wish you were our teacher like all the time the whole year!" And I know they love their teacher and she's great, so this is high praise! :)

Now, the sweet relief comes in the form of the weekend! The rest of the day was a bit of a struggle. Wants-to-go-to-the-office girl actually did get to go to the office today! She fell off her chair and smacked the back of her head against the desk. Then she proceeded to wail at the top of her lungs for awhile. Eventually she calmed down enough (after I kept telling her to calm down and take a deep breath and such, and after I yelled at one of the boys for making fun of her.) Then I sent her to the office to get an ice pack. After that she recovered quickly, although was still a bugger for the remainder of the day. I'm tired of saying her name.

And then there were two boys who could not sit still, follow directions, quit making noises or pay attention without being CONSTANTLY told to. I am weary and am glad to have a break from them for a few days!

The rest of the kids were cute. The art project we did turned out cute too! (I choose it and prepped it all.) It was fun to get to plan something for a change. I hung them all up in the window for their teacher to see next week. (See photos.)

EDIT: I forgot to tell you about the shoes! So I was wearing these cute black shoes with sparkly silver things all over the toes, and invariably, every time we sat at the carpet the kid who was sitting closest to my feet would start petting my shoes. Sometimes just once and then they'd look up sheepishly at me. Other times they'd just pet them over and over again and basically ignore me. Little kids aways notice my shoes. :)

November Sunshine!

Today was another beautiful day of sunshiny, warm weather!

We had a bonus recess. Miss Barnes wanted it. The kids didn't object. :)

Wants-to-go-to-the-office girl still wanted to go to the office today. She did have better excuses this time! One was because her ear was bothering her, another was because she wanted to pull her loose tooth, I think she threw in something about her arm and her stomach hurting once too. I still didn't let her. She was not too happy about that, but thankfully she forgets quickly.

Between an assembly, lesson from the school counselor, media (library) and PE, (not to mention extra recess!) the day went by really fast and I had lots of time to get the art project for tomorrow ready. We're going to make "stained glass" fall leaves with tissue paper. Tomorrow is also "Dress Up Day" - meaning wear fancy clothes, n0t a Halloween costume. Should be interesting...

Wanted: Lunch Box Inspector

Today was very busy!

There are a few kids in this class that have interesting personalities. One likes to be disruptive whenever possible. The other throws tantrums when things don't go the way she wants. One particularly interesting moment was when we came past the office after lunch to take a bathroom break. This girl came to me and asked if she could go to the office. When I asked her why she needed to go to the office she evaded my question by saying something like, "I just need to!" I asked her again why and she gave me the same non-answer. She was getting whinier and whinier and starting to stomp a bit and questioning why I just wouldn't let her go. I told her she needed to tell me why she needed to go to the office. She said things like she needed to tell them something or ask them something but would never say what. Finally, after I'd told her for the tenth time she needed to tell me what she needed to tell/ask them, she came up with, "I just....need to....ask them........if my lunchbox is empty!" (The lunchbox that she is holding by the way.) I told her she could just check that herself. Then she got really mad and stomped around crying at me "I NEVER get to go!" I pretty much knew she had no reason from the start, but I am still surprised she couldn't come up with a better lie!

Miss Barnes, I love you!

Today the kids were practicing writing the word "you" in their quick write notebooks. They've already done "I" and "love" so they combined them to make the sentence "I love you" also. I was outside of the room at this time, doing more counting assessments. But, when I finished and came back in I found all the kids lined up for PE. It was then that one of the girls smiled at me and said, "Miss Barnes, I love you!" It was kinda funny and very cute.

Anyways, besides assessments, I also taped up the edges of some big thin boxes that will become giant files for song charts, copied stuff, peeled labels of small plastic bottles, sorted fake plants and leaves into long and short stems, and helped kids paint big paper leaves with marbles. I think there may have been a few other things I did, but I can't really remember!

Oh, and we had a pizza party! Yay for free lunch. :) (The kids had all apparently turned in some forms on time so the class earned a party.)

The teacher is going to try to make it back tomorrow, which is just as well because I've been requested for the rest of the week for a first grade class down the hall! It should be fun. Still waiting for the official call for that, but it should come soon.

I'm excited for my first full week of the school year! (Even though it's only Tuesday and I'm already tired!)

Ordered

Got a wake-up call this morning at 5:30 (I still hate that time of the morning, by the way). Happily, it was for a kindergarten at my favorite place. I actually thought it was a certain teacher, but turned out it was the other one at this school (if that makes sense). See, this teacher's name somehow is not the name that's read to me when the system calls me. Instead it says some completely different name, a name of someone who as far as I can tell, doesn't even work in this district! Anyway, I remembered this was the case, but I mixed up which teacher it was who had this problem. Not that it really mattered; I would have happily subbed for either of them.

Turns out the teacher I was actually there for has a student teacher! (She also has like the most awesome IA in the world.) The student teacher was in the middle of her full-time teaching, so I did lots of random tasks today, including: sorting books, writing name tags, photocopying, stapling, searching for books, die cutting letters, adding papers to 3-ring binders, and testing kids. I was very busy all day, which was good! The IA and student teacher were impressed when I took the game board for the math game and photocopied it and added spinners like on the original so all the kids could play it at once (something the student teacher was trying to figure out how to do).

Oh, reason for the title of this entry: When the IA arrived this morning she told me that the teacher had told her she was going to be gone today an that she'd "ordered" Vanessa. :)

Going back tomorrow morning!

Apple Day!

Today was what Miss Barnes called "Apple Day!"

Basically, everything we did had to do with apples. Apple books, apple crosswords, apple coloring, apple gluing, apple drawing, apple writing, apple snack, apple graphs. It was apple madness! We couldn't do any Halloween stuff because a few of the kids don't celebrate holidays, which was kind of a bummer.

The kids were ok. A few of them can be challenging, but we didn't have any huge problems. Basically I just dealt with some tattles, some whining, some kids not getting along.

I think the part of the day the kids most enjoyed was when we did the apple snack/tasting. The teacher had left me two different kinds of apples for the kids to try and then chart which kind was their favorite. I was going to cut them up during my lunch, but I ran out of time. I had to cut them while the kids were in the room, so I turned on the document camera and put the cutting board and apple slicer/corer under it. Then I used a funny accent (not sure what nationality it was!) and called it my cooking show. I pretended to be straining to cut the apple, once I told them they had to be really quiet so I could concentrate. They seemed highly amused by all of this. I'm beginning to wonder if they will request my "cooking show" next time in their room. :)

At the end of the day I had an interesting encounter. I was standing in the hall after the kids has left just supervising, and an older girl came back into the building crying. I looked at her questioningly and she mumbled out to me that she'd forgotten her backpack (!). I was puzzled because she was carrying a purple backpack on her arm. So I asked her, "Well, that's not your backpack?" She stopped and looked at me all puzzled. "What?" she said. I then pointed the bag on her arm and said, "That's not your bag? Who's backpack is that?" She then looked down and inhaled in surprise and said, "Oh. That is mine. I didn't have it on my back so I thought I forgot it!" I wished her a happy weekend as she went back outside. Poor thing, hope she has an easier day tomorrow!

Library

Today was pretty simple. Even slow at times! I was subbing for the afternoon in the library and for the most part I had very little to do. I started my afternoon by re-shelving books. Then I perused the book fair while I waited for the next class to arrive. When they came we watched a short video about the book fair, then played with an online site that lets you "carve" a pumpkin and experimented with MS Paint. The class then got to check out books before their teacher picked them up.

Shortly after this the teacher I'm subbing for tomorrow came by and took me down to her room to look at the plans for tomorrow (lots of apple activities are in store!) When I came back to the library a 4th grade class was in the computer lab with their teacher doing some reading test. They pretty much didn't need me.

At the end of the school day I spent about 45 minutes supervising the book fair. Parent helpers run the check out and such, so I was just wandering around seeing if any kids needed help finding things. I even convinced myself to buy a book (I know, this is not a terribly hard thing to do!) The parents running it even gave me the 20% off that teachers get! They were both super nice - they knew I was a sub, so they really didn't have to give me the discount, but I thought it was nice they did. So nice that I ended up buying two books instead!

Rhonda: I thought of your boys a lot today because there were a bunch of Star Wars books at the book fair! :)

Author Visit

Just as I was about to give up for today I got called to work at around 7:50! This left with me with about 25 minutes to get dressed, throw together a lunch and drive to the school. I'm not sure my outfit matched, and I am sure my lunch was strange!

The class was almost all kids I've known for two years. Last year I subbed in both of their classrooms a lot. So I was pleased when the kids arrived exclaiming, "Hey! It's Miss Barnes!" - despite the fact they've had subs for the past 3 or 4 days. One girl even remembered me from subbing in her first grade class over two years ago at a different school - a class I subbed in for only 2 or 3 days! Funny how kids remember stuff.

Turns out there were no plans for me. But the principal was in the room when I arrived, and he and the other third grade teacher sketched out some times and ideas for me. The assistant and I figured out the specifics a little later. It ended up not being too complicated. We did a short reading lesson and then went to the cafeteria to hear an author presentation by Larry Dane Brimner. After this we had some extra time I wasn't expecting so we had snack and sharing (which they were begging for). Then came PE, writing and recess/lunch. After lunch we did math - which was the biggest challenge of the day. The lesson involved a lot of me talking and them listening. Some had a hard time with the listening. But I am persistent, and we made it through, and ended the day with silent reading. All in all, not too bad for a slightly impromptu day.

Spelling Tests!

Today I pretty much gave spelling tests.

I also graded math papers.

And once, I supervised 3 kids in the computer lab while they took reading assessments.

I didn't teach.

Because there was a student teacher doing her full-time teaching!

Thankfully, I am a good worker bee, and I kind of don't mind doing the menial tasks once in a while. It's interesting to interact with the kids but not be "in charge" of them.

The spelling tests did take up most of the day though. The way they do it in the class requires a lot of testing. You see, each student has the same list of like 1000 words. And at some point someone goes through the list with them, reading the words to them and marking a plus by the ones they already know how to spell. Then each week the teacher makes each kid their own spelling list of 10 of the words they've missed. So I went through pages and pages of the master lists with kids so the teachers would have words to give the kids for the upcoming weeks of tests. And if the kid was a good speller it took even longer because I needed a list of 10 words they didn't know! At one point I was doing 5 kids at one time, all of whom were at a different place on the master list. It was going around and around the table saying the kid's name, then their word, then the next kids name, then their word, then the next kid's name, etc. Repetitive, but a pretty good way to make money for today. :)

Firefighters!

I love days like this.

To preface, I actually turned down 3 or 4 jobs for today before finally taking the one I did: a kindergarten at a school I like but don't go to often. I still wasn't feeling that great last night when they kept calling me, and they were all for schools or grades I didn't love that much. But this morning when I got called again I finally decided to suck it up and go. I'm so glad I did, because not only will I have an extra day on the paycheck, but it was super easy and fun and the kids were so cute.

Right off the bat when I arrive I learn that the classes are getting visits from some firefighters today. Three firemen arrived and talked to the class about the gear the firefighters wear and one guy put it all on to show the kids what he looked and sounded like when he was in it. They talked to the kids a lot about not being afraid of the fireman if you're stuck in a fire, because even though he may look and sound weird or scary, he's there to help. Then they had the kids practice crawling low to the ground to escape a smoky room, talked to them about not playing with matches, and had them practice "stop, drop, and roll". After that we went out to the front of the school where the firetruck was parked and the fireman walked them all around the truck and showed them the different parts of the truck. The kids were amazed at the hoses and nozzles and lights and anything else the firefighters showed them. It was very fun.

One of the girls in the afternoon group actually did get scared of the firefighter when he started putting all the gear on and I had to spend much of the presentation right by her side whispering reassurances to her. However, once we got out to the firetruck she eventually left my side and was right up front with all the rest clambering to touch anything the fireman held out to them.

After the firefighter excitement we had snack, recess and free choice/art time.

Don't think I could have hand-picked a more enjoyable day. :)

Getting Sick

Getting sick is a drag. Especially when I need to work every day I can so I'll have money! Last night I started to feel a little off, and sure enough, I woke up at 2:30 sneezing and sniffing. But I had a job for today and I wanted to do it.

So, a few DayQuils, Zicams, and Airbornes later I arrive to meet my class for the day. It's third grade, and I'm kind of familiar with this group because I subbed in both of the 1st grade frequently two years ago. The class is small - only 18 kids. However, the combination of my cold, and their chattiness (possibly due to the fact they've had a sub all week) it wasn't as easy as I'd wished it to be.

Not that they were bad. They were just busy...and talkative. I found myself often telling kids to turn around, stop talking, listen, etc.

But I made it to the end of the day and the kids did too! They actually got better as the day went on. I was grateful so I gave them 15 minutes extra recess. Hopefully, if I return later this year they'll remember my generosity. :)

Irresistible

I was very excited for this afternoon.

I got to sub in a first grade class at the school where I frequented the kindergartens last year. So pretty much I knew all kids last year and I was excited to see them again today! It was apparent when I arrived to pick them up from lunch that they remembered me too. Most of them expressed some sort of amazement that I was in their class!

The day was very busy, as they were a very busy class! Lots of kids "needed" my attention at any one point in the day. Many proclaimed their various ailments - such as hurting knees, fingers, heads, and backs. Some wanted to go get an ice pack from the office. I denied all but one - somehow I don't think a bumped finger warrents an ice pack. Some I think just wanted my sympathy. "I'm sorry. Hope it feels better." seemed to suffice.

Partway through the afternoon I was supposed to take them out to recess, which was a relief. They really needed to run off some energy. While we were outside, one of the girls ran up to me and gave me a hug (probably the fourth or fifth one she'd given me that day). Then she looked up and said, "Miss Barnes, every time I see you I just have to give you a hug!" :) Awwww....

My First Silly Band

Hooray! I am back to working today!

I was happy this morning to get called to my favorite school, for a teacher who I've subbed for frequently over the past few years, to a group of second graders who I've known since kindergarten! In fact, some of them were adamant that I had subbed in their class last year even though I'm pretty sure I hadn't. I guess it is a cool thing to say Miss Barnes has subbed in your class every year. :)

It was a lovely, delightful day.

Even had another teacher come down and ask me if I wanted to sub for her on Wednesday afternoon!

Yay.

I also discovered today the great popularity of silly bands! At least half of the kids had dozens and dozens of bands on their wrist and during free time they would take them off, show them and trade them with other kids. One girl gave me one. It is shaped like a fashionable boot and it is pinkish-purple. I put it on my wrist and she was very pleased to have been the one who gave it to me. The rest of the kids laughed when I exclaimed, "Now I have one just like all of you!"

Book Confusion

Finally back to work this week! It's be so long I nearly forgot to write this entry tonight!

Last week, as implied above, was slow - it was actually non-existent. I had no sub jobs and I was very bored. It's amazing how much more tedious having a week off is when you don't know you're going to have it.

Anyway, today I was back in the same kindergarten I subbed in two weeks ago, except only for the afternoon today. The kids remembered me (although they thought my name was Miss Farms until I reminded them - a very common mistake by the way). I guess you could easily associate farms with "barns"...and they do sort of sound the same when you say them with a kindergarten "accent". It was fun to see them again, and I really do like hanging out in kindergarten for the day - it's always very busy and fun.

I guess the most amusing part of the day was when the kids were bringing their library books back - both from the school library and the classroom library. Of course, they were mixing up which were which and I kept having to redirect the books to the right place. Then some wanted to check out a new classroom book but didn't have the procedure figured out. (Basically they take a card out of the back of the book and put it under their name in a big chart to check it out. When they bring it back they are supposed to get the card out of the chart and put it back in the book before picking a new book.) Lots of them were forgetting to put the card in the chart back in the book. Or they were forgetting to bring back the first book in the first place. More than one of the kids insisted that they brought their old book back even though the card was still in the chart and the book was nowhere to be seen. One girl was convinced the book she was holding was the book she was supposed to bring back - even though it was a school library book with a completely different name. And no matter how many times I repeated the name of the book she HAD versus the name of the book we were LOOKING FOR she would not be convinced. It was quite the Abbott and Costello routine at times, let me tell you!

After that it was pretty much kindergarten as usual! Here's hoping this is the start of a busier work week.

Kindergarten

Today has inspired me to make a new tag for my blog: fire drill.

This is my forth day subbing this year and my second fire drill! I'm hoping it does not remain a trend. Fire drills can be a bit stressful when you only know about 5 kids' names.

Thankfully, in kindergarten I have an IA and that was a big help.

The rest of the day went smoothly, and the kids were really good. The IAs told me they were happy to see me again too. And I have nothing else of interest to say! :)

There Really WAS No More Hiding!

Yay!

I was very happy to pick them up from recess both times to find them all in line and ready to go!

Not all parts of the day went so smoothly, but you gotta look for the positive!

The potentially problematic child was once again wonderful! I'd like to think it was because of my great teaching skill that he decided to be a well-behaved student, but perhaps I just happen to have good timing. :) Although it IS good to think that he was so good despite the surprise of sub which can sometimes set the more volatile kids off - change throws some for a loop. But then again I know about Transformers and Star Wars so how could he not love me?

Another kid did give me a run for my money though. He couldn't sit still, didn't listen and basically was disruptive and rude. I finally got tired of redirecting him over and over and sent him to the office (which is something I hardly EVER do - I feel like if I can deal with them in the room then I will. I don't want to be the sub that's sending a stream of kids to the office. Not a good way to get called back.) He was gone for a while, the rest of the class settled down a bit when the distraction was gone and we got rolling on the afternoon. When the disruptor was back, he had a much better attitude and was pretty pleasant for the rest of the day. Guess he just needed a break too.

No More Hiding

This morning I got my first 5:30 AM call. Yay.

Well, I am glad for the job today, I just really didn't need to know about it for another hour - I was still sleeping phone-calling-machine!

This job is for one of the 15 or so teachers I emailed a couple weeks ago to say that I was still subbing. Guess it's paying off already!

The class was fine. A few sweet ones, a few squirmy ones, a few talkative, and few with "selective hearing", etc. In other words, pretty typical. I was briefed on one child in the morning due to reoccurring behavior problems, but I had no problems with him! In fact, I think I blew his mind when he showed me his pattern block picture of some sort of figure and I asked him if it was a person. He told me that it was a Transformer and I said, "Is it Optimus Prime?" His little mouth dropped open and he looked at me in awe and said, "You've seen that movie?"

The biggest problem of the day actually was a few of the kids (mostly girls) who kept "hiding" from me - I use quotes because they were exceptionally bad at it (I'm not complaining about that), but it was annoying! They were supposed to be in line and for some reason they thought it was funny to hid behind a pillar or around the corner of the building. After first recess I had a talk with the whole class about why it was not OK to hide from me, and the little buggers did it again during second recess! I was pretty steamed.

Hmmm...last thing of interest: we had a fire drill! Their first fire drill of the year! Thankfully, we were warned, and they sent another adult up to my room to help just in case.

Tomorrow I was supposed to go to another class in the same school, but today's teacher is still going be out sick, so they switched me. So I've got one more day with these guys. Hopefully they quit hiding. I think I will threaten to not let them participate in choosing time if they do it again tomorrow.

My First, Their Second

Day of school that is!

So today is the second day of school for students in Salem-Keizer, and I was lucky enough to have a full-day sub job. It was for a teacher I know who had the misfortune to get summoned for jury duty. It was for a pretty long and intense case that would have lasted 12 weeks, so she was very glad to get dismissed after a few hours waiting.

My day was pretty simple. The class is a bilingual class, so the IA did a lot of the morning instruction that was supposed to be in Spanish. I helped out with what I could, and found that most of the kids spoke pretty good English, so I was able to communicate with them well.

I was on my own with them during lunch time, and I spend quite a bit of this time opening milk cartons and ketchup packets, cleaning up spilled milk, and fishing forks and spoons out of the garbage can.

In the afternoon I read a story their teacher had left, and did a "game" where we basically decided if various items could be recycled or had to go in the trash.

After that we took them out to an extra recess, and from there to Music. (Also got mildly scolded by another teacher for bringing the kids into the building before the previous music class had left (despite the fact that we were right on time and the music teacher was running late). Apparently I am not the first to be scolded by this person though, so I pretty much just tried to avoid rolling my eyes at the situation.)

Right as the IA and I were heading back into the main building, the classroom teacher got back from the jury duty. She did the last 30 minutes of the day and I got to play assistant.

It was a nice way to start the year! The kids were very sweet and it was sure easy for me. I'm looking forward to receiving a September paycheck! :)

3...2...1...Blastoff!

Well, it official - I am done with Super Saturdays for the summer! The last session was one of my favorites - rockets! It was also one of the most highly-anticipated sessions (seemed like every week some kid asked me when the "rocket week" was). I think we lived up their expectations.

We started today's class at the Foundation, as usual. We spent about 40 minutes building rockets. Each kid made 2 to 5 versions. Then we walked the block over to Riverfront Park. They have a nice big lawn area there were we set up the rocket launcher and rolled out a 100 ft. tape measure. After that I pretty much held the launcher at the angle the kids wanted to try, and blew up the 2-liter bottle over and over and over again! I was a little winded after an hour of this activity!

In case you don't know what I'm talking about now, I suppose I should describe the launcher in a little more detail. Basically it's a PVC pipe with a bicycle inner tube attached to one end. The other end of the inner tube is attached around the neck of an empty 2-liter pop bottle. The kids put their rocket on the free end of the pipe, and then stomp down on the 2-liter bottle. The air gets pushed out of the bottle, up the inner tube and pipe and propels their rocket into the air. Some of the rockets traveled over 130 ft across the lawn!

It was pretty simple for me (I was grateful to have the help of two assistants - shout out to my mom and Dani - as well as the parent of one of the students who stuck around and impressed (and challenged) the kids with his far-flying rocket!) The weather was nice, the kids had fun. No one got hit in the eye. Good week, good summer. I'm glad to be finished, but wouldn't mind doing it again if the opportunity arises.

Stayed tuned in September for my return to the world of subbing!

Cleared For Takeoff

Forgot my helmet, but thankfully paper and Styrene airplanes do not cause to much trauma to one's head. :)

Today was airplane day!

We started the session with paper airplanes. The original plan was just for the Styrene kind, but since we were a little limited with that material (just enough for each kid to make one), and since I didn't think that would occupy them for 2 hours, we added paper airplanes to the mix. I found a great website (www.funpaperairplanes.com) that had bunches of paper airplane designs (complete with templates!). I chose two designs for us to do, then printed the directions for each plane for each table, and one template for each student. I printed one set on green paper and the other on some salmon/orange colored paper. That way they knew which directions went with which template.

After about twenty minutes of that, we started the main project. I took a little time to talk about lift and such (great kid-friendly explanation found at the same website as the paper airplane templates), and then we did the build phase step-by-step. For most of the other sessions I've let them experiment with their designs more from the start, but since we only had so much Styrene (and since I knew some of the kids from previous weeks and I knew they would need all the steps explained), I went over the basic assembly a little bit at a time. Once they'd all built their first plane, they had the rest of time to tweak it, add things, or make other designs with Styrofoam plates.

A few even thought really outside the box and made "not-planes" out of the plates. There were a few "flying saucers", a few hats (really, when you cut the rim off a plate what else are you supposed to do with it than put in on your head?), and even a sailboat! That kid should have been here a few weeks ago! :)

Another interesting happening today: when I was putting supplies away and doing a final clean-up of the room, a man came in. He was the parent of a kid that was signed up for today's class, but didn't come. He said they'd forgotten about it until it was too late, but he wanted to know if he could have some material for them to do the project at home. Thankfully, I had some extras, so I handed him a Styrene tray, some paper clips and the directions and templates for the paper airplanes. He seemed grateful and I got rid of some stuff! :)

Next week is the last Super Saturday, and while it's been fun, I'll be glad to be done! Hopefully it's not 95 degrees out next weekend because the plan is to make rockets and walk the 2 blocks to Riverfront Park to test them. Should be a fun finale.

It's a Whole New Board Game!

Well today was an interesting session. To start off we had one boy show up, then have his mom come pick him up 5 minutes later - before we even started the activity! Strange.

The majority of the kids seemed to be happy making a board game for the two hours. We talked about things to consider when designing their game, such as how to incorporate the element of chance, if the game has a theme, how you win, etc. Most had lots of ideas and happily worked away making their games they way they imagined them.

Most.

However, there were a few kids who did not seem at all interested in our activity for the day. It seems that perhaps it was their parents' idea and not theirs to take the class in the first place. About 3 of my older boys spent a good part of their time just sitting there and drawing stick people on paper. Oh well, I suppose you can't win them all.

Thankfully, the kids who did participate seemed to have fun, and were very eager to tell me ALL the details about their game.

Next week is Styrene Airplanes. I imagine a constant stream of flying objects is in my near future!

Inservice Insanity

It's August and that means it's time for substitute inservice!

Much as always, it was long, it was sort of boring, and half of the risk management presentation didn't apply to substitutes at all.

Our table had a lot of laughs at the ridiculousness of it.

One good thing that came out of it was that subs finally have our own user names and passwords to log-in to district computers!

Oh, and I'm planning on writing a sitcom. I think a show about a substitute teacher following all the rules and procedures to the letter would be quite hilarious. For example, you are apparently encouraged to report all injuries you receive on the job - including paper cuts. Also, I guess it's my responsibility to remove a paper cutter that is missing its finger guard. The ridiculousness of it is just made for television comedy! :)

Whatever Floats Your Boat

Despite some doubt on my part for the ability of this activity to last the 2 hours allotted, all went well and the time flew!

Today, as you can see, we made balloon powered boats. Kids started with a milk carton some straws and a balloon and constructed a boat. Some eventually added multiple balloons and complicated add-ons, but we found that the ones with one balloon seemed to work the best. One the two girls in the class had the most reliable boat - one that traveled in a straight line from the front to the back of the "pool" with no assistance.

Last night I decided milk cartons were boring to look at, so I went to the store and bought a couple rolls of colored duct tape. Green because it's awesome, and for the Ducks, and orange so the Beavers don't feel left out. Most of the kids didn't seem to have a strong team allegiance, so they used both colors together.

All in all, it went pretty smoothly, despite the fact that we had to wait for everyone to finish building before we could travel outside to test...and then all go back in together to alter things. It was just me supervising the class today (as it has been from the start despite my wish for an assistant - she hasn't been able to make it yet!), and since the test pool was out back right by an alley that cars drive way too fast through (!) it was kinda important that I be out there when they were.

Next week - build your own board game. To me this seems like the most sedate of the sessions, maybe the least exciting, but I keep hearing kids talking about how they're signed up for it all excited-like! Who knew?

Stormin' the Castle

Today's Super Saturday featured....Catapults!

I have to say, this has been my favorite activity so far. Surprisingly, it was required less assistance from me, and I was able to spend more time walking around, talking to kids, seeing what they were doing, and taking pictures! There were a great variety of catapults (some more effective than others), but they all worked!

The building phase of today was NOISY! The wheels were a very tight fit on the dowels, and most of the kids found the most effective way to get the wheel on was to "hammer" the dowel onto the table. So for about 5 minutes we had a loud chorus of banging coming from our room.

We used marshmallows as our projectiles. At first the kids just launched their marshmallows to see how far they could go. For the last half-hour of the class though, I brought out the big bin of plastic cups and the kids worked together in pairs (mostly) to build walls of cups, then attacked their walls with an assault of marshmallows. I think they could have been entertained doing this for an extra hour! I got lots of great videos of the destruction too --> and that's a screen cap of one of them! :)

Set the Wheels in Motion

Today was the second Super Saturday! This week we make propeller-powered cars. The kids attached a propeller to a small motor, and then connected that to a 9V battery. Then we did lots and lots (and lots) of time trials! We set up a 30 ft course in the hallway and measured how long it took their creations to make it from start to finish.

This week went a lot smoother than last week, at least it felt like it to me! I was still running around like crazy trying to help 5 kids at once, and time the trials, but it was more orderly. The kids worked at their tables, and I broke the building into 2 sessions - first everyone built their car, then we added motors. There was generally less chaos and it was easier to get their attention. I still wish I had an assistant though. It would have been nice to put an assistant in charge of the stopwatch (my phone), so I could have focused on helping the kids who still needed it. But I'm multi-tasking girl, so I just did it all!

Oh, I did have one funny conversation with a kid this week. One of the boys said he remembered me from a day I subbed in his class - not from the school year that we just finished, but the year before that! He then went on to tell me, "Ya, you were there the day we got our yearbooks and I have your signature in mine!" :) And yes, you can read my blog about this day - it was June 4, 2009.

Once again, they all seemed to have a lot of fun! Next week is catapults...I may have to go searching for a helmet. :)

Full of Hot Air

I can't believe it's finally here, but today was the first day of Super Saturdays! As I mentioned in a previous blog, I'm teaching a series of 2-hour science classes at the Salem-Keizer Education Foundation this summer. The first class was called "Full of Hot Air" and we built balloon-powered cars.

There were 11 kids that showed up - 8 boys and 3 girls. Most of them had just finished 4th or 5th grade but there were a few older and younger. The kids were really eager to get started. I had all the supplies set out and I think I've learned that that's not a great plan for next week! I barely had a chance to tell them what we were doing and they were cutting stuff up and gluing stuff together!

Some of the kids got very inventive after trying their car with one balloon and finding it anti-climactic. I think by the end of the 2 hours most of the kids were powering their cars with 2 or 3 balloons, or as shown in the first picture - 4!

I set up a "racetrack" in the hallway before the class started by marking

off every foot with a short line and every yard with a long line. The kids used this space to try out their cars and see how far they could get them to travel. I few got theirs to go beyond the original 25 feet I had marked, so I had to add extra markings to the track!

And of course, some decided to race their creations at the end!

The room was a total mess when they left. I spent about 30 minutes cleaning it all up. Might have to do something about that next week. :)

They all seemed to have fun and none of them were terrors, so all in all I'd say it was a success. Next Week: propeller-powered cars.

The End of Another Year

Well, here it is, June again, and the end of my fourth year subbing - third year for Salem-Keizer and second year blogging about it. Thankfully, this year has been much less frustrating than last year, and probably one of the best years subbing yet. I'm actually not horrified at the chance of doing it again next year. We will see...

Anyways, don't abandon my blog for the summer though! Starting on July 10th I will be teaching "Super Saturdays" at the Salem-Keizer Education Foundation. There will be 7 weeks of Saturday classes - all focusing on science activities. Kids will be building cars, boats, rockets, and other things. It should be a lot of fun! And I'll definitely be writing about those here when they start!

In the meantime, I'll be baking cakes - (http://www.vividcakes.webs.com/) - hopefully posting this link will be motivation for me to update this site! Also, I plan to spend a lot of time reading a reviewing my hordes of books! (http://novelobsession.blogspot.com/)

Happy summer everyone!

Too Many Giggles

I got called really late today. The call came at 8:20. The start time listed was 8:30. The time that school actually starts is 8:00. So by the time I got there the kids had been in school for nearly an hour.

There were also no plans. However, there was an assistant who filled me in on what to do throughout the day. At one point I read story, but had to stop partway through because a few of the boys were laughing really loudly every time I took a breath. It was annoying. We did finish it later after I gave a talk about how it's ok to laugh, but you need to be in control of yourself and quiet down when it's time to move onto the next page. They did better after that.

Then I got to take them to PE at 1:45. From there they had music and then they went home from there. I spent a good part of the afternoon reading - which I enjoyed.

Don't Forget to Look Behind You

Today was pretty good. The kids were busy, often loud, sometimes rowdy, but I was still able to corral them. "He/She started it" boy only uttered his phrase of choice twice today (within about 5 minutes of each other), and I'm happy to report I didn't hear him say it again! "I'm hot" boy only referenced his lovely-ness once! He did however, bring cupcakes for his birthday and nagged me all morning, asking, "Can we have the cupcakes now?!"

At the end of the day today we had "Fun Friday". I was in charge of the Capture the Flag game. Which basically meant I handed out red and yellow "flags" for the kids to wear to identify teams, and I stood outside and watched them....and I blew the whistle a few times. The best part of the day though was watching the yellow team win capture the flag! One kid from their team got over and grabbed the red team's flag (in this case, a cone) and got it to within about 3 feet of the boundary line before getting tagged out. Then the red team gathered around the cone to protect it from the too-near yellow team. However, when they were all gathered at one end and not paying attention, one clever-thinking boy from the yellow team crossed over the line at the other end and casually walked a wide loop around them until he was standing behind the whole red team, and just a few feet away from the cone. His team soon figured out what was going on and a bunch of them ran forward, spurring the red team into action and leaving a wide opening for the boy in the back to step forward, grab the cone and run the few strides over to his side, winning the game. Well done, yellow team, well done.

He/She Started It!

I do not want to hear this phrase again!

Although I'm afraid I probably will tomorrow, because it seemed to be one boy's excuse of choice and I'm going back to the same class tomorrow.

I'm not kidding you, EVERY TIME I went over to his table to see how they were doing, one kid would complain about him doing something and he would defend himself with "He (or She) started it!!" Despite how many times I told him I did not care, despite the fact that I moved him to a new seat, he still fell back on the blame others technique. It was very annoying.

Another boy in the class thought he was all that and frequently I heard him proclaiming that he was "cute" and "hot". I was disturbed. What person has encouraged these proclamations? Because clearly he is developing a big head. He also thought it was funny to be a smart alec ALL THE TIME! I eventually had to tell him to knock it off and get over himself. Doubt that's going to last til tomorrow either....,

Anyway, the rest of the class was pretty good minus a couple screwballs. It is the end of May after all. Hopefully I will survive tomorrow as well.

Birds are Shaped Like Eggs

I dad an afternoon job today.

During the few hours I was there, I handed out a math worksheet, took them to music/PE, and went through files while they were gone. When they came back I read a couple books, then taught them how to draw birds. We talked about the shapes we saw (their bodies are egg-shaped, the heads are circles, and the beak and tail are triangles) and then we drew finches. Their pictures were all really cute - I wish I'd taken a picture of them before I left!

Mad Libs Bailout

Today was smoother, despite not really having a lesson plan. I had to base the plan off of yesterday's, and continue where we left off then.

One group didn't come in the morning, and I spent part of my afternoon doing projects for the 2nd grade teachers. One of the projects involved me copying 40 some pages (front and back) of a math packet. Thankfully, the school has a nice new copier that pretty much did it all for me! :) While I was standing there watching the copier do its magic, I overheard a girl on the phone in the office with her mom. She was begging her mom to hurry up and get there because she didn't want to have to be some kid's partner at the after-school program, because he was her "natural enemy!"

In other news, my difficult student from yesterday was better today. I brought some Mad Libs with me and I had him do those instead of attempting to force him to continue writing a story he really didn't want to. It was a much more pleasant end to the day.

Tired

I am.

Which is odd since it's Monday and I should be fresh, and I subbed in LRC (Learning Resource Center) which meant I only had up to 4 kids at a time.

And yet, they wear you out.

I did many forms of reading, writing, spelling, and math activities today with groups of 1-4 kids. Each group met with me for a half-hour and I pretty much had them back-to-back today. I had a 30 minute lunch, one 30 minute period in a classroom, and one 30 minute break. The rest was groups, groups, groups!

Some groups were easy, some were challenging, some just didn't want to be there. But I survived and am going back for another stab at it tomorrow. :)

Memories

Today I returned to the same class from Tuesday...and Monday....and last Friday. The kids were better today than they were the last time I was with them, and I was glad.

It was also a super easy day for me!

We had reading and math in the morning like normal, and that took us right up to recess time. I supervised a lot of independent work - reading, writing, math worksheet-ing. :)

After their recess and my lunch, the kids had lunch in the room, as normal. This is also when they do sharing. And I read a few more pages of George's Marvelous Medicine.

After their lunch they packed up all their stuff, put chairs up and we went up to their 5th grade buddy room. (From there we were going to music and PE which is closer to the 5th grade room than theirs - and since they get dismissed from PE, they had to bring their stuff.) The kids worked with the buddies, and I walked around. This was a different 5th grade from last week, and I saw even more kids from my student teaching class! I think there were about 6 or 7 of them in this class. I stopped and talked with a few of them. One girl (who I didn't not recognize at first) told me she remembered how we sometimes used to dress opposite. "Well, at least once we did - you were wearing a green shirt and black pants and I was wearing a black shirt and green pants!"

How funny that this is the memory of me that has stuck with her throughout the years. :)

Punishment

My apologies for being so late with this entry! My afternoon and evening were completely taken up by errands, dinner meetings and favorite TV shows.

Today was my third day with the same class. Friday had been find, yesterday was good, but today was a bit more of a struggle. It seemed like the class was punishing me for being there instead of their teacher - who they really want to be back. I don't know why they don't seem at all happy to have me there. I've giving them partner reading time, free time, watched videos with them, etc. All of which seem like fun things that should make them eager to see what else I'll do with them today. However, they just made the day kinda hard. Lots of talking (not listening), attitude problems, whining, and tattling. I was so exasperated with a few of them at the end of the day!

One boy told me he wanted to read alone during partner reading time. I told him that was fine. He chose a spot in the room to sit and read, but proceeded to keep goofing around (playing with pencils, rolling around on the floor, etc.). I kept going over to where he was and standing watch. He was irritated by this. Once he mumbled, "Don't you know what alone means?" To which I responded, "Yes, I know what that means. However, I am your teacher, and my job is to make sure you do what you are supposed to. Right now, you are supposed to be reading. However, every time I come over you are not doing that. So if you'd like me to leave you alone then you need to follow directions and get to work." He kept shooting me irritated glances, but (mostly) read for the rest of the time.

And that is a sample of the battles I fought today.

I also made another boy cry. (Purely unintentional, I assure you!) He got upset over something another girl said to him about how I wasn't going to let him watch the movie, and just couldn't get himself under control. He was sobbing and begging me to let him go home. I told him to take some deep breaths, get a drink of water and just try to calm down a little and he'd be fine. Eventually (after at least 20 minutes) he managed to get himself under control and made it to the end of the day.

Phew. I'm tired just thinking about all of it!

I'm hoping (for my sake, their sake, and their teacher's sake) that she is back tomorrow!

Titleless

Let's see...today was much like Friday.

We did reading, math, recess, lunch, more reading, science video, and PE.

The same kids were good. The same kids were whiny. The same kids were frustrating.

I remembered most of their names.

I didn't see the 5th graders though.

Honestly, I have nothing much to say about today, so I guess this blog is over! :)

Time Flies

Yes I did sub on Friday, and yes this blog didn't appear until Sunday even thought it's going to be dated as Friday.

Confuse you yet?

I went away for the weekend so didn't get a chance to write this til Sunday, but I like the entries to be dated as the day I actually worked, so I changed the date.

Anyways, on Friday, I subbed in a 1/2 blend that I taught earlier this year. The kids were good and the day went pretty smoothly, and quickly. The teacher wasn't expecting to be gone though, so she'd arranged with another teacher to watch his class during her hour prep at the end of the day. Thankfully, the 5th graders were going to be meeting with their "buddy room" (another 1/2 blend) to read and play outside. I didn't do much except sit outside in the sun and watch the kids play. I was amazed to see some of the 5th graders who had been in my 1st grade class when I student taught at the same school! I could hardly believe how old they'd gotten! About ten minutes before the bell was going to ring to go home I took my newly-acquired class of 5th graders inside to get ready to go home. Except they'd already packed up all their stuff! So we played Heads Up 7up and we were all happy. :)

Vanishing Accent

Afternoons are hard sub jobs.

Especially at the end of the year.

Not that this class was bad by any stretch of the imagination. A few were a little annoying, but mostly it was ok. However, I felt like I was floundering all afternoon. I didn't know any of their names (Well, actually I knew 2 names - one because I needed to know her name because she was always goofing around, and the other because she goes to my church), I wasn't familiar with the school or the procedures, and to top it off, they switched classes for math. You could put a line up of 5th graders in front of me and I bet I wouldn't be able to pick more than those 2 out of it that were in today's class. I guess I've forgotten how difficult it is to sub in a school that you aren't familiar with.

But yes, I don't like half-day afternoons. If I'm subbing for a half-day I'd much rather it be a morning job. At least then you get to start off the day with them, take attendance (gives you a slightly better chance of learning names), and be done before they're getting restless.

I hate feeling flustered.

Anyways.

One girl in this class puzzled me with her vanishing accent. When I was helping her with math, and conversing with her, she spoke in a British accent. However, when she read out loud her accent disappeared. A few kids told me she was "half-British." Interesting.

Lots of Changes

This is going to be short because I'm not much in the mood for blogging.

I subbed today at a school I visited frequently earlier in the year.

One of the teachers who I knew well was gone, and her place taken by a new (really young looking) male teacher. Figures the guys get the jobs the second they have a licence.

The staff room was a different color.

And the teachers took their classes on a different route out to recess. That really threw me off!

The kids were ok. Some moments were good, probably more moments were lacking. They were very chatty and not prone to listening.

Tomorrow is another day.

Have a Ball

Today I returned to a class I've subbed for earlier in the year. A few things had changed since my last visit:

1 - The kids don't seem to recognize me there are much as they used to. :( So weird to think that 2 years ago this was my most-frequented school and this year I've only been there 4 or 5 times. The staff seems to remember me, but I miss having all the kids be excited.

2 - The behavior of the class I was in today was much better than I remembered! There were 4 kids absent...I wonder if one of them was the culprit?

3 - The class I was in had lots of exercise balls in it. About half of the students were using those instead of chairs. I'm not sure if it helps with the fidgets or what, but they bothered me a little. I think because not everyone had one, the extra chairs were just stacked up around the room, and they were of varying sizes and colors. And yes, I realize how obsessive compulsive that is of me, but I think if they were all the smaller size, and were all one color and all the chairs were gone, replaced by the balls it would have pleased me more. I have problems, I realize.

Famous in Another School!

Just about the time this morning when I had given up on getting a call for the day, and bemoaning the fact that I'd only gotten one day in this week, my phone rings. The current time? 9:30. The start time for this job? 8:30. The time it takes to get there from my house? About 20 minutes. So I ran around getting dressed, throwing together a lunch and running out the door. I arrived at 10 to the relieved greetings of the office staff.

I learned that apparently they'd had a sub for this assignment quite a bit in advance. Then this morning, the sub never showed up. The school eventually called the sub office to find out what was going on. They got the sub's number and called her. Only at the exact time that they were calling her she made herself unavailable on the sub site. So they put in a new job request and that's when the system called me.

I started off the day in one of the bilingual first grades (the classroom of a friend of mine, actually). She told me she was happy to see me and they actually liked me better than the sub they were supposed to have! I supervised some writing, and independent reading, did a writing sample (in Spanish! - the kids helped me with some of it), then supervised their writing time. Finally I read a story, took them to get lunch and sent them out to recess. Then it was my lunch time.

After lunch, I went to the other first grade bilingual class next door. With this class I sort of supervised a writing activity while also helping kids (one at a time) finish wrapping their Mother's Day present. Then I took them to Music.

Then I went back to the first class! I got some stuff ready while they were in PE and then picked them up after a half-hour. We did calendar, math, and then a health test. About a half-hour before the end of the day their teacher came back and I went to the second classroom again!

And I did calendar with them!

It's May 7th by the way. The 144th day of school. It's sunny. You can make 7 cents with a nickel and 2 pennies, 144 has 1 hundreds, 4 tens and 4 ones. It's Friday. When the hour hand is pointing to the 9 and the minute hand is pointing to the 2, it's 9:10, 3 red magnets and 2 blue magnets makes 5 magnets - which is also the amount of days we've been in school in May. Yes, calendar for 25 minutes does drag out a bit.

Once that was done, and I'd scolded a couple boys and sent them to opposite sides of the room, it was time to go home! I lined them up and walked them out front and then stood around for 15 minutes or so while I waited for all of them to get picked up.

After school I went to the book fair in the library. And I did not buy anything! Be impressed.

So it was a busy, tiring day, but it was good to have something productive and money-making to do! It was also fun because I saw the 2nd graders I subbed for yesterday, as well as the other 2 (English) first grades who all knew me, and the 2 English kindergarten classes who knew me and were excited to see me. I heard lots of exclamations of my name as I went through the halls today. I hadn't realized I'd gotten famous here too! :)

Call Me

Today was pretty ordinary. Nothing terrible happened, nothing hilarious either. I came. I taught. I got frustrated by a few of them. They went home.

The one funny moment of the day was when one of the girls brought me something she'd made for me. It was a piece of paper she'd folded in half the long way to make a card. On the front it had the standard "To: From:" business. On the inside however, she'd written I ♥ Miss Barnes, followed by her phone number. Hopefully she's not expecting a call from me because, well, she'll be disappointed.

Scolded Again

Today would have been a perfectly pleasant day. And if I'm just talking about the time in the classroom it was. However....

I got reamed by a parent/guardian (I think she may have been a grandma) today! I'm taking the little darlings from the morning kindergarten out front to get picked up, and the last one is on her way, when granny comes up to me with her child and something to say. She launches into this one big complaint about how her child's backpack was stolen, and that "this is unacceptable". She also tells me that when her older granddaughter (?) was in third grade a few years ago, her coat was stolen and she never got it back. Then she tells me that when her children were in school they went to a "proper school" and this sort of thing would never happen and that this isn't a "proper school"! I standing there thinking, 'and what the heck do you want me to do about it?!' I told her that her child hadn't told me her backpack was missing until we were out the door, and it was nowhere in the room, so there was really nothing I could do but let the teacher know. She was irritated, but she did leave.

Seriously, what is wrong with these people in the world that think that it is EVER ok to talk to someone that way?! If you want to get respect in life then you should treat others with it! Just because I have to bite my tongue and listen to you doesn't mean everyone in life will. The world would be so much better if we all used a little tact and common sense when interacting with each other. Think about what you're going to say before you let it out of your mouth.

And....end rant!

Otherwise, the day was great. The kids were excited to see me, and they were eager to know if I would be coming back.

The only other downside to the day was that the afternoon girls got Justin Beiber's "Baby" stuck in head! I guess his singing voice is in the right key for them!

Lunchtime is Joke Time

Got called really late today - around 10.

I arrived at the school to find that the class was at PE, and when I went to pick them up I found out they had no idea their teacher was leaving. But they were really good, and it was actually a pretty fun day. We told jokes at lunch. They worked on unfinished work and read and went to the computer lab. I finished my book. And, I only worked 5 or so hours but I'll get paid for a full day! All in all, a pretty good day.

Some of the kids even remembered me from last year! I subbed in a second grade at this school last year for a half day - way back on October 16, 2008. They even remembered that I read them a dinosaur book that day! I never cease to be amazed at the random things kids will remember!

(Oh, and blog readers - go back to yesterday's post and read the end - I just remembered to add an important story that I'd forgotten yesterday!)

Earthquake!

So today was eventful!

I was subbing in kindergarten all day, but not the all day kindergarten - so I had 2 classes. They were very different! Not so much the behaviors of the kids, but more what we did - which is odd.

To start, both classes had a different IA. In the morning, the IA and I set up the morning stations, which included Legos, blocks, drawing, stringing beads, and something else I can't remember. During the day we did writing and recess and sharing and math centers. Then they went home and I had lunch.

In the afternoon, the new IA set out different stations. There was a drawing station, a writing station, a reading game station, and a station where they made words with magnetic letters. Eventually I ended up reading books to a few kids who couldn't seem to occupy themselves with the stations. Later we did writing, recess and sharing. The sharing took really long with this group and then I learned we were about to have an earthquake drill! The principal came on the intercom to the whole building and explained the procedure, as well as what an earthquake was, (something along the lines of "the ground shakes and moves and that makes building shake and move around too.") I look out onto the faces of the class and see one girl with a wide-eyed look of terror on her face. She then starts to cry/hyperventilate. The "mother hens" of the class immediately swarmed around her and started patting her and cooing "it's gonna be ok!". I pretty much have no patience for the mothering and tell them all to sit down and listen. I told the girl it was just pretend and to calm down. Anyway, we then get under the tables, wait a few, then line up and go outside to the designated place. A few children ran over to get their backpacks - apparently they thought we were going home...or they still thought it was real and they wanted their stuff! I had to tell them to leave it and get going! We eventually made it outside all in one piece. That pretty much took up the end of the day so we didn't do math stations like the morning class did. We came back to the room for about 5 minutes and tried to explain why we got under the tables and that an earthquake didn't usually mean a giant crack opens in the ground to swallow you up.

In other news:

--One girl in the morning class misheard or misremembered my name and kept calling me "Mrs. Barney"

--While reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to a group of kiddos, and reaching the page where the book proclaims the Caterpillar to be a "big, fat Caterpillar", one boy proclaimed, "My mom's fat!" His fellow listener shushed him and said, "Don't say that! My mom's the same size as yours!"

--I ALMOST FORGOT THIS!! Upon meeting a little girl in the afternoon class, she told me, "I like your lips." Finally a student who doesn't comment on their oddness!!

Runaway Pancake, 2.0

I think this is the first time I've done this - but today I read the same book to the class I read it to yesterday. Apparently they really enjoyed The Runaway Pancake because they practically begged me to read it again today.

There's not much else interesting for me to tell today. It was pretty regular, and all things went smoothly. The principal came in when they were having snack today (Big Cheez-its). He commented that he'd never had a Big Cheez-it before. One of the girls then gave him one of hers. :)

Perforations

This afternoon I subbed in first grade and I did a lot of tearing. I tore sheets of paper from one of those huge reams of paper that are all connected in a back and forth fashion. You know what I mean I hope. It was the only drawing paper I could find.

I also tore apart and sorted hundreds of health handouts. The front-and-back handouts come attached in groups of four. I had to rip them all apart and put them in piles. This took a little over an hour and was what I did during the entire prep period and for a few minutes after school as well!

In other events, the kids were good. They remembered me from kindergarten last year even! One girl was funny in informing me that she had a skirt kinda like the one I was wearing. I said, "Wouldn't that have been funny if you'd worn it today? We would have matched!" To which she replied, "Well, it's not exactly like that, but kinda!" At the end of the day she told me we was going to wear a skirt tomorrow. Guess I inspired her. I suppose I should wear one too so I don't disappoint. :) Oh yeah, I'm going to the same class tomorrow in case you missed it!

One last tid-bit. One of the fourth-grade teachers stopped in after school to tell me her class had had a sub on Friday (thankfully, I was already at the school in another class I enjoyed so I did not have to be jealous!) and apparently the sub did not love them, nor they the sub. This morning they beseeched their teacher: "Next time you're gone, can we PLEASE have Miss Barnes for our sub?!!" I really wish students hired new teachers. :)

Happy 200th!

This is, drum roll please.......my 200th post to this blog!

I believe some celebration is in order!

Anyways, I am happy to report that today was an overwhelmingly pleasant day in 3rd grade! The kids were polite, they listened, and to top it off - they were fun! One of them was quite the jokester, but he actually knew when to cut it out. It was nice. I liked them so much that I let them play head-up 7-up for a while and I gave them an extra 10 minutes of recess at the end of the day. We'd run out of things to do, and it was so nice out, and they had been so good that we just went out and enjoyed it! Now I'm really hoping I can go back there again before the years over, because they surely love me now! :)

One of the activities we did today was watch a Bill Nye science video (on the solar system - made when Pluto was still a full-grown planet!) Thankfully 3rd graders are still young enough to think Bill Nye is funny and not stupid and outdated. At one point when Bill Nye was talking about the moon phases he spoke of a new moon - which solicited a few little gasps and giggles from the girls who marveled that, "It's just like Twilight: New Moon!"

Yes, even in 3rd grade.