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.

*Ding* Miss Barnes?

That is the sound I heard over and over today! (The *ding* being the sound of the intercom buzzing into the room, and the "Miss Barnes?" being the secretary or office manager asking for me.) I think they called my room at least 10 times! After a while a started to feel like I was being Punk'd or was on Candid Camera or something! Seriously, for a while it happened like every five minutes. Funny.

Less drama today, just lots of bouncy kids who have spring fever and are eager for their field trip tomorrow. It wasn't too terrible. A couple in the morning really frustrated me with their complete inability to work independently, but otherwise it was fine.

I ran into "my" kinders when dropping off this class in the library. They were all surprised and excited to see me. I got lots of hugs. So cute! I really miss them. Anyways, but I also got many, many exclamations of, "Miss Barnes! You cut your hair!" or, "Miss Barnes, you dyed your hair!"or, "Why's your hair a different color?" Apparently a few blond streaks, for a kindergartener constitute a complete change of hair color. :)

Second Grade Drama

Back to work today at one of my most-enjoyed schools. This is a class I've subbed for before, so that's always nice. Although technically it's two classes since the second grade teachers swap students half way through the day and teach the same subjects twice. Which means I have twice as many students to remember and I have a terrible time remembering everybody's names!

The day was not very eventful except for some second-grade girl drama. Basically one said something that upset the other and they spent all day fretting about it. "Can we go in the hall to talk about it Miss Barnes?" But Miss Barnes is not very nice and told them no every time. I did suggest they talk it out at recess. But, shockingly (!) they didn't. However they were very eager to do so about 5 minutes after returning from recess! Sheesh.

Ewww...

Had an interesting day today.

First grade. Kids were talkative, but nothing too terrible. I managed to keep them in check and we got through all the lesson plans.

Interesting part of the day was in the morning when I had an IA in addition to the student teacher. Apparently a boy in the class came to the IA and said he needed to go *number 2* really bad. She let him, but when he came back, he had a worried look on his face. The IA was concerned he didn't make it in time. Upon going to investigate, she discovered that not only did he not make it, but he was stricken with a bad case of the trots. In order to make this a least-disgusting as possible let me just say that the janitor was involved. The poor kid went home.

Lovely way to kick off the weekend huh?

Finally!

Well, after a week of nothingness and frustration at the lack of calls I am finally back to work today.

I worked the afternoon for a bilingual 1st grade. They did pretty well, although were a little busy. Lots of them kept getting out of their seats over and over. I'm not sure if this is normal, or they were just trying to get away with stuff, but it was a little irritating.

But it was a pretty simple half day for me. I read a story, guided the math lesson and worksheet, then they colored finger puppets (which were so cute I took one of the extras!)

Tomorrow I'm subbing all day (!) in a first grade at another school. Not bilingual, that's one less things to worry about (for both me and the students!)

From Sleep to Ready in 10 Minutes!

So I was being pretty lazy and kinda dumb this morning by not getting out of bed because I hadn't gotten called yet. Actually, I did get called at 5:30 for a job a didn't want - which I turned down - and then I was just dozing in bed. Then, my phone rings at 8 for a job that starts at 8:15! It's at one of my favorite schools though, in a classroom I've been to before and liked, and thankfully, the school is close. So I take it, and then have to leap out of bed, get dressed, tame my hair, brush my teeth, collect my stuff and assemble my lunch and get out the door. I managed all this in 10 minutes. I was impressed with myself.

Anyways, the day went well! I even have a couple funny stories!

One boy asked me this morning if I knew that his sister was his half sister. I told him that no, I did not. He then added, "She wasn't supposed to be my half-sister. But she has a different dad than me." Ummm...too much info!

At another time, after reading a book called Dogzilla, in which the end of the story involves puppies, one boy questioned how there could be puppies since there was no girl dog. I told him that Dogzilla was the girl dog. Then another boys added, "Yeah, ya know, 'cuz if you don't get your dog fixed then it'll have puppies." To which the rest of the class nodded in confirmation. Bet you didn't know those puppies will just appear if you don't fix your dog! :)

The rest of the day was pretty typical - although the afternoon was a bit crazy. We went to watch the Battle of the Books finale, and then the class had PE and music. After that we were supposed to come back to the room and get ready to go home. However, about 3 minutes before I sent them on their way someone from the office came to the room to tell me not to let the kids leave because they were going to bring a note soon that needed to go home today. We waited around for about 10 minutes after dismissal time for the notes to come, and then we didn't get enough. But I was finally told to let them go anyway. Thankfully, I actually like the kids, otherwise that would be torture (keeping then an unexpected extra 10 minutes!) :)

Feel My Muscles

Today I worked in an afternoon kindergarten class. The kids were fine. A few were not good listeners and a few had a bad case of the "...but I don't WANT to!" syndrome. As if that's going to change what we do!

One of the more challenging rascals of the beginning of the afternoon, decided for some reason after recess that he now loved me. I was sitting at a table working with some kids and he came up to me and put his arm around my shoulders. I casually shrugged him off and asked if he needed something. He said that he wanted to play the math game with me. I pointed to an open chair at the table and said he could come play. He then stalled by rolling up his sleeve and encouraging me to feel his muscle. I politely declined. He kept trying to convince me for a few minutes, but eventually gave up and sat down. :)

Appearance Analyzed

Got a call this morning to sub in one of my frequented kindergarten classrooms.

The day went pretty well despite having one of the IAs absent as well.

The kids remembered me, some even remembered my name. One even noticed that I cut my hair! Most of the rest of the day I heard many comments on my outfit (from adults too)! Let me summarize:

One teacher in the school has the same shirt as me.

My necklace matched my shirt very well.

My pants also matched my shirt.

My shoes looked like the IAs shoes, but mine were blue and hers were black.

My glasses were awesome.

Oh, and one girl thought that my hair had been white before. Uhhh...no. :)