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.