"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!