I Chase Children

This morning I got called by a real life person at the sub office! It was kind of late in the morning (around 9) when they called, asking if I would go sub at Even Start for the morning. I said yes (much to the relief of the lady who called me) and dashed over. I've subbed in this program before, but it's been a couple years. Surprisingly, the director(?) and the IAs both said they thought I looked familiar when I came in.

Basically, Even Start is for kids age birth to 3. The kids are with us while their parents are next door having some sort of classes.

So I played with tiny kids today and got paid. When at recess, a few of the boys decided it would be fun if a chased them. They don't speak much English, but they were all yelling, "Get me teacher! Get me!" So I "chased" them around, by which I mean I walked really slowly after them, as they are tiny and therefore have tiny legs. But you'd think I was running full speed at their squeals and giggles. Then they'd hide under the play structure and I'd creep up slowly and poke my head under and say "boo" and they'll all run out laughing and squeaking. This went on for a very long time! :)

Anyway, it was a pretty simple day, and pretty much all I did was play with the kids, keep them from dumping their lunch trays on the floor and sweep up after they were gone. I wouldn't want to do it everyday, but it was fun for today.

Los Pinguinos Comen Mucho!

Today was back to work and also back to land of Spanish - a school and classroom I haven't visited for quite a while!

The class is bilingual, but despite my notably lacking Spanish skills, they did a really great job. They even helped me remember some of my Spanish! I also had an IA for the morning and a student teacher for the day. Both of them spoke Spanish, so that helped too - especially for the morning activities which needed to be done in Spanish.

Does it seem like I'm saying Spanish a lot? Kinda does to me....

Anyways, it was an eventful day, and there are stories, but none are really good for the blog, so you'll have to do without for today!

Copy, Repeat, Copy, Repeat

The copy machine and I are pals. We hung out today for like an hour.

I think I must have copied nearly 300 pages of stuff. You know, when you doing that many pages you kind of get into this meditative trance. I was joking with one of the IAs that it was so obsessive that I kind of enjoyed it! And the teacher who I was doing all the copying for was very grateful for my hour of service! :)

The rest of the day was spent in much the same way as yesterday. I had groups of 1 and 2 today. Read with some, played games with others, even let one group do Bookflix on the computer for a while. Pretty simple, and quite calm and pleasant. LRC is a fabulous sub job.

Just Monday

I tell ya, it sure is nice to know all weekend where you're going on Monday!

Today I was back in LRC - the same on I was in on Wednesday and Thursday morning last week. The schedule was pretty much the same, and I worked with groups of 1 to 3 kids at a time. Some were doing reading, others writing or math. Sometimes I guided them through an activity, and other times I just watched them and was there to help if they needed.

When I didn't have students to work with I was working on my own schoolwork or doing loads of photocopying for the reading specialist.

Tomorrow I'm back for more of the same!

Mouse, Motorcycle and Bingo

This afternoon I was in another first grade class. I read a really long picture book to them that their teacher left, then started reading a health handout before we went down the hall to the first grade class that I subbed for yesterday and watched a movie!

They were all watching The Mouse and the Motorcycle and it also happened to be my movie! Yesterday I was talking to the teacher I was subbing for before she left and saw they were reading the book, so I asked her if they were going to watch the movie too. She said she wanted to, but hadn't tracked down a copy yet. So I told her I had a copy and I could bring it to her tomorrow - little did I know she decided then to watch it tomorrow! Good thing I remembered - she sure trusted me a lot to come through!

Anyway, the kids loved the movie, which was no surprise. Then we went back to our room and played Bingo for about a half hour until they had to get ready for PE. Thankfully, the time went by pretty quickly, as a few of my charges were not at their most cooperative! However, the PE teacher proclaimed to me how wonderful they were for her - best they've been for a while she said - I guess I just used up their store of orneriness. :)

Fast Day

....and yet, also long. If that even makes sense. It just seemed like the activities from the morning took place so long ago when I got to the end of the day!

So I started this morning in the LRC again, doing pretty much the same as yesterday (although I did arrive at normal early time today). One of the absent kinds from yesterday was there today, and I had a nice time with him. I've known this kind for a couple years, and sometimes he has shut down in class or refused to do work, but I've found that since I've subbed in LRC where I work with him one-on-one, it's much calmer if I ever step into his classroom as the substitute. Anyway, I like the kid. Today we has very enthusiastic about some Playstation game he got called "Black Ops" or something like that - a game which he got up at 5:30 this morning to play. Sheesh.

After my morning in the LRC I moved upstairs to 1st grade. I picked them up from lunch to be greeted with exclamations of joy and "Miss Baaaaarnes!!!" Then about 5 of them had to give me a hug at once before we went up to the bathrooms. While we were up there, one girl complimented my outfit. Another admired my shoes (which are about the plainest silver flats ever). She told me that silver was her favorite and when she grew up she wanted to get shoes just like that so she'd be just like me. :)

The rest of the day they were ok. Had a couple chatty/giggly/out-of-seat/not-listening moments, but hey, they've been worse - and I view that as a victory! I read a book to them, they did a math worksheet, had media and PE, and then read a little Scholastic News about Martin Luther King and they went home - about 8 minutes after the bell, partially because I was slow to pass out Thursday folders and partially I don't know why! I guess they just didn't want to leave me!

Slow Day

Argh. I'd already written like half of this post and then the internet got all screwy and I lost the whole thing. So this will be brief as I don't want to type it all over.

Basically, I got called for a job last night with a weird start and end time. Called the school this morning and eventually figured out what time they wanted me there, and had to sort of dash off at the last minute.

After I arrived all excitement for the day was over! I was supposed to have four groups/sessions with students, but only ended up having 2 because the other two groups where just one kid each and they were both absent. I was also supposed to help out in a classroom for a portion of the day, but the teacher didn't need me. So I spent 1 hour with kids and the rest I didn't do anything. Tried to read my book, but it was so quiet and warm in that room that I just felt sleepy!

On the plus side, on my way down the hall in the morning, I got stopped by 2 teachers who wanted me for afternoons tomorrow and Friday. Then the LRC teacher wants me back tomorrow morning. So it will be a one-school week, and for that I am glad. :)

Math Quiz Game Show

This afternoon was a bit wild and crazy, but it was fun. Shortly after I arrived for my half-day, the kids were on their way to recess and lunch. The teacher was actually still hanging around too because she only needed to be gone for the last hour or so of the day. She explained to me that she was going to stick around until then, but be pulling kids up to the library to read with her, and I would stay in the room and play a math game with the rest of them. Had a chance to visit with her during the lunch time, which was nice - I don't see this teacher as much as some others in the school and it's always good to get to know them - more likely they'll want me back if they know me personally! :)

Anyway, so once the kids got back I read a few chapters of their book (Gregor the Overlander), and then we started the game. It was kind of like Jeopardy in layout - 5 categories to choose from, 4 point values each, the teams chose the category and point value they wanted and I read the question. That team then got a minute or so to answer, if they got it right they got the points, but if they got it wrong, the next team got a chance to answer. We played this for about an hour. During that time, one kid's dad brought in cupcakes for the kid's birthday. So after we finished the game we passed out cupcakes, and since by this point they were totally hyper and loud and difficult to corral, we got their stuff together and went out to recess for the last bit of the day until the bell rang.

It was a loud day, a rowdy day, but it was Friday and I was having fun being a game show host and I didn't care so much! :)

Yeah for a full week of jobs and postings!

A Little Bit Noisy

Got called late this morning for an afternoon job with some 5th graders. The day was mostly pretty ordinary, and they stuff I was doing with the kids wasn't that exiting.

I did some epic crown control while they worked on a thesaurus project. Then we discussed the project. Later, I went over practice problems for their OAKS math test. Then, I continued the crowd control while they had writing time. The kids were pretty nice, if a bit noisy. Noisy, I can deal with - in fact I pretty much always deal with it - but since they were nice kids, it's not as annoying. Not sure how much sense that makes, but it's true!

At the end of the day I took them outside, stood around watching kids go home for about 15 minutes, then went and sat around "Homework Club" for a half hour doing pretty much nothing. But I went because the teacher said I should go be an additional "adult presence" in the room. I'm pretty sure I didn't help at all, but oh well!

At first they indicated that they might ask me to come back tomorrow, but I checked with the office before I left and they said they hadn't heard from the teacher yet. So then I checked the sub site and I'd been requested for an afternoon tomorrow at my favorite school, so I took that because it was a sure thing.

HEAT!

My personal life is creeping into my blog. It cannot be avoided. You see, I was really tired today at school and in order to tell you why, I must include a story from home:

Last night I woke up at the icky icky time of 4:23 am (after not going to bed until nearly midnight because I was working on my Masters class stuff) to a strange sound in my room. I got up and stumbled around in the dark (with my eyes squinched shut) following the source of the sound. Turns out the little whirring and clicking noise was coming from the thermostat on my wall! I tried to turn it down but it wouldn't stop. I turned it all the way up and then down again, but still the noise wouldn't stop. Also, I could hear the baseboard heater still running despite the heat being turned "off". Well I managed to sort of go back to sleep for the next 2 hours by covering my ears with my blankets.

Anyways, so I was a bit tired today. I yawned a lot. Once I overheard a little girl tell her friend that she thought Miss Barnes looked tired. Oops!

Kids were good though. One boy had to stay in with me during recess (his mom didn't want him to go out due to illness) and he was very quiet when I called the maintenance people about my freaky heater. After I hung up he talked my ear off about Batman and cops and robbers.

Looks like their teacher is back tomorrow, so too bad for me. Maybe I'll get a job in another room...

Oh, and by the way when I got home my room was like 80 degrees and maintenance still hadn't come. So I called again and they said they'd send someone right over. Guy arrived like 5 minutes later and fixed it! He told me it was good timing because he was just about to go home when they called him to come over.

Which goes to show, if you deserve assistance and you don't get it - nagging always helps. :)

It's SNOWING!!!!!

Pretty much all other events of today left the children's minds when, at about 2:55 one looked out the window and gasped, "It's SNOWING!!" All eyes whipped to the window as their faces filled with joy at the....oh, about three snowflakes that fell to the ground. However, much like Tinkerbell who lives simply because the children believe, the snow continued to fall in slightly larger and larger dustings. By the time it was time to go home, it was falling at it's hardest (which really, just made the yards of the neighborhood look like they'd been given an artful shake of powdered sugar), but hey, these are Oregon kids, and three flakes of snow IS snow, and it shall not be ignored.

I am a teacher though, and while waiting with two of my kiddos for one of their big sisters to come meet them, I caught snowflakes on my glove and pointed out to the kids how you could see the 6-points of the snowflake (like we saw yesterday when we talked about snowflakes!) Ah, teaching moments. Ha!

Before that excitement the day was pretty average. I tested kids on sight words. We read more versions of the "There was an old lady" stories, and then made a chart of which was their favorite.

Then it snowed.

And really, that's the most important part anyway.

Although, I'm sorry to request this snow, but please don't stay because I'm going back to this class tomorrow and I can't have you messing that up. (Snow tells me it's not planning on it....we shall see!)

*This blog has been brought to you by a Vanessa who is tired and has spent all evening writing a 1,000 word paper. Hope you enjoy it's eccentric style.*

Go Ducks!

Today the kids were all excited about the Oregon Ducks playing in the BCS bowl game. There was quite an animated discussion this morning between two kids about who was a better team. One argued that Auburn was better, but the other countered with "Oregon is better tacklers!" It was funny to see little 5 year-olds get so worked up about it. Saw lots of yellow and green worn today.

Unfortunately, as I write this the Ducks have just lost. Should be some bummed out kiddos tomorrow.

Oh yes, I'm going back tomorrow too.

Anyways, this is a really backwards post. I've been a bit disjointed lately - apologizes.

This is like one of my favorite classrooms to sub for in all my 4.5 years. I really like the teacher and she leaves good plans and is flexible, but most of all I love love love the IA in this kindergarten class. Seriously, I would sub forever if I could work with people like her every day. That's how awesome she is.

And someday, if I ever get a teaching job, I am going to write her a "thank you, I'll miss you, did I ever tell you you're awesome?" note. Remind me.

Balloons

Today I have learned that balloons are a good motivator. Now, I'm not sure I want to start using them anytime soon (I can foresee lots of potential problems) but for today, they seemed to inspire good behavior. You see, the PE teacher was using balloons for some activity with the kids (1st grade) and since they were the last class of the day, she told me she was going to let them each take a balloon home. Fine with me, since I basically pick them up, walk them upstairs to their room and supervise them getting their stuff to go home about 3 minutes later. So when I go to pick them up, the PE teacher has them all lined up, and she's telling them how we're both going to watch their behavior in line, and if they aren't walking down the hall like they're supposed to then they won't get to keep their balloon. I've never seen them walk down the hallway so straight and calm and quiet! When we go to the classroom the PE teacher and I looked at each other and just laughed!

Anyway, earlier on the day was going pretty well anyway. One of the most challenging kiddos of this class was absent, and wow, does that make a difference! The whole room was much calmer. We read a book, drew pictures based on the book, wrote sentences, played a math game, played BINGO (which was the first time for some of the kids), and finished off with a Reading Rainbow movie.

One girl liked me so much, she wanted to give me her penny. I thanked her for the nice offer, but told her I thought she should keep it. This prompted a hug from her and the declaration that I am "the nicest teacher!"

Oh, and also - I learned about the music box trick from my previous blog (happened to be right next door to that teacher today). She told me she got it from another teacher and basically that if they have any music left Friday afternoon they get a treat - she said usually a Jolly Rancher or a sticker or something small like that.