I Almost Cried

Today was a really good day. I guess it could have been better if the principal had come down and said, "Hey, I wanna hire you. Come fill out some paperwork?" But the kids were fun again and the day was pretty enjoyable. I read a goofy picture book to them which they liked and we played Mad Libs and generally had a good time. Oh, and we also had a fire drill! We got advance notice from the principal but probably would have been fine without it - the kids were really super helpful. :)

Once again we shared writing towards the end of the day. I asked them if they even wanted me to draw pictures again, to which they responded (quite loudly) that they did. So I drew ridiculous pictures and they begged to see them and then we laughed. After a few kids had gone I called on two girls to come up and share and they started reading their composition....called "Miss Barnes" (You can read it in the picture to the right. Click on it to make it bigger). I seriously almost cried! So when they finished I basically said, "You guys! That's so sweet. I seriously want to photocopy those and hang them on my wall." They then graciously told me they'd leave them out on their desks to I could! So I did. :) And I also wrote them each a little sticky note saying thanks for the sweet comments and put them inside their notebooks.

I kinda also want to submit these in my job applications. Haha ya think??

Draw Me A Picture

It's getting late so I'm going to try to make this quick!

Today I subbed in a different 4th grade. The class was really nice, and fun and well-behaved. They are seriously like the ideal sub job. If someone subbed for them on their first day subbing they get the totally wrong idea about the difficultly level of this job! I however, know how hard it can be so I really savor days like this.

The activities of the day were pretty typical but I tried to be laid back and make it easy and fun for them. I even talked to them for a while about how I wanted it to be fun when they have a substitute, but that also means that they need to be respectful to me and not take advantage of that. Honestly, they were pretty good about it.

Near the end of the day we took an extended period of time for some of the kids to share their writing with the class. I had a notepad and pen in my hand and I just started doodling pictures of the students' writing as they read it. Some kid asked me what I was doing so I showed them the drawing. They all thought this was hilarious, and so I ended up drawing a picture for every kid that shared their writing. They've all got them shoved in their writing notebooks and bookmarks! Ha! Tomorrow I've promised to let the rest share. Wonder what their teacher will think when she returns and keeps seeing odd little drawings in every one's notebooks? :)

Can You Count To 100?

Getting up and going back to work this morning after a nice Spring break was hard!

I had to get going early too as I was subbing a school with one of the earliest start times in the district. I arrived early and made my way out to the portable. The kids arrived shortly after me and we had some confusion with the cafeteria lady trying to find the breakfast cards when they delivered the breakfast foods. (I eventually found them a couple hours later when I wasn't even looking - figures.) The kids and I lined up right away and headed to the gym for their morning "Team Time". Basically, a teacher leads a couple dances with the kids (we only did 2 this morning and they we're my favorite - I was bummed because I was looking forward to that part of the day - last year when I subbed here we did some funny moves to Hannah Montana songs and such.) then they do announcements and birthdays.

After Team Time we went back to the room to correct their math homework. This is when they decided to test me by talking a bunch and not paying very good attention. I won though and by the end of math time they were cooperating. They also learned that I could speak a little Spanish and wanted me to count to 100. I did 1-20 and then counted by 10s the rest of the way. They were amazed at my knowledge. Ha!

The rest of the day consisted of writing (I supervised them working), PE (I had to keep a few boys in to work on division by the teacher's request. I ended up letting them go to PE after 15 minutes because they could see the class outside and were desperate to join them.), and reading groups (I meet with 3 while the rest of the class work independently - for the most part pretty quietly! - Told you I won.)

The teacher came back right before lunch and got quite the gathering of students around her desk. I wasn't quite sure what she wanted me to do then. It's always a little awkward when a teacher comes back and doesn't really indicate if he's/she's taking over or not. Although really, he/she should because once he/she enters the room I have no more authority in the eyes of the students - I don't care how good they were before. But it was ok. She eventually had them clean up and took them to lunch at which point I got my stuff and left. Pretty good day. I wouldn't mind going back again.

Shhhh...It's A Secret

Spring Break is rapidly approaching, but thankfully, I managed to snag a half-day before time's up. (Wednesday is the last day for students)

It was absolutely POURING rain when I arrived at school which made it really difficult to find a place to park! The parking lot was pretty much flooded with 2 to 3 inches of water and I wasn't exactly wearing rubber shoes. Somehow I managed to tip-toe around and not get terribly wet.

The class I was subbing for was a second grade, and they were pretty good. We basically did reading and writing all afternoon - most of it self-directed by the students so I was just supervising. Annoyingly, there was some IA in the back of the room for the time I was giving a short lesson and she felt the need to interrupt me to threaten the kids that she'd tell their teacher they were being "rude. Do you know what that means?!" It was oddly passive aggressive and, I felt, completely unnecessary. I had just asked the students to share an idea with a partner, and was just starting to get their attention back. They weren't all paying attention after my first signal, so I was about to do it again when she jumped it. I'm sorry, I know she's trying to help, but it's so frustrating! I didn't need help! Sure, they weren't all paying attention right away, but I can handle that. I will get their attention before I move on. If I have to, I will use my scary voice and threaten to tell their teacher MYSELF. Just because I sound nice and I'm not yelling at the kids doesn't mean I don't have control of the class. Frustrating.

Anyways, other than that the day was fun. The kids were funny and sweet. I had a couple girls tell me that I looked "pretty" and another girl inform me I was her best friend. It happened after school when I was supervising bus lines. One of the girls from my class ran up to me and whispered "You're my best friend!" I didn't quite hear her, so I asked, "Who's your best friend?" and she said, "You are! Shhhhh....don't tell anyone. It's a secret!" and scampered back off to her place in line. I guess I make quite an impression - even in only 3 hours!

Waxy Wonders

Today was a crazy, busy, read-a-book, run-around, make a chart, calm-them-down kind of day.

I'm back with the first graders who I believe I've spent the most time with this year. They started off the morning not at their best. Super chatty, can't sit still, not always listening, ugh. After a while of this I resorted to bribery. I told them I was going to keep a record of who was following directions and listening all day by making a star by their name on list I made. Whoever had the most stars at the end of the day would get a treat (a.k.a. candy). This seemed to help. Most got better because they wanted to have the most stars! More on this later...

Today was also unique because we went to the "Wax Museum"! The fifth graders have been working on biography projects for a while. They've made time lines, Time magazines, I think reports, etc. Today they dressed up as their person and sat at their desks in the room while other classrooms came down to see them. Each kid had a "button" on their desk that the visitors could push and the students would give a speech or a few facts about themselves. We went down to one class in the morning and the other class in the afternoon. The first-graders loved going around and seeing all the "statutes". It was really fun! The fifth graders had obviously worked really hard and you could tell they were proud it! Also saw a lot of visitors in the building today making their way down to the museum with their bright yellow/green visitor stickers from the office. This is something their fifth graders do every year, but the first year I've gotten to see it - very fun stuff.

Anyway, after all the events of the day, it was time to go home and I had 6 students on my list who had 5 or more stars by their name. I announced their names and let them pick a candy. Well, lo and behold the very child who had the least amount of stars (none) was absolutely shocked to not be getting a candy! The kid looked at me with such a look of shock, I just couldn't believe it. Really? Really?! You honestly think you did a better job than most of the class? I do not know what world this kid was in but wasn't the same one as me!

Dewey Decimal System

Today was different for me than usual because I was subbing in the library!

I started the morning by re-shelving books for a couple hours. There were dozens and dozens of non-fictions items that needed shelving and let me tell you, that will boggle your mind after an hour! Of course, all non-fiction books have a number from the Dewey decimal system. Some are whole numbers, some have tenths or hundredth places. First I sorted the books on the cart by number, then I rolled it around the library and found the correct place on the shelf for that book. Sometimes I also found books on the shelf that were in the wrong place and I had to move those too. Looking at all those numbers makes you start to go cross-eyed!

Other library jobs that I did today include checking in books, checking out books, and pulling the books on the shelves forward so you can read the numbers and titles easier.

Then of course we had a couple classes come. First was a fourth grade (which I'll be subbing for on the 31st). They were super fantastic! They worked on a typing game on the computers for most of their time and I barely had to supervise them. Later we had a kindergarten class who I read and book to before they got to check out. They were very cute and fun. Lastly, there was a second grade class who did the same typing game as the fourth graders. They, however, did need my supervision.

Oh, and I also played with Legos. I took the library IAs recess duty so she could supervise Battle of the Books since she knew more about how it worked. It ended up raining during recess so they second-graders I was supervising had recess in their room. About half the kids gathered around the computers and the other half played with the Legos. I joined the latter and made a house.

All in all a pretty easy (and quiet!) day. Tomorrow should be quite different as I'm back to my challenging little 1st grade bunch. :)

Have Some More Sugar!

This afternoon was a little more hectic than yesterday, although not all bad.

When I arrived, we started on a math activity which involved the kids holding a card with a shape on in and finding someone who had the same color as them, and then holding up their card when I asked for shapes with 3 sides, 4 corners, right angles, etc. This got them a little wired before we moved onto a craft project.

They were making paper lion heads. This went OK until some started finishing and running wild. Even after I'd given the direction to put their project in their backpacks and read a book at their desk some were still horsing around on the carpet. This lead me to having a long talk with them about following directions and then another long talk on expected behavior during the presentation we were about to go see.

Thankfully, they did awesome during the "Tree Man" presentation - basically this guy who talked to them about trees: how the grow, different kinds, what we get from trees, etc. Also, during this time, the most challenging student got called out by the office to go home with mom. It is amazing how much the dynamic of the classroom changed minus this student!

After this they went to PE and I hung up a bunch of artwork in the hallway for the teacher. Also, one of the student's parents arrived with cupcakes for the class! This made for quite a crazy end of the day.

The kids get back from PE five minutes before the end of the day. In this time, I passed out cupcakes, popcorn and candy some of the kids ordered for "popcorn Friday", as well as a piece of candy to all of them because I promised it to them after the great time in the presentation (this was before I knew cupcakes were coming!).

So basically I sugared them up and sent them home. You're welcome parents! :)

Fist Bump!

I'm finally back to working today after the beginning of my week being spent in sickness! My job today was a first grade for the afternoon. I've subbed for this class a lot, so I remembered most of their names and I know who to keep my eye on.

There are actually a lot I need to keep my eye on! I don't have enough eyes!

Thankfully, there were actually pretty good today. Only used the angry voice 2 or 3 times which is GOOD for a couple of these kiddos.

Day was pretty simple. We shared vocabulary words (some project they'd been working on), did math worksheets, had inside recess and snack, read a Time for Kids mini-magazine and then I walked them to music and PE.

During the math time I was helping this one boy with his worksheet. He was getting really frustrated because he didn't understand these few problems at the end. I sat down with him and explained it to him. He's pretty quick and figured it out fast and finished them up himself. When he was done I said, "All right!" as I was taking his paper from him I held up my fist for some reason, then about to open my hand to give him a high five, but he just looked at me with his fist out. So I recovered quickly and he bumped his fist into mine and then we both "exploded" our fingers at the same time. He smiled impishly at the fact that I knew the proper way to do the fist bump and went merrily onto his next activity.

Going back tomorrow afternoon to the same class. Lets see how many other fist bumps I can give out....