More Cable Confusion

Today I got to sub in music for the day (in a different school than the last times I subbed in music). I arrived in the morning in the middle of the orchestra practice (a different teacher leads this) and had to weave my way around violins and cellos to get to the teacher's desk - where I found absolutely no lesson plans. I dug around for a while but couldn't find anything. I went up to the office to check her box, but still came up with nothing. After awhile, the orchestra kids left and school started. I didn't have any classes for the first hour, so I started poking around and finally found the plans a materials! They were on a music stand in the front of the room, behind the piano. I imagine they may have been in more plain view before the string section filled up the room.

I ended up starting the day with 2 fourth grade classes. The first was pretty chatty, and a bit of a challenge to get them focused. The second class was the one I subbed for last week and I love them. Seriously, I would volunteer to chaperone any event these kids were doing. They are some of my favorites. :) I played melody bingo with these classes, which they mostly enjoyed.

Later in the day I had 3 second grade and 3 first grade classes. In the second grade classes we read a book, and played a game called "Music Match" which was basically like Memory. In the first grade classes we watched a video. (After I spent a good 10 minutes getting the sound and the video to work at the same time! I tell ya, the electronic devices and I are not seeing eye-to-eye lately!) The video was kind of old, but the kids liked it. Basically a classroom of kids goes on a round-the-world trip with a guy dressed in a globe costume. In each country they visit they learn a song from that place.

The second graders were mostly ok - biggest problem there was outbursts. Lots of blurting out of how they do this, that or the other thing. All the first grade classes had a least one instigator that was blurting things out, rolling around in their seat, or generally just being a nuisance. One kid thought he was very funny by raising his hand and asking the same question twice (and then raising it again I assume to ask another time. By this point I told him, "Sorry, I'm not going to answer your questions anymore because I don't believe you are going to be serious. Too bad.") Another is basically just acting as if she's got a rampant case of the terrible twos - throwing hissy fits if someone looks at her wrong, yelling out things whenever the mood strikes, whining and stomping her feet if she doesn't get her way. Fun time. That class didn't get to finish the movie because of all the interruptions.

And ack! I think I'm going to sub for their class later this week. I'm currently brainstorming some management ideas that I can implement for one day....