*Ding* Miss Barnes?

That is the sound I heard over and over today! (The *ding* being the sound of the intercom buzzing into the room, and the "Miss Barnes?" being the secretary or office manager asking for me.) I think they called my room at least 10 times! After a while a started to feel like I was being Punk'd or was on Candid Camera or something! Seriously, for a while it happened like every five minutes. Funny.

Less drama today, just lots of bouncy kids who have spring fever and are eager for their field trip tomorrow. It wasn't too terrible. A couple in the morning really frustrated me with their complete inability to work independently, but otherwise it was fine.

I ran into "my" kinders when dropping off this class in the library. They were all surprised and excited to see me. I got lots of hugs. So cute! I really miss them. Anyways, but I also got many, many exclamations of, "Miss Barnes! You cut your hair!" or, "Miss Barnes, you dyed your hair!"or, "Why's your hair a different color?" Apparently a few blond streaks, for a kindergartener constitute a complete change of hair color. :)

Second Grade Drama

Back to work today at one of my most-enjoyed schools. This is a class I've subbed for before, so that's always nice. Although technically it's two classes since the second grade teachers swap students half way through the day and teach the same subjects twice. Which means I have twice as many students to remember and I have a terrible time remembering everybody's names!

The day was not very eventful except for some second-grade girl drama. Basically one said something that upset the other and they spent all day fretting about it. "Can we go in the hall to talk about it Miss Barnes?" But Miss Barnes is not very nice and told them no every time. I did suggest they talk it out at recess. But, shockingly (!) they didn't. However they were very eager to do so about 5 minutes after returning from recess! Sheesh.

Ewww...

Had an interesting day today.

First grade. Kids were talkative, but nothing too terrible. I managed to keep them in check and we got through all the lesson plans.

Interesting part of the day was in the morning when I had an IA in addition to the student teacher. Apparently a boy in the class came to the IA and said he needed to go *number 2* really bad. She let him, but when he came back, he had a worried look on his face. The IA was concerned he didn't make it in time. Upon going to investigate, she discovered that not only did he not make it, but he was stricken with a bad case of the trots. In order to make this a least-disgusting as possible let me just say that the janitor was involved. The poor kid went home.

Lovely way to kick off the weekend huh?

Finally!

Well, after a week of nothingness and frustration at the lack of calls I am finally back to work today.

I worked the afternoon for a bilingual 1st grade. They did pretty well, although were a little busy. Lots of them kept getting out of their seats over and over. I'm not sure if this is normal, or they were just trying to get away with stuff, but it was a little irritating.

But it was a pretty simple half day for me. I read a story, guided the math lesson and worksheet, then they colored finger puppets (which were so cute I took one of the extras!)

Tomorrow I'm subbing all day (!) in a first grade at another school. Not bilingual, that's one less things to worry about (for both me and the students!)

From Sleep to Ready in 10 Minutes!

So I was being pretty lazy and kinda dumb this morning by not getting out of bed because I hadn't gotten called yet. Actually, I did get called at 5:30 for a job a didn't want - which I turned down - and then I was just dozing in bed. Then, my phone rings at 8 for a job that starts at 8:15! It's at one of my favorite schools though, in a classroom I've been to before and liked, and thankfully, the school is close. So I take it, and then have to leap out of bed, get dressed, tame my hair, brush my teeth, collect my stuff and assemble my lunch and get out the door. I managed all this in 10 minutes. I was impressed with myself.

Anyways, the day went well! I even have a couple funny stories!

One boy asked me this morning if I knew that his sister was his half sister. I told him that no, I did not. He then added, "She wasn't supposed to be my half-sister. But she has a different dad than me." Ummm...too much info!

At another time, after reading a book called Dogzilla, in which the end of the story involves puppies, one boy questioned how there could be puppies since there was no girl dog. I told him that Dogzilla was the girl dog. Then another boys added, "Yeah, ya know, 'cuz if you don't get your dog fixed then it'll have puppies." To which the rest of the class nodded in confirmation. Bet you didn't know those puppies will just appear if you don't fix your dog! :)

The rest of the day was pretty typical - although the afternoon was a bit crazy. We went to watch the Battle of the Books finale, and then the class had PE and music. After that we were supposed to come back to the room and get ready to go home. However, about 3 minutes before I sent them on their way someone from the office came to the room to tell me not to let the kids leave because they were going to bring a note soon that needed to go home today. We waited around for about 10 minutes after dismissal time for the notes to come, and then we didn't get enough. But I was finally told to let them go anyway. Thankfully, I actually like the kids, otherwise that would be torture (keeping then an unexpected extra 10 minutes!) :)

Feel My Muscles

Today I worked in an afternoon kindergarten class. The kids were fine. A few were not good listeners and a few had a bad case of the "...but I don't WANT to!" syndrome. As if that's going to change what we do!

One of the more challenging rascals of the beginning of the afternoon, decided for some reason after recess that he now loved me. I was sitting at a table working with some kids and he came up to me and put his arm around my shoulders. I casually shrugged him off and asked if he needed something. He said that he wanted to play the math game with me. I pointed to an open chair at the table and said he could come play. He then stalled by rolling up his sleeve and encouraging me to feel his muscle. I politely declined. He kept trying to convince me for a few minutes, but eventually gave up and sat down. :)

Appearance Analyzed

Got a call this morning to sub in one of my frequented kindergarten classrooms.

The day went pretty well despite having one of the IAs absent as well.

The kids remembered me, some even remembered my name. One even noticed that I cut my hair! Most of the rest of the day I heard many comments on my outfit (from adults too)! Let me summarize:

One teacher in the school has the same shirt as me.

My necklace matched my shirt very well.

My pants also matched my shirt.

My shoes looked like the IAs shoes, but mine were blue and hers were black.

My glasses were awesome.

Oh, and one girl thought that my hair had been white before. Uhhh...no. :)