Kid Pix and More Boxes

Well, I'm slow to write this (it's actually Sunday). But I have excuses!

You see, I had my week all planned out.

I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get called to sub since it's the last full week of school and I usually don't. So I was going to do some errands and some projects and some homework and keep busy and such. Thursday was going to be a particularly busy day (more on that in my next post).

But then I DID get called to work!

I'm as surprised as you!

So I went to the school I really like and subbed in the library. I had a grand total of 3 classes for 30 minutes each, and they each got free time in the computer lab. During the rest of the day I went around to various teachers' classroom and did odd jobs for them. In one room I re-filed a bunch of stuff. In another room I clean out toy boxes and sorted out the toys. In another room I packed boxes of books. (haha sound familiar?!)

I had lunch with the first grade teachers and it was very interesting. The school was having a BBQ for lunch today and lots of parents were coming to it too. Well, apparently they have a service elevator from the cafeteria to the outside level (I didn't know this until today!), and the elevator got stuck with all the hamburgers and hot dogs in it! It was a mess! The 1st grade lunch got delayed by 30-45 minutes as they waited for the elevator repair person to arrive and/or tried to get the food out on their own. The next 2 lunch times got delayed as well. It was pretty chaotic for a while there and I just tried to stay out of everyone's way. That was probably the only time of the day I didn't have something to do because I didn't want to bug anyone by asking if they had any jobs for me. Eventually it all got fixed, the teachers and students got back to their rooms and I found some more work for myself.

Books and Boxes and Me

Today was probably the oddest day of subbing I've had for a while!

Technically I was subbing for the LRC teacher, but apparently they'd finished meeting with their groups yesterday, so there were no groups for me to work with. Instead, I was was supposed to go to the library and help box up books. (They have to box up the entire library because the school is one of the ones getting remodeled this summer due to the bond that passed a year or so ago.)

At the same time they were also having a book giveaway in the library today. I eventually learned the books were purchased by the parents' club and one of the teachers was kind of in charge of it, but obviously, she couldn't be in there to run it all day since she was with her class. So I sort of ran that too. I helped kids pick books, and straightened out the books on the tables after ever class left and replenished the supply from the extra boxes under the tables. Every class came in for 15 minutes except the 3rd graders because they were on a field trip.

When I wasn't occupied with that I was packing, packing, packing! I was supposed to meet with two kids in the LRC right after my lunch, but the first one was busy in his class and the second was absent. So I went back to my boxes. By the end of the day I had packed 40 1/2 boxes (they were a little bigger than the box for a ream of paper). Then I had to move them over the the corner of the room and stack them up. It was quite an impressive collection.

I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

Appreciate Me!

It's that day again - Substitute Appreciation Day (where subs get recognized as much as any day (not a lot) and really almost forgotten because it's Teacher Appreciation WEEK and well, people remember that.) Haha, I sound bitter - really I'm not - it's just that the whole practice seems a little ridiculous to me. Hardly anyone in the district remembers it's Sub Appreciation Day anyway (one person remarked on it to me today) and they're the people that already make you feel appreciated everyday you come in anyway.

Today I spend my hours in the library - something I'll likely not be doing next year as the district is cutting all library positions except for high school. I checked-in bunches of books, then shelved them, then straightened shelf after shelf after shelf.

I also supervised one class while they worked on computers, read another class a story, and showed a third class a video on DVD and an interactive video/activity online. And then I helped them all find books they wanted to check out. I love the library, but my eyes were bugging out of my head a little after all the Dewey-decimal reading!

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. :)

Library

Today was pretty simple. Even slow at times! I was subbing for the afternoon in the library and for the most part I had very little to do. I started my afternoon by re-shelving books. Then I perused the book fair while I waited for the next class to arrive. When they came we watched a short video about the book fair, then played with an online site that lets you "carve" a pumpkin and experimented with MS Paint. The class then got to check out books before their teacher picked them up.

Shortly after this the teacher I'm subbing for tomorrow came by and took me down to her room to look at the plans for tomorrow (lots of apple activities are in store!) When I came back to the library a 4th grade class was in the computer lab with their teacher doing some reading test. They pretty much didn't need me.

At the end of the school day I spent about 45 minutes supervising the book fair. Parent helpers run the check out and such, so I was just wandering around seeing if any kids needed help finding things. I even convinced myself to buy a book (I know, this is not a terribly hard thing to do!) The parents running it even gave me the 20% off that teachers get! They were both super nice - they knew I was a sub, so they really didn't have to give me the discount, but I thought it was nice they did. So nice that I ended up buying two books instead!

Rhonda: I thought of your boys a lot today because there were a bunch of Star Wars books at the book fair! :)

It's Not My Fault!

Really it wasn't.

This afternoon I was sitting in my recliner reading a book, since I had nothing better to do and no place to sub. And then, surprisingly, my phone rings. It's nearly 1:30, so I'm not sure who it is but it can't be the sub office.

But it is.

It's a call for a sub job teaching 4th grade at one of the furthest schools from my house.

Start time?

Noon.

Yeah.

So I'm thinking, "That's weird. Wonder what's going on up there?" while I scramble around getting dressed, brushing my teeth, grabbing my stuff and running out the door. I drive the half-hour to the school and dash into the office. Pretty much as soon as I walk in the door I realize something is not right. Usually when you get one of these abnormal, really late calls, the office is waiting for you to arrive and there's a spark of recognition in their eyes when you walk in the door. This did not happen. In fact, they seemed very curious who I was and why I was there. I explained that I was there to sub and that I'd gotten a late call about a half-hour ago. Then they seemed really puzzled. This set off a series of events: one of the office people called the teacher, the other checked the sub site to make sure I read the date right I guess (I had). Turns out the teacher wanted the sub for Friday and put the date in wrong. However, now that I was there because of their mistake I now have a choice (this is district policy): I can leave and not get paid, or I can stay and do whatever they want me to and get paid for a half-day. They can't tell me to leave, it has to be my decision. Well, obviously, I wanted to get paid. (I did make the 30 minute drive up there! I didn't want it to be for nothing.) However, I got the feeling they were wishing I'd choose to leave so my sub pay wouldn't come out of their school's fund. I didn't want to leave though, I wanted to get paid, so it was a little awkward.

Eventually they sent me to the library to help out there.

The library people liked me.

I shelved books and covered new books with contact paper for a couple hours. They were very happy to have me and kept saying over and over how it was so great I was there, and "thank you so much". So at least someone was happy to have me around! :)