Too Many Grown-Ups

This morning I got another late call for the same job I did on Friday - Even Start preschool for kids 3 and under. It was much the same as Friday except that it was really nice out so we took a walk around the (very picturesque) neighborhood. It was an okay day except sometimes I didn't know what to do! Basically my instructions were to play with the kids. Sometimes the IAs would decide to start some project but didn't usually tell me what they were doing so I wasn't sure if they wanted me to help or just keep playing.

Also, there were 7 adults in the room today! (Normally there are 4. I don't know who the other 3 people were- no one ever told me. But they knew the kids so I guess they must come fairly frequently.) Shortly after I got there the director came in and saw me walking around the room observing the kids. He then went into this long description of how to get down and play with them ....guess he didn't notice that there were no kids that weren't already playing with an adult in a too crowded area.

Anyway, it was an okay day but I'm hoping for bigger kids tomorrow and less adults so I actually feel useful!

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.

A Late One!

At around 9:15 this morning, just as I was thinking I wouldn't work today, and was getting ready to go run some errands, my phone started ringing. It took me three tries to type in my ID number and PIN (don't really know what the problem was there!) Anyways, it was a job at one of the few schools I haven't been to, in a preschool class. And the start time was 9!

I dashed out of here with my directions in hand and once again feeling a bit frantic. I don't love late calls. Anyways, I arrive to the room to find 4 other adults there. I thought one was the teacher who I was taking over for, but apparently she wasn't. The teacher I guess was never there. One of the other adults kept asking me all day if I wanted to this or that or if I wanted her to do it. I kept trying to tell her I didn't care and she could do it if she wanted, but she still kept asking. The kids were cute, but really hyper. Much of the day felt like corralling wild animals. It reminded me of that episode of the Amazing Race when the contestants had to heard ducks up a ramp. Yeah, it was like that.

Feeling Discouraged

The new sub system is convenient I guess, but it kind of a pain. You have to be REALLY quick with the clicker or somebody beats you to it. It's frustrating! I'm hoping it will turn out to be a nice change, but right now I'm not loving it so much. It makes me feel like I'm just a number.

Anyways, I feel like blogging, but it looks like there will be no new story for today. So here's another short old one from last year:

I was subbing in a Head Start preschool and I had brought my book (the one my aunt wrote and I illustrated - from here on known as "the Kailey book"). I read the book to the class and they really liked it and were very impressed with my drawing - I've been told I'm a "good draw-er". Anyways, the class and I went out for recess and one of the little girls ran up to me and told me that when she "growed up" she was going to be a teacher too and she was going to write a book and read it to her class too! It was cute.

Hey! Here's a little plus - I do have a job for tomorrow now! I've conquered the clicker!

Little Penguins

Today I was subbing in the afternoon at a Head Start at a school really close to my apartment. I've done quite a few Head Start classrooms last year, but not this particular one. I get there, meet the assistant and help get ready for lunch.

The kids arrive at 12:30. There are 20 of them - 6 girls and 14 boys! Just get that imagine in your head - 20 little 3-foot-high four-year olds all trying to get into a straight line to walk from bus to classroom.... which was a pretty long distance!

I do not have any entertaining stories for the blog today except to say that I am VERY tired! Even just 3 hours with these little guys and they had me wiped! Ever been to the zoo and watched the penguin habitat? You know how they kinda run around in circles and jump in the water and jump back up and run into each other always in constant movement? Yeah, that gives you a pretty good picture of what my day was like.

Now here's a interesting piece of news! Salem-Keizer has officially joined the 21st century! The electronic calling system is finally online! I got my first call from the machine just about 15 minutes ago. So I've got a job for the afternoon tomorrow over in west Salem in a 2nd grade. So stay tuned for that episode tomorrow!

Se Habla Espanol?

ummmm...yeah...that pretty much sums up my day.

End of blog.

haha just kidding! We all know I would not be able to stop talking that soon!

Well, here's the annoying part of my day: I got called at 8:30 this morning to go to a "pre-primary" class at a school in Keizer. By this time in the morning it usually takes around 30 minutes to get to Keizer from my house...and this job had already started! So I was kinda ticked. One, because it seems that I've been getting a lot of late calls lately, and two, because not only was this late, but with the exception of about 2 or 3 schools, this one is about as far from my house as any in the district! Oh, and just before I hung up the phone the person on the other end said, "oh, and it might be bilingual". So I was like, "oooookay?" And she said she wanted to make sure I was okay with that but that she didn't have any more bilingual subs. I told her that I'm not bilingual but I've subbing in bilingual before so I didn't care.

Well...she was right - it was bilingual, well, actually I would just call it all Spanish. In fact, it was the migrant education program. Took me a while to figure out where I was supposed to sign in...I wasn't on the main school's sub sheet, I had to sign in at the migrant program...and their sign in sheet was different, so I'm going to have check my October paycheck closely to make sure it gets on there.

I felt kinda bad for the lady I met when I came into their office. Right away she asked me if I spoke Spanish! "Uhh...no." Look of "oh drat" on her face. She took me to the room, introduced me to one of the assistants and showed me the lesson plans (in Spanish by the way). And I just stood there thinking...well, this is going to be interesting!

The day's schedule was actually similar to Head Start and Even Start in ways. Both of which I'd done before, so that was a little plus in my favor. The other plus for me (which the aides learned throughout the day) was that I did understand most of the Spanish they were speaking even though I couldn't respond with anything coherent.

Little sideline: Head Start is a program in place in many of the Salem-Keizer schools that offers half-day preschool to children of low-income families. During the Head-Start program students receive 2 meals at school, dental and health screenings, and a "head start" on academic subjects. Students learn letters, numbers, shapes, colors and generally how to interact with their peers and adults in a school setting. Even Start is a program that consists of a pre-school for children aged 6 months through 4 years as well as classes for their parents. The child program is similar to Head Start although geared toward younger ages (many children who "graduate" from Even Start move on to Head Start for a year or 2 before Kindergarten). While the kids are in their school the parents have classes in the building to work on English, GED programs, and various other things they want to work on.

The Migrant program was for children at the age of 4 or 5 and was structured pretty much identically to Head Start. But this program also offered parent classes and work time similar to what the Even Start program did.

So while I maybe wan't that useful today, I did learn some stuff!

There were 2 half-day classes that we had today. Both had 11 students present. The kids were really cute and sweet. I did a lot of pointing and miming to communicate with them, but they were troupers and didn't seem too flustered by having me there. The aide did all of the teaching since it needed to be in Spanish, so I became the aide. I helped kids do projects and I sat with them while they were eating and such.

The break between classes was busy as well. I had to call payroll and then the sub coordinator to get a mistake on my paycheck sorted out. Then I had lunch, and then I had to fill in the lesson plan for tomorrow (not sure why they wanted me to do this - they planned it all, but wanted me to write it in...maybe they weren't comfortable with their English writing skills??), and then I laminated some folders and some other random stuff that I can't remember. At the end of the day they had me filing papers, and cleaning up the little house, and folding paper and on and on and on until it was time to leave. And I didn't really mind doing it, but I was sure tired when the day was over! As of now I'm not going back tomorrow, but I suppose they could call me again. While it's not my favorite thing to feel kinda useless, it wasn't difficult, so I wouldn't be upset to go back.

Oh! And during the day I keep seeing mirrors everywhere I turned. So I decided to count them at the end of the day...and there were 35 mirrors in the room! 35!! It was a big room (actually 2 rooms with the divider pulled open) but still - that's a lot of mirrors! Makes you really conscious of what you're wearing. My pants were too long and my shoes too short.