Titleless

Let's see...today was much like Friday.

We did reading, math, recess, lunch, more reading, science video, and PE.

The same kids were good. The same kids were whiny. The same kids were frustrating.

I remembered most of their names.

I didn't see the 5th graders though.

Honestly, I have nothing much to say about today, so I guess this blog is over! :)

Time Flies

Yes I did sub on Friday, and yes this blog didn't appear until Sunday even thought it's going to be dated as Friday.

Confuse you yet?

I went away for the weekend so didn't get a chance to write this til Sunday, but I like the entries to be dated as the day I actually worked, so I changed the date.

Anyways, on Friday, I subbed in a 1/2 blend that I taught earlier this year. The kids were good and the day went pretty smoothly, and quickly. The teacher wasn't expecting to be gone though, so she'd arranged with another teacher to watch his class during her hour prep at the end of the day. Thankfully, the 5th graders were going to be meeting with their "buddy room" (another 1/2 blend) to read and play outside. I didn't do much except sit outside in the sun and watch the kids play. I was amazed to see some of the 5th graders who had been in my 1st grade class when I student taught at the same school! I could hardly believe how old they'd gotten! About ten minutes before the bell was going to ring to go home I took my newly-acquired class of 5th graders inside to get ready to go home. Except they'd already packed up all their stuff! So we played Heads Up 7up and we were all happy. :)

Vanishing Accent

Afternoons are hard sub jobs.

Especially at the end of the year.

Not that this class was bad by any stretch of the imagination. A few were a little annoying, but mostly it was ok. However, I felt like I was floundering all afternoon. I didn't know any of their names (Well, actually I knew 2 names - one because I needed to know her name because she was always goofing around, and the other because she goes to my church), I wasn't familiar with the school or the procedures, and to top it off, they switched classes for math. You could put a line up of 5th graders in front of me and I bet I wouldn't be able to pick more than those 2 out of it that were in today's class. I guess I've forgotten how difficult it is to sub in a school that you aren't familiar with.

But yes, I don't like half-day afternoons. If I'm subbing for a half-day I'd much rather it be a morning job. At least then you get to start off the day with them, take attendance (gives you a slightly better chance of learning names), and be done before they're getting restless.

I hate feeling flustered.

Anyways.

One girl in this class puzzled me with her vanishing accent. When I was helping her with math, and conversing with her, she spoke in a British accent. However, when she read out loud her accent disappeared. A few kids told me she was "half-British." Interesting.

Lots of Changes

This is going to be short because I'm not much in the mood for blogging.

I subbed today at a school I visited frequently earlier in the year.

One of the teachers who I knew well was gone, and her place taken by a new (really young looking) male teacher. Figures the guys get the jobs the second they have a licence.

The staff room was a different color.

And the teachers took their classes on a different route out to recess. That really threw me off!

The kids were ok. Some moments were good, probably more moments were lacking. They were very chatty and not prone to listening.

Tomorrow is another day.

Have a Ball

Today I returned to a class I've subbed for earlier in the year. A few things had changed since my last visit:

1 - The kids don't seem to recognize me there are much as they used to. :( So weird to think that 2 years ago this was my most-frequented school and this year I've only been there 4 or 5 times. The staff seems to remember me, but I miss having all the kids be excited.

2 - The behavior of the class I was in today was much better than I remembered! There were 4 kids absent...I wonder if one of them was the culprit?

3 - The class I was in had lots of exercise balls in it. About half of the students were using those instead of chairs. I'm not sure if it helps with the fidgets or what, but they bothered me a little. I think because not everyone had one, the extra chairs were just stacked up around the room, and they were of varying sizes and colors. And yes, I realize how obsessive compulsive that is of me, but I think if they were all the smaller size, and were all one color and all the chairs were gone, replaced by the balls it would have pleased me more. I have problems, I realize.

Famous in Another School!

Just about the time this morning when I had given up on getting a call for the day, and bemoaning the fact that I'd only gotten one day in this week, my phone rings. The current time? 9:30. The start time for this job? 8:30. The time it takes to get there from my house? About 20 minutes. So I ran around getting dressed, throwing together a lunch and running out the door. I arrived at 10 to the relieved greetings of the office staff.

I learned that apparently they'd had a sub for this assignment quite a bit in advance. Then this morning, the sub never showed up. The school eventually called the sub office to find out what was going on. They got the sub's number and called her. Only at the exact time that they were calling her she made herself unavailable on the sub site. So they put in a new job request and that's when the system called me.

I started off the day in one of the bilingual first grades (the classroom of a friend of mine, actually). She told me she was happy to see me and they actually liked me better than the sub they were supposed to have! I supervised some writing, and independent reading, did a writing sample (in Spanish! - the kids helped me with some of it), then supervised their writing time. Finally I read a story, took them to get lunch and sent them out to recess. Then it was my lunch time.

After lunch, I went to the other first grade bilingual class next door. With this class I sort of supervised a writing activity while also helping kids (one at a time) finish wrapping their Mother's Day present. Then I took them to Music.

Then I went back to the first class! I got some stuff ready while they were in PE and then picked them up after a half-hour. We did calendar, math, and then a health test. About a half-hour before the end of the day their teacher came back and I went to the second classroom again!

And I did calendar with them!

It's May 7th by the way. The 144th day of school. It's sunny. You can make 7 cents with a nickel and 2 pennies, 144 has 1 hundreds, 4 tens and 4 ones. It's Friday. When the hour hand is pointing to the 9 and the minute hand is pointing to the 2, it's 9:10, 3 red magnets and 2 blue magnets makes 5 magnets - which is also the amount of days we've been in school in May. Yes, calendar for 25 minutes does drag out a bit.

Once that was done, and I'd scolded a couple boys and sent them to opposite sides of the room, it was time to go home! I lined them up and walked them out front and then stood around for 15 minutes or so while I waited for all of them to get picked up.

After school I went to the book fair in the library. And I did not buy anything! Be impressed.

So it was a busy, tiring day, but it was good to have something productive and money-making to do! It was also fun because I saw the 2nd graders I subbed for yesterday, as well as the other 2 (English) first grades who all knew me, and the 2 English kindergarten classes who knew me and were excited to see me. I heard lots of exclamations of my name as I went through the halls today. I hadn't realized I'd gotten famous here too! :)

Call Me

Today was pretty ordinary. Nothing terrible happened, nothing hilarious either. I came. I taught. I got frustrated by a few of them. They went home.

The one funny moment of the day was when one of the girls brought me something she'd made for me. It was a piece of paper she'd folded in half the long way to make a card. On the front it had the standard "To: From:" business. On the inside however, she'd written I ♥ Miss Barnes, followed by her phone number. Hopefully she's not expecting a call from me because, well, she'll be disappointed.