What an adventure this last week was in substitute teaching. It seemed like a long week because I actually subbed 4 full days! Normally I'm only able to do three, but I did my observations on Monday morning before heading down to LA for my class. It made for a long day, but it worked out well. I'm doing the same this week, too.
Anyway, my adventure in subbing began on Monday when I was asked to sub in a district I had never even applied to sub in. Definitely a first! So Tuesday morning I arrived with my paperwork in hand. I gave them my application and they handed me the keys. That day I was in a 4/5/6 combo class with about 25 kids in it. They were a good class, with only a little bit of attitude from the 6th graders.
Wednesday I received a call at 8:04am to sub that day. The start time was 7:50, so I called the school and told them I was going to be a little late. I ran to the shower, got dressed and presentable, and then drove between 15 and 20 minutes, making it to the school by 8:40. I was definitely my personal best when it came to getting ready and getting somewhere. I was in a 1st grade class that day that were a handful. One little boy peed his pants, not once, but twice. Seriously? How does that happen? The first time it wasn't very much, but that afternoon was a different story. Those kids were a crazy bunch, 30 of them total. They all wanted to be very "helpful." It wouldn't have been so bad if the teacher had actually left me the books that I needed out, too. Between the aide and myself we couldn't find the teacher's edition with the answers in it for a worksheet that made no sense without some sort of guidance. So we skipped it. Sorry, lady, you should have left me the answers! By that afternoon I had those kids figured out, had them a bit more under control, and when they weren't, made them do another worksheet instead of playing a game. I know, I'm so mean...
Thursday I was in a friend's Kindergarten class. I know the kids already, which made it a bit easier. Again, they were very "helpful," wanting to do things exactly like normal, but eventually I won them over to doing things a little bit differently that day. They are a sweet class and some of them told me that afternoon that I was a good teacher. So precious! They also picked me quite a variety of flowers/weeds from the playground during lunch. It was a good day, but long. I can't believe those kids have to be in school until 3pm!
Friday I had received a call at 6am from this same school's principal, asking me if I could come in and sub that day. I said yes, of course, and then he told me it was for their 7th and 8th grade class. Awesome. Can't wait. So I head off to school in great anticipation of a long junior high day. It's a small school that has exactly one classroom for both junior high grades. It's basically run like an elementary class, since there's no switching rooms or teachers. The class was alright, but the boys tried to push it all day. They all went by different names in the morning (I could tell they were lying, but as long as the roll was right, I didn't really care). By mid-morning, their name "game" had fallen apart and they all confessed to it. I threatened them with calling in the principal to sort out their names and they caved. That's right. Don't mess with me, kids. The rest of the day went fairly well. I mean it was junior high, after all...
By the end of the week I was exhausted. I was so happy to sleep in yesterday, and even went to bed a bit early on Friday night. I know, such a party animal. I didn't want to get up this morning when my alarm went off. I think my week really did catch up with me. Hmmm...I must be getting old.
No comments:
Post a Comment