Subbing Career Over?

I've been looking for a new job working in a library, and I will have my second interview early next week. I don't want to jinx myself, but I am feeling good about it. Christmas vacation started for the school district today, so there is no more work until January---so if things go well, I have done my final day of subbing.

So how was my final day of subbing, it was a pretty usual day. Good times, mixed with bad times. I showed up at the school thinking I would be subbing for a first grade class, but ended up it was for a kindergarten class. I can't say it enough, kindergarteners are unlike any other students. I think they are cute and funny, but I can't stand teaching in a room of 20 of them. Sorry!

The teacher's lesson plans were crazy. She had me do centers with the students. This class had six different centers, so that means that six different groups of three to four kids are each working on separate things at the same time. Several of these centers were various art projects---by the time things were over, there was glitter glue in one boys hair, at least two bottles of glue spilled, scraps of paper everywhere, computers crashing, and who knows what else that I didn't know about. The class even had a instructional assistant to help me in the morning, and we still couldn't keep an eye on all the different things that were going on. Oh yeah, and at the same time I am supposed to be monitoring each of these other groups I am supposed to be teaching one group how to read. There is one positive thing for this much craziness, the day goes by really fast.

The students left for lunch and had recess, when we returned to the class I was expecting a instructional assistant again only to discover I only had her for the morning. I read them a story about ducks jumping in the water. The book is to teach basic addition facts, 1 duck on land + 4 ducks in the water = 5 ducks; every problem equals 5 ducks. We then had an art project that was supposed to go with the story, students were to write out a math problem, and then use stickers to illustrate their problem. So if I wrote 2 + 3 = 5, I would show one group of two stickers and one group of 3 stickers. This is all fine and dandy, but most of these kids haven't even learned to write their numbers properly, and secondly it is too much fun to stick your stickers on your nose or your friend's nose. By this point, I am looking at the clock every other minute to see if it is time to go home.

The next item on the schedule, snack time. I serve as the waiter for 20 impatient kids and serve them apple juice and cookies. Of course apple juice is being spilled, and everyone wants another cookie (but there are no more cookies). I squashed the revolt, but it was difficult.

Finally the end of the day comes. I am always very nervous about the end of the day, because I want all the kids to get home so I can go home. The problem is, I have to make certain that kids go when their bus is called. Then I have to let other kids go to their parents or theirs siblings when they come to pick them up. The problem is I don't know who these parents are, so I rely completely on faith that the parents are who they say they are.

And finally it is the end of the day. Even if I don't get the library job, at least I get a two week break from subbing. YEAH!

**Since I won't be subbing for the next few weeks, there probably won't be much on this blog until the beginning of the new year. I will keep you all posted on whether I will be switching jobs. But then again, is there anyone who actually reads this blog?**

A Hush Takes Over the Room

I was subbing for a 4th grade class at one of the more "urban" schools in my district this morning. Like every class I have subbed for lately they were very talkative. It was a tiny class, only twelve students and I still couldn't control the talking. Then a strange thing happened, for the last fifteen minutes of the reading block I was supposed to read a chapter book to the class. I didn't pay attention to the title of the book, but I believe it was one of those Dear America or other similar type books. This book was the story of a young black girl living in a large city just after the end of the Civil War.

Some kids don't respond to historical books at all, usually boredom and acting out ensues. There was such a hush over the class it was eerie. Here I am a 30-something white male reading a story about prejudice, discrimination, and even violence toward young girls strictly because they were black. As I'm reading, I'm wondering what thoughts are going though their minds. I can't ask the question because the bell is ringing, and even if the bell was ringing I'm almost afraid to know what their thoughts are. Talk about having a case of white guilt.

"We don't like stories!"

My saddest moment of the day was when I decided I would read some stories to the class because the kids were extremely hyper and we weren't getting any work done. I am a good story picker, I pick stories that make kids laugh. But these kids didn't care, as soon as I said I was going to read some stories, they started moaning and groaning. Two different kids yelled out across the room at me, "We don't like stories!" That absolutely floored me. How do I even respond to that? I really had nothing that I could say at that point, other than "I know some kids in this room enjoy stories so I am going to read two funny stories to you."

As soon as I started reading, about half the class started moaning, groaning, talking, and getting out of their seats. I tried pushing through my first story, Shoot! Scat! by Lois Grambling (I will include a review of both books later this weekend on booksforkids.blogspot.com), but it got to a point where it was impossible to read. But as I was reading I noticed that there was a group of about 8 students that were actively paying attention to the story and enjoying it. I decided I would give the small group a special treat, I let the instructional assistant work with the other half of the class and I took the 8 listening students into the hall and we had our own impromptu story time. The kids listened, the kids asked questions, and most of all the kids enjoyed the books (and as an added bonus I enjoyed being with the kids). This small group was such a good audience that I read them a second story, Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen. They wanted to hear even more stories after that, but unfortunately we all needed to go back to the classroom. Those were easily my 20 least stressful and happiest minutes of the day.
*************************************************************************
After these past two days I know now more than ever that teaching kindergarten requires very different teaching skills than teaching any other age level. It also requires a whole different level of energy than I know that I have. These last two days of subbing have been more draining that any that I have had in a long time.

What did I learn about kindergarteners? They don't have any memory. You must tell them the same instructions over and over. With older kids I can usually explain why I must do something, but the kindergarteners don't have the reasoning ability to understand explanations.

They also have no concept of time. They start asking about when lunch is within the first 30 minutes of being at school. They ask about using the bathroom five minutes after they have just finished using it.
*************************************************************************
Speaking of bathroom breaks, here is an expression I don't want to hear anymore, "I gotta use it!" Use what? It. That isn't just a kindergarten thing, I've heard it at every grade level that I have taught.

Perfect Storm of Subbing

It was the sort of day when I finished work with a splitting headache. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

1. About 15 minutes after arriving at the school I am told by the instructional assistant for the class that this is a kindergarten room. I had accepted the assignment after being told it was for a second grade class. I never accept kindergarten assignments because I just don't have the right sort of energy or patience that they require.
2. Also upon arriving in the room, I am told that the regular teacher has been on maternity leave for the past several months, and that I am the 5th substitute teacher that the class has had during her leave. If any of you know anything about teaching or kids, more than anything they need consistency. Five different substitutes means the class is going to be a disaster in terms of discipline----even more since these are kindergarteners who are still trying to learn what appropriate school behavior is.
3. Since there wasn't a regular teacher in the classroom there were also no lesson plans. Someone had left some photocopies for the kids, but the photocopies were appropriate for third or fourth graders. One of the work sheets was too unscramble various holiday words---these are kids that can just barely spell their name.
4. I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night. Yes, that is my fault but it makes the day much longer and tougher.
5. In the morning, there were three adults in the room--me the sub, an instructional assistant, and a reading teacher. All three of us were supposed to be teaching reading groups at the same time. Talk about chaos. Too many cooks ruining the soup. Everyone seems to be in charge but no one is in charge.
6. Several kids with various behavior problems, including at least one ADHD kid (my guess is 3 or 4)---but the mother of the one child told me that hers was.
7. I had a job interview immediately after school, so my mind was slightly distracted. After today's class experience lets hope my subbing days are coming to a close.
8. The school librarian didn't show up too teach my class, so I missed a 45 minute break that would have been greatly appreciated today.
9. Little boys trying to get my attention by bawling their eyes out (one boy was crying so loud that the teacher from across the hall came over to see if everything was ok). Why was the kid crying? Because I said he couldn't play Simon Says because he was talking too much.
   
10. Half the kids in the class did not have pencils, and there weren't extra pencils ready.

I know there are other things on the list, but I can't remember what they were. My brain is too frazzled from the day.

So what did the perfect storm look like? Kids laying on the floor, kids taking off their shoes, kids sitting on tables, kids talking, kids yelling, kids pushing, kids running, kids fighting.

Do you want to hear the scariest (well almost scariest) thing? The instructional assistant and several of the other teachers that were near my classroom said that the behavior in my class was 100% better than the day before.

And now for the scariest part? I'm going back to the same class again tomorrow. Why I'm not sure, I figure the kids have had enough chaos already I don't want to give them anymore. Plus, since I'm going through a whole job hiring process, I need to be looking as dependable as possible. What do we say with a day like today? Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!!!!

Driven Insane by a Second Grader

Insane? You think I'm exaggerating for effect? No, and here is the proof of the level of insanity that I reached today. I had two identical twin girls in my class today. The insane part? I didn't realize that I had there were twins in my class until I was dismissing students at the end of the day. I did think that one girl seemed to be moving around the class very fast, but I never came any closer to deducing that there were twins in my class.

So where did my insanity come from? Marcus was his name. A bad tempered little snotmouth, who couldn't sit still without poking and making fun of anyone within ten feet of him. You could tell all the other kids in the class hated him, because everyone had to tell me every single thing he did all morning. I tried to move him, and he would just terrorize different kids. I would catch him in the middle of poking a kid or throwing something, and he would say right to my face that he didn't do it. And every time I said anything to him he would just become belligerent and rude about it.

I sent him to the school's discipline office. Usually that settles a kid down for the rest of the day. It didn't settle Marcus down, he just came back more belligerent and wanting to argue with me. So for my first time ever as a sub, I sent a kid to the discipline office for a second time. Mainly because I didn't want to look at or hear the kid the rest of the day.

The bad thing is, when you focus so much energy on a single student, all the other students decide to act up because they aren't getting any attention from the teacher. So things went chaotic very fast. When I stop to think about it, the whole situation is very sad. Too many kids starved for attention and they will get it anyway that they can.