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Wednesday, December 08, 2010

More Subbing Notes and Praxis results

It bears repeating: after two years in my own classroom, subbing is a piece of cake.  In the worst case scenarios, I shake the dust off of my proverbial sandals, but the worst cases have not been anywhere near as bad as some classes that I had to teach every day.

I have become a popular sub at SouthWest Jr. High (SWJH) since they found out that I will teach a math class, or any class for that matter.  I subbed for an English teacher on Monday.  I had been in her classroom as an inter-related resource teacher (support for kids who struggle with school in general).  Her class was high-speed, to say the least.  She had a very jovial mood, and jumped from one activity to the next.  Her lesson plans totally filled the class period, even with me deliberately pushing the pace.  We started with a daily grammar exercise, proofreading a couple of sentences with three or four errors each.  The advanced 9th grade English class had a student assigned to mark corrections on the overhead while the class helped, and the 8th grade English classes had me leading.  It was good to ask questions and have them answered, and I felt good about knowing the answers myself.  The teacher had actually left a quotation problem unfixed, so I had to fix it on the fly.  Fortunately, I'm a fair shake at English stuff as well as math.

In fact, I just found out that I passed my English Literature and Composition Praxis test with an Excellent rating.  Once I submit the paperwork, I will officially be qualified to teach English in certified Kansas schools, grades 6-12.  And I do feel qualified to do the day to day stuff, but I would need some assistance in the broader planning for a whole year.

Last week I subbed for a couple of days in a classroom which went back and forth from Jr. High Geometry to a couple of classes doing website design and one class doing AV projects, including documentaries and stop motion films.  It was all fun.

Because you know what?  I like teaching.  Even substitute teaching is fun, when it's not dull.  If I could make a living doing it, I would seriously consider it as an option.  I am learning a lot about how different classrooms are run, how different subjects are taught, and how different buildings are organized (or not, as the occasional case may be).  I had originally thought that I would try to blog about it at least once a week, but too many subbing jobs take too much of my attention.

And then there are jobs like today:  Lawrence High School (still hard for me to hear LHS without thinking of my alma mater and good 'ol Pioneer Pete) has late starts on Wednesday, and the teacher I am subbing for was here for most of the first class, so I didn't have to show up until 10:30.  Very nice, gave me time to iron a couple of shirts this morning, fix breakfast for Maxine, and entertain Quinten for a while.  On top of the late start, the classes themselves are Drafting and Research and Design with Autocad.  Project-based classes, with students who are more highly motivated than many.  These are kids who act remarkably adult.  They work on their projects, stop from time to time to shoot the breeze, then get back to work.  They help each other, and when the teacher came back she brought DQ treats for all of us, even me!  They are even consulting with a professional as they learn to use a new program (Inventor).

Days like this make the job totally worthwhile.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Some pictures from October and November

 My apologies to the readers out there who actually tune in just to see pictures of my kids.  I hope this makes up for it a bit.
 Princess Ariel came to Maxine's 5th Birthday Party, but Maxine was still the #1 princess.
Dual trips to the pumpkin patch:  Two preschools = two trips for Maxine.  The rest of us only attended one.  I figure that more pictures in a different outfit would be too much.
Quinten was thrilled to be in this picture.

At 18 months old, quite the handsome fellow.

The Perfect Pumpkin
Thanksgiving with Grandpa
Quinten really loves his Grandpa, and responds very well to him.  Perhaps the facial hair is familiar to him...

Sorry again for the lack of posting.  I won't promise to do better: I have too many other promises to break first.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Attention Roblog Readers!

I Wordled Roblog, and this is what it came up with: 
 

          title="Wordle: roblog">
          src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/2826127/roblog"
          alt="Wordle: roblog"
          style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
 
 
I know it looks like a garbled mess. 
Just click on it, already. 
 
In other news, I have just gone through my list of Roblog 
"drafts"--unfinished posts.
 
I found about a dozen from 2007 and 2008 that I had just 
never finished writing.  Some of them just needed me to 
hit the "Publish Post" button, and some needed some 
reworking, but they are all up now.
 
Click on 2007 or 2008, and all of the posts from that year will come up.  You will probably recognize the new ones.  Have fun!

A Brief Introduction

Roblog is my writing lab. It is my goal to not let seven days pass without a new post. I welcome your criticism, as I cannot improve on my own.

Here is a link to my cung post, which remains the only word which I have ever invented, and which has not, as far as I know, caught on. Yet.