Sub 26

Turned out to be a fairly busy day. Yes, I had a two hour lunch break, but the rest of the day was busy.

I sat in on a regular 7th grade math class, which was cool. The teacher did a lesson on probability. She had students roll a pair of dice 18 times, record both numbers and the difference between the two. She then had them play a one-on-one game in which noticing the correlation between those numbers could help you to win. They talked a bit about how their numbers compared with the expected numbers, and why they were different. I later suggested that if she were to compile the numbers from the whole class, and then from every class doing that activity, that they might get a better idea of how a larger sample brings you closer to the expected results, and she seemed kind of excited about it. Told me she might give it a try.

I also got to help a kid with his math homework, hopefully contributing to his understanding of probability. (At least one out of two of us understood the homework.) I talked with some of the teachers and paras about some education concepts, and one teacher lent me a book on learning communities. I arranged to sub for a math lab teacher (I think this is like remedial math, only they don't call it that anymore) this coming Monday. I felt like a teacher. It felt good.

After school I came home, rested a bit, ate some dinner. Not much time, so not much to do. Then I went to work at Wal-Mart.

And that dragged me right down. It wasn't a bad or difficult day, it just wasn't my thing. I was definitely tired, and it didn't help any to be working a five hour shift after a day of subbing. Still, I can work tired, but it's another matter to work when your heart isn't in it.

So there you have it. Get a job you like, because if you are doing something that isn't YOU, it will wear you down.

Subs 25 and 26

Sub 25 was ok. In one class I had time to bring up my experiences, as suggested by a teacher during my 24th substituting job. There were only a dozen students, and even if they weren't totally absorbed in my account of being a Peace Corps Volunteer, at least they didn't ignore me and talk to each other the whole time. Well, except for the two girls in front who were too cool to be interested in something that didn't revolve around themselves. And they might have been listening and just pretending to be bored. That's what I tell myself, anyway. The other class took a test, so I just stood over them, freaking out every time someone talked. At least that's how they probably perceived it.

Today I am at Southwest Jr. High. In some ways, this would be an ideal building in which to work: it's a new facility that feels very spacious and open. The classrooms have internet computers and projectors built in. It's starting to have that lived-in look without being worn-down. And it's a ten or 15 minute walk from my house. I didn't walk today, as it was supposed to rain. And it did rain. But now it's sunny.

So today I'm subbing for an inter-related studies teacher. Once again, this is special-ed in the day and age in which everyone is special so we need another name for the students who used to be special. I graduated from high school 20 years ago (I heard they're planning our 20-year reunion. A couple of my class-mates own a bar, so they're reserving it for the LHS Class of 88 for a weekend. Whoopee.), when mainstreaming was something you only did on the fringes. The special ed kids joined the rest of us for P.E., sort of. They were there at the same time as the rest of us, anyway, using the same locker room for the most embarrassing part of the day--changing clothes and taking a shower. And that was it. For the most part, kids with learning disabilities were kept separate. Whether that was done "for their own good" or to avoid distracting everyone else is unclear to me from this perspective. And maybe it was more integrated than I remember. God knows my point of view has changed in a big way in the last 20 years.

Now things are a bit different. More kids are identified with problems, but there is a much stronger push to have them engaged with other kids their age. They are placed in regular classrooms as often as possible. Usually this involves a modified curriculum, and it sometimes involves having an assistant (either a para or a teacher) stay with the student to help them maintain focus.

For the most part, that's the usual job of the teacher I'm subbing for. Today it's a bit different. For the first two hours he usually goes to an English classroom. The regular teacher in there is out on maternity leave, so there is a long-term sub in her room. But today the long-term sub called in sick, so there is a sub for the long-term sub. Double-sub. I went over to the classroom (with the teacher I am subbing for, who is still in the building, which is another story) to check in, and we found that the kids were doing silent reading all hour, both hours. And that is why I can sit down and write on the Roblog before the day has even gotten started.

The regular teacher I'm subbing for is in the building. He's helping out with the sixth graders who are visiting to tour the school for Transition Day. I vaguely remember doing that when I was on the verges of jr. high and high school. I'm sure I considered it a day off, perhaps a peek into my own future. To the teachers who have to escort students around, it's a boring day.

So today I will be working one-on-one with problem students, when I am actually working. I have two plan periods in a row at lunch time, so I will be getting out of here and getting some grub. For now, I kind of need to get ready, make sure I know when the bell will ring and where I should be when it does. So I'm going to post this, and come back with a new post if there's anything to report.

Peace,

Rob

Sub 24 (and 25?)

Today I'm subbing for a half day in a vocation/agricultural classroom. The teacher is at a meeting, first hour is a planning period, and second hour is taking an exam. It looks like I'll actually have to do something 3rd hour, and then I'll be finished. As to what I do, she has left some plans. I'll let you know how those go later.

For now, I need to tell you about Friday's subbing, number 24.

It was a low day for me. Block classes of 90 minutes each, teaching French and Poetry. I guess I should be grateful it wasn't French Poetry, but I'm not. Instead I am grateful for the intervention of a fellow teacher. Not that she intervened in a class, but... I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was clear from the start that the students in this classroom didn't like their regular teacher and that they considered me a holiday. Very clear. As in, they told me that they didn't like their teacher and they considered me a holiday. With the first class I started by asking about why they were taking French, and this came out. With the other classes, it just sort of came up.

I made the French class work. Our opening conversation got us off to a good start, they did their work as usual, then I offered to let them play a language game like I would do in Korea. They had fun with it, and I think were sad to see me go.

The English classes were tougher. She left a full lesson on poetry, and I tried really hard to lead them through it. I encouraged answers, I read the poems for the lesson. I had them write answers to the questions. All in the plan. It seemed to me that if the teacher leaves a full plan, it is my responsibility to try to follow it.

At the end of the day I was writing a letter to the teacher about how lousy the day had gone, how disrespectful the kids were, how the French students were not satisfied with their learning experience, and how annoying the day had been. And that was before I had discovered that I had locked my keys in the car that morning. I had filled a page and was working on the back when a teacher popped her head in the door and asked what I was doing. I told her, and she suggested that it probably wouldn't do any good.

She had worked in this district as a sub for three years, she said, and at some point had decided to recast herself in a better role than "Substitute Teacher." And she told me that if I wanted to enjoy what I was doing, I should do the same.

"You," she told me, "are a field trip that they wouldn't be able to take if the teacher was here. I'm sure you have all sorts of colorful experiences. Promise the kids something else, then get through those lesson plans as fast as you can. Then take them on a trip. You'll be surprised at how quickly they will be hypnotized, and the questions they will ask. But if you insist on following the lesson plan to the letter, you will often be an obstacle that they will do their best to overcome."

Wow.

She continued: "Don't worry about the forms and paperwork, yours or the teacher's. Nobody looks at that stuff. The district and teachers don't want to alienate any subs. Teachers will take your notes too seriously, passing on a multiplying the stress you've had. They don't really care if you finish or follow the plans they leave, as long as the room isn't a mess and no one gets hurt.

"So take some time and tell them a story. Or two. And let them ask questions. You will have a good day, they will have a good day, and on the evaluation form you just write 'good day, happy to come back'."

And so, today when I get to 3rd hour, I'm going to try to implement this philosophy. The teacher was here when I came in, and left specific plans: a practice quiz (real thing on Monday) and designing flyers (my spell checker is not happy with that. Fliers? Help!) for an event almost a month away. And that's it, for an entire hour. I'm definitely telling some Peace Corps stories.

Wish me luck.

Sub 23 and music

I got to be a Jr. High band teacher on Friday. Lots of fun. I was surprised at how good a program they had at South Jr. High. And band is something I know well enough to run a smooth rehearsal, even if I'm not familiar with the pieces being played.

The 9th graders were first. They have a concert in a week and contest after that, so they wanted to work. It took a bit of sweat on my part to get the 7th graders to work, but when they did, they actually sounded good.


I then travelled to two different elementary schools to assist with the band programs there. I was given flash cards to use with the trumpets for some one-on-one fingering practice. Fortunately, I used to play the trumpet, so I could actually tell them if they were right or wrong. I also spent five minutes or so with a euphonium player who was not hitting the right notes. He had the fingerings right, but just couldn't make his lips do what they needed to do, so I took him out and we worked on it a bit. I played his horn a bit (after cleaning off the mouthpiece, of course) to demonstrate, and found that he could actually do it with the right coaching. He just needed some individual attention.


It made me want to get my horn out and play. It's been sitting in the closet pretty much since we moved in. I've played it a couple of times to amuse Maxine, even got her to blow an actual note on it, but not anything like regular. I would love to play in church, or with a local ensemble or band. It's one of those things that is hard to explain to someone who doesn't do it. Horyon and I both enjoy the bell choir at church, and that's hard to explain to other people too. There is a satisfaction that comes from spending time practicing and building up to a performance that is unlike anything else. I'm sure that it's partly because I enjoy being in front of people, but it's more than that. It just feels good to make music happen.



I also enjoy listening to music. At last count my CD collection was approaching 1000. I haven't had them all in one place since I left for the Peace Corps, and right now there are still many in my parents' basement, many in my garage, and quite a few scattered through my house. One Korean man I knew owned his own building. The first three floors were his clothing shop, the fourth and fifth floors were rental apartments, and he and his family lived on the sixth and seventh floor. He had helped design (or maybe remodel) his residence, and it was one of the coolest homes I've seen in Korea. I won't go into the architecture except for this: he had built in CD shelves, which he seriously needed. Thousands of CDs. And built in CD shelves are definitely the classiest way to keep your CDs. He also had a most impressive sound system. All imported. Speakers that were not only tall, but beautiful. His CD player was two pieces, the reader, in which you put the CD itself, and the digital decoder. He claimed it made a difference. And the amplifiers used tubes, like the radio your grandparents listened to. Only in this case, the tubes are all mounted where you can see them. The components sat on plate glass shelves, a very graceful presentation. And when he played music it sounded like you were there in the room with the musicians. Piano, orchestra, jazz, drum sets, singers, they all sounded like they were right there.



I'm not saying I want to spend thousands of dollars on a stereo system, but... it sure would be nice to spend thousands of dollars on a stereo system.



Anyway, it's a bit late in my life, but now I can picture myself being a band teacher! There are some annoying things about it, for sure, but they do have fun. And they get to be there at the beginning of a lot of musical careers.

Sub 22

Friday I subbed at West Junior High in Lawrence. As it happens, I went to West Junior High in Leavenworth. It was one of those days where it seemed like perhaps the regular teacher just took a personal day because she knew it was going to be a crappy day to be at work. And let's face it, the odds were against me:

1. Beautiful weather--sunny and mild, still a novelty after these many miserable months.
2. Friday--a killer day for subs everywhere.
3. K.U. in the Final Four. Maybe not a factor in other towns, but in Lawrence EVERYONE gets in on the excitement.
4. Substitute teacher=license to be an idiot.

It was one of those days that made me oxymoronic: I wanted to help these immature people become human beings that other human beings wouldn't want to instantly throttle, while simultaneously wanting to throttle them.

One positive side of the day was that I didn't have to be there until 9. Pretty late for school. And my first class didn't actually start until 9:40. If I had known how the day was going to go, I would have spent those precious minutes pulling my hair out to save time later.

One thing I didn't like was the schedule. Many schools in this district us block scheduling, in which students spend 90 minutes in one subject. They have four subjects one day, and four different subjects the next. I know that 90 minutes opens up many options that are difficult, if not impossible to pull off in 50. In ELS, way back at the turn of the century, I taught mostly classes that lasted 50 minutes, but some that were 100 with a ten minute break. I loved those classes, because I could do activities that took time to play out. I rarely found myself cramming the last ten minutes of the lesson into the time between the bell sounding and everyone leaving. We not only had time to do an activity, but to talk about it.

On Friday the students did worksheets. About an hour's worth of worksheets. If you are good at math, you will quickly see that this left 30 minutes with no plan. See if you can guess which activity was most popular for students who had finished their work:

a) Complete work for other classes
b) Get a head start on the weekend's homework
c) Meditate
d) Participate in a discussion with the sub about how water's unique properties make life possible on Earth
e) Goof off.

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you the answer to this one.

The lesson learned here is this: always have more than enough material for any given class period. It's tough at 90 minutes, but when you don't have a choice you have to just knuckle down and do it.

In hindsight, it would have been a good idea to cut them off at an hour and make them turn in whatever they had finished. Then I could have possibly led some kind of discussion on why the properties of water are key in the existence of life as we know it. Or maybe there were too many factors against me to pull it off. At the very least, I could have given them a short written assignment that stretched a bit beyond what they had just worked on: "How would the world be different if water ice were denser than liquid water, like most solids and liquids?" Sure it's more for the teacher to grade, but 1) she wouldn't have had to make it a big part of their grade or spend more than a couple of minutes on each assignment, and 2) not my problem. When a teacher pitches a sub a problem, they should be prepared to have a line drive problem beamed back at them.

Part of the problem was that everyone didn't finish at the same time. The students who finished first settled into some other work for the most part. But as more and more of them finished, there were more social personalities added to the mix, and the noise level slowly grew. By the time I realized it was a problem, it was no longer a small problem. And with no other assignment to focus them on, there was not much I could do.

And of course, in the first class I didn't realize that the work was only sufficient for 2/3 of the class time. I should have suspected it in the 2nd class, but it looked like more work, so I thought I was safe. And by the 3rd class, end of the day on Friday, it just about didn't matter. We were all tired of being there. In the last class I had to spend most of their working time walking around making sure they were actually working. You might be able to imagine how much fun this is if you have some sort of infection.

Still, I have had some good experiences in Jr. Highs here in town. A day like Friday may bring me down a bit, but it leaves me wondering how I can make it better. And hopefully the next time I will.

I didn't get called today, so I've had time to wrap this up. And April 15th is fast approaching. It looks like I'm going to have to file for extensions, because Horyon's business is not going to be fun or easy to file for. Her investments in sewing machines, remodeling, cloth and thread far outweigh the money she made in 2007 (about $900, not bad for starting in the summer!), but we have no evidence of how much she spent in Korea. Wish me luck. I haven't even decided whether she will be the sole proprietor or whether we are partners. Depends on how much hassle doing her taxes is and how she plans to repay me.

Peace,

Rob

Sub 21

I finally hit 21 without going over. I guess I win.

Today I was a "Behavioral Disorder" teacher. They normally have two to five kids in a classroom with almost as many paras. Today a couple were absent. I read a book off of the teacher's shelf most of the day, though I did spend some time with a boy working on his reading. We were working on Paul Bunyan, and Sam was answering some questions from the reading. I found out some surprising things:

1. Paul Bunyan's deeds included squishing people.
2. Lumberjacks cut down trees and try to avoid being squished.
3. Babe, the giant blue ox, was particularly good at squishing people.
4. Without trees, we would die from lack of oxygen and Paul Bunyan cut down trees, therefore Paul Bunyan was bad.

This last one in particular seemed like a very modern take on a traditional story. However, while all tall tales have their own particular embellishments, I can't recall ever reading a version of Paul Bunyan in which people got squished. I think it's time for a new version.

The book I read was book 10 of Lemony Snickett's "A Series of Unfortunate Events," The Slippery Slope. It was amusing, to be sure, but I'm not sure if I could sit through all ten of them, even if they do go quickly. I am sure that I'm not willing to pay for all ten. I do enjoy his style though, and have a quote to offer:

"Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like."

If a book chock full of sentences like this (click on "Search Inside" and read some bits) and plotlines to match appeals to you, you should pick one up. If, like me, you grew up reading stories of precocious children saving the day and having happy endings, you might enjoy this for a change. It has no happy endings. Briefly hopeful middles, but the horrible things keep coming. Fun stuff.

Anyway, the subbing was very low key. I guess I don't mind having a day like that from time to time, especially the Monday after a holiday. But I really prefer doing some teaching. It was a good opportunity to watch teachers deal with problem kids. Ultimately it's all about offering them a clear choice with consequences and rewards, also clearly laid out. Of course, they have to be followed up honestly and fairly. It seemed to me that if these kids had been getting the same thing at home, they wouldn't necessarily be in a behavioral disorder classroom.

Shock of the day: A fourth grade boy telling me with glee about a movie he had seen in which one guy cut off another guy's hand, and the blood went all over and it was cool.

Well, I need to get to bed. It is likely that I will get called at six a.m. tomorrow to sub some more. After no subbing last week, I really need to get more in.

11 and 12

I'm lumping these together because it's been a busy couple of days, and I have tons of work to do.

Yesterday was good, except for one thing: the math activity. They were continuing to work with stencils which they had made the previous week. They were measuring something with them, or maybe measuring the stencils themselves. I'm really not sure. Which was the problem, of course. If the teacher isn't sure of what he's doing, the room full of third graders doesn't have a chance. And if they don't know what's going on, they'll fill the time the best way they know how: by goofing off. And I can hardly blame them. If I were in their situation, I'd probably do the same.

But outside of that, the day went well. This was the class that liked me so much the previous week. One little boy, Ray, had "helped" me out a bit the last time. I made a math mistake on the board, and he pointed it out. When he saw me yesterday, that was the first thing he brought up. He then told me that all of his friends laughed when he told that story. I told him that my friends also laughed, so I'm counting on all of you to laugh as you read this so that I don't end up being a liar. It probably didn't help any that I told them I was planning to become a math teacher sometime in the future, "When you grow up," as one little girl put it. Yeah, like I want to wait that long.

So far my batting average in the math department was not so hot.

I did notice an interesting shift in my own preferences regarding another subject: when I was very young, I liked gym class. As I got older, I liked it less and less, until middle school when I hated it. Stopped taking it as soon as I could. Now I like it again. Maybe because during gym I stay in the classroom and try to figure out what's going to happen next.

At the end of the day I had one not-so-pleasant experience; as the kids were lining up to go to gym, Carl headed towards the front of the line. I asked him where he was going, and he told me, so I asked why. He turned on the attitude and told me, "Because I'm the line leader. It's on the board over there. IN YOUR FACE!"

I was shocked. I asked him if that was appropriate. "No." Would he talk that way to his regular teacher? "No." We were already late heading out the door, so I made my big mistake: I let him lead the class out. In hindsight, I should have made him go to the back of the line at the very least. A better idea would have been to take him to the principal's office to have a little chat, hopefully leading to an apology. Unfortunately, in today's world, it is simply not a good idea for me to keep him in the room with me for a little chat. I don't think he is a bad kid, but I don't really know him that well. And if that in-your-face attitude had a chance, it might manifest as legal action. I did manage to do that much thinking on my feet as I let the class go to gym.

And right there is the big advantage to subbing: since I didn't make any huge mistakes, it is extremely unlikely that I will have to deal with fallout from that problem. On the other hand, I have time to be the Monday morning quarterback. I did leave a note for his teacher, though. If I have correctly gaged his teacher, he might be in for a little nuclear winter.

Going on to #12. I got job #11 because the teacher called me. After school, a teacher from down the hall came and asked if I was available the next day in the afternoon. I replied that yes, I was, and I would be happy to come in. It's a good deal for me, because I can't sub all day on Wednesdays, but I can get there in time for afternoon classes.

Today was especially sweet because on Wednesdays classes finish early--two o'clock instead of four--but I still get paid for a half day, even though I started at noon. It was a bit hectic having lunch and getting there after my morning class at KU, but well worth it.

I also taught math today in this different, but still 3rd grade, classroom. It was a test review, just a handful of problems to go over with the kids.

It went well. I was relieved. I didn't make any major mistakes, the kids seemed relatively happy and did their work, and I learned a lesson: if you don't understand the lesson given, do a lesson you can understand.

And it was Nate's birthday today. We sang for him, and ate treats his mother brought, including some brownies that were deadly chocolaty. Oh my, those were some good brownies. The singing was perhaps not the most on-tune I've ever heard, but those third graders can by golly belt it out.

This class was not as affectionate as the other one. No hugs this time, but no in-your-face, either. I'm guessing that it's as much about me as them. I came in very business-like, with the serious teacher face and voice, and had them start right in on their silent reading without letting them talk or move around or anything. Because if the teacher makes you read silently during silent reading time, it is very likely that you will have to do math during math time, reading during reading time, and so on and so forth, so don't even try doing something else.

I'm starting to wear a bit thin, I think. I've already taken a sub job for Friday, with Wal-Mart from 5 to 10 that evening. Gonna be a long day. Tomorrow it's just class and bell choir, though I still need to get on my homework. So I'm going to wrap this up.

Peace,

Rob

10th Subbing (and a preview of 11)

I finally made it to high school. I subbed today at Free State High School, here in Lawrence. It made a good first impression. For starters, there were none of those kids from High School Musical running around singing randomly. I don't really know anything about HSM, other than what I've learned selling HSM merchandise at Wal-Mart and talking to a few teenagers about it. That's enough. More than enough, actually.

I got called this morning to sub for the French teacher. Well, the guy who teaches French to the students. I don't know whether or not he is French. His first name was one of those odd, sounds-like-a-last-name names. Not at all French. And his last name is Rogers. Yep. I subbed in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

The major lesson I learned today was this: 30 minute plan + 60 minutes class time = 30 minutes goofing off.

In this case it wasn't terrible goofing off. These students were mostly capable of amusing themselves (and each other) in a regular tone of voice, rather than the hoping-to-be-rescued-from-a-deserted-island shriek that most of them seem to use in between classes while roaming the hallways. A couple of the classes talked about getting together on Monday (since it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and preparing food to bring for Mr. Rogers. The first class, French IV and V, drew pictures on the board, including the following words of wisdom: "All you need is LOVE. And GDF." They informed me that GDF is an abbreviation of some jumble of French words that mean Cheesecake. Oh yeah. I gotta get me a class like that.

I couldn't bring myself to be too upset with the guy. The reason he was absent today was that yesterday he collapsed while writing on the board, maybe an epileptic seizure, and hit his head on something. There was a spot on the floor that my students told me was his blood. Some of them insisted on pushing the overhead cart on top of it, so that no one would walk over it. I joked that if I stood on that spot I could channel his energy, perhaps speak French without having learned it. Didn't get many laughs.

Everyone knew what had happened, though some of them didn't seem to care much. The class that actually saw it happen still seemed a bit traumatized. There was an exchange student from Sweden, Helga [remember, I'm just making up the names!] who still seemed shaken up over it.

Helga also had an interesting observation about English: it's hard to learn to swear appropriately. Anyone learning English by watching movies will get the idea that we Americans swear all the time. Another student said that Helga would frequently "drop the F bomb" when it was not called for. I told them that although I recognized many vulgarities in Korean, I deliberately avoided practicing them. Because when you practice something a lot, it comes out easily, without forethought. Which is not a good thing if the words you have practiced can get you into a fight.

It was a good day at the High School. I took a moment at the end of the day to introduce myself to the principal, and mention that I would be looking for a math teaching position in the fall. He said that he didn't have any openings at the moment, but things could change.

In the evening, I got a call from the school district. It was from the teacher of the 3rd grade class that I had enjoyed so much a few days previously. She was planning to be gone this coming Tuesday afternoon, and wondered if I could sub for her. She said her kids really liked me, and hoped that I could come back.

I was very happy to hear that. Not that I want to teach 3rd grade as a career, but that she specifically thought of me was very touching. It will make for a busy Tuesday: I have class from 10 to 11 a.m., sub from 12:15 to 4:15 (though I may get out by four), then Wal-Mart from 5 until 10 p.m. As I finish writing this up, Tuesday is tomorrow. I'm glad today was a holiday, though I am at Wal-Mart from one to ten. Subbing as well would have made for a rough few days. I do have the next two days off, other than class in the morning.

On a more personal note, Mom and Dad came Friday, as I had the evening off. They took us to IHOP for dinner, which is always nice. Not just that pancakes and stuff are good, but having time with them is very refreshing for me. It's sometimes hard for me to believe that I really live so close to them now. It's been my mindset for the last 12 years that talking to them on the phone was expensive and complicated, and seeing them was really expensive.

Now that I can see and talk to them easily and cheaply, I find that we still email for a lot of stuff. Mostly because I get off work about the time they go to bed, but also because some stuff is just easier to do by email. Dad gives me lots of help fixing stuff around the house, which usually starts with an email from me. I describe the problem and my thoughts on it, and usually he calls (or I call him) to discuss details and solutions. He has an amazing ability to visualize problems and solutions without having the actual things in front of him. He's talked me through a couple of bathroom sink fixes in the last couple of weeks. Neither was a really big deal, but I just had no idea where to start. Thanks Dad.

Peace,

Rob

9th Sub

[Note: this entry was actually completed Wednesday night, the date you see above, but we had some internet problems, so it's finally working its way up here.]

Finally. It finally happened.

I really hope that everyone reading this knows what I'm talking about: If you have a job that you like, it will have good days and bad days. The bad days (in a job that you like) are the ones that just go by with nothing to mark them. They don't hurt, but there's not much there. The good days are the ones that really keep you coming back to work. Of course the paycheck is also an incentive, but those good days would be worth working even if you got paid half as much for them. You could even see doing them as a hobby. And I finally got one.

It was my half-day with third-graders at Quail Run Elementary yesterday. I wouldn't have gotten out of bed and gone to do it if not for the $46 paycheck that it brought in, but I would have still done it if I had been paid Wal-Mart wages instead. I was actually sad that it was only a half-day, instead of a full day. It was even more depressing that they also had a sub for the afternoon. The principal looked into allowing me to take the other sub's place, but the other sub had been arranged some time in advance, while I had been called in that morning.

The regular teacher had previously planned to be out in the afternoon for an organizational meeting of her team at the school, but she had to stay home in the morning because her daughter had broken her leg more recently. (The afternoon sub had been covering for another class whose teacher had been out for a similar meeting in the morning, so couldn't do the whole day.)

Now as to why the class was so much fun to work with, I can attribute it to a few things:

1. Good plans left for me. To be good students, most elementary students need to have a well-defined task on which to be. The teacher had left a great set of plans, with all the necessary materials right there where I could find them.

2. A settled morning routine. Instructions were left on the board for standard exercises that the students worked on every day. All that I needed to do was point them out, and give them a reminder or two that this was independent work.

3. My own experience. The last few weeks I've relearned what it takes to succeed in an elementary school classroom.

4. The first three points put together make the kids comfortable. They follow the regular rules, they do the work, and they talk to me like they would their regular teacher. By lunch time some of them were hugging me and asking if I would come back again. One little boy said that I was funny and weird. I think someone said I was a screwball. And once I saw them interact with their regular teacher, it all made sense. She joked around with them, let them hang on her like baby monkeys, and kept up the family-like banter that early-elementary teachers do without even thinking about it.

I guess the only low point of the day was recess duty, and that was only low because it was so frickin' cold outside and I didn't have a whistle. I really need to get myself a whistle if I'm going to continue substituting, because nothing gets their attention like a few sharp blasts on a referee whistle.

I skipped the other potential low point: elementary school cafeteria lunches. The smells and appearances bring back a wave of nostalgia that can almost be mistaken for the anticipation of a good meal. This mistake is quickly corrected with the first bit into a hamburger, or chicken nugget. The mashed potatoes are still good, I think. Or maybe the conditioning has still not worn off to this day. The price is good, at less than $3, as long as you get only one entree. Which is not a bad idea, because that way the food may not be good, but at least there isn't much of it.

Tomorrow is my first day back as a student for the spring semester at KU, so no subbing. The classes I am taking are on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 10 a.m., leaving only Mondays and Fridays for subbing. I almost always work on Saturdays and Sundays, so that gives me something to do every day. Should keep me out of trouble.

7th and 8th Subs

Wednesday was another inter-related resource job, this one at Woodlawn Elementary. I was there all day, but all elementary schools in this district finish at 1:30 on Wednesdays. Score!

The teacher I subbed for had her own office, to which some children came. Well, two boys came on my watch. I reviewed their spelling words for a bit, then we tried playing a spelling game. When one boy lost (he kept putting "e"s in words that didn't need them), he started crying. He wasn't out of control about it, and the other boy didn't make fun of him, for which I was grateful. All it took was switching to a pictionary style drawing game (with no score), and he pulled it together, laughing and playing along.

I sat in on a 5th grade classroom, spending part of the time helping one boy to stay focused on his work. He didn't need much help, though the teacher assured me that such is not always the case. It was interesting and informative to watch her teach. She was obviously a veteran: the way she kept the classroom under control. The way her activities were interesting to the kids and skill building at the same time.

Before lunch, I was privy to this conversation in the Library. A little boy was carrying a book open to a picture of a statue of Atlas holding up the Earth. In it, Atlas is buck naked, and his business is right out there where you can see it. The boy was talking the librarian, when a girl his age (5th grade? They weren't mine.) put in her two cents:

Boy: Is this picture OK to have in the library?

Librarian: Yes, but maybe you shouldn't carry it around open to that page.

Boy: Maybe some people don't want to look at it.

Girl: But you have one!

Boy: Not a man-sized one, though.

There was another teacher standing close enough to hear this exchange. We both struggled not to burst into laughter.

And I had lunch with a fourth grader, Mikey. Mikey apparently has behavior problems, but I didn't notice. The teacher I was subbing for eats lunch with him every day in her office, then he catches a bus for another school. So Mikey and I ate lunch together, and chatted about the relative merits of different school cafeteria entrees, his schedule, my substitute teaching, and life in general.

After that, my afternoon went by slowly. No one showed up in the office, so I made myself comfortable with the book I was reading. I don't feel too bad about it. The money I make as a sub is usually well earned. There are times when I don't get any rest at all, so Wednesday sort of made up for it.

Thursday was one of the days when I was completely on the run. I got the call to sub at Woodlawn, the same school I was at Wednesday, this time for the band teacher. The instructions said to call him, and he would email lesson plans to me. So I did.

The lesson plan called for me to be at six different elementary schools during the day. Often there was only 30 minutes between the end of one class and the start of another. I had only been to two schools on the list, the first and the last. It looked to be a fun day.

Actually I enjoyed it a lot. The first couple of classes were kind of a mess, simply because leading band is very different from teaching a class, but some of the same basic rules apply:

1. Don't give them any time to goof off.
2. Let them know in no uncertain terms that goofing off is inappropriate.
3. Don't worry about being "fun" or "likable". If 1 and 2 are going well, "fun" and "likable" will likely seep through on their own. And if they don't, at least the kids aren't goofing off.

The big difference with band is that you have to have some sense of how fast a piece should be played, how many times to play it, how to get most of the kids to finish at the same time, and when it is so bad that you just need to stop in the middle.

The bands ranged from Quail Run with more than 70 kids, down to New York with ten flutes and clarinets. The bigger ones are easier to deal with. They have some idea of how fun it can be to play in a band.

I did have a two hour break from about 9 to 11. I ate "lunch", even though I wasn't that hungry yet. It was nice to be home for a bit in the middle of the day, though.

I ended up driving about 16 miles that day. The school district reimburses $.47/mile, but I have to remember to do the paperwork at the end of the quarter to get my almost eight dollars. I'll probably forget.

I found later that the band teacher is at all six schools four days per week. I bumped into him later while subbing at Quail Run again. As much as I enjoyed subbing for him, I don't think I'd like to do that job regularly. Too much car time, and not enough time to work with individual kids.

Sixth Sub

I got the call just after 8:10 this morning, for a job that was supposed to start at 7:48. I took it, then called the school to tell them I could be there by nine.

South Junior High. Inter-Related Resource (used to be special ed.). Easy day. There were plenty of paras and co-teachers, so I didn't do a whole lot of teaching. I spent one class period with a group of four students, going over a reading assignment and discussing the concepts of beauty and art. I don't think they got it. I'm not sure how many 8th graders do.

The best class period was doing some one-on-one math tutoring with Dave. [Once again, a friendly reminder that all student names have been changed in Roblog.] Dave, like all the students I dealt with today, was what they call "high-level functional." He has some learning disabilities, but he was actually following in his algebra class. With the problems we worked on, I felt that I helped him to get a more solid grip on the concepts. I think that he may have actually followed what was going on in class, but had trouble understanding what the formulas meant.

And Dave was just a good kid. He listened to me closely, he worked really hard, and he actually thanked me when it was time to go. That's something that can make a teacher's day, because it just doesn't happen very often.

There were absolutely no problems today. I got in more than an hour late, left half an hour before the official time (planning period! Yes!), and still get paid for the whole day. I had a chance to talk to the principal, and he seemed very together. Ran a tight ship. Reminded me of Edward James Olmos, who plays Admiral Adama on the new Battlestar Galactica. He had similar features and the same calm, totally in control demeanor. Wouldn't want to get on his bad side. He told me that he was looking for a modern tech teacher to replace their guy who is retiring this summer. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near that kind of certified. I'm barely scraping by on the entrance requirements for the Baker program that starts this fall.

Fifth Sub

I've gotten my first couple of subbing paychecks. The first one went right into our church offering. We decided some time ago to dedicate our "First Fruits" of every labor to God. Sometimes it can be a real test. $212 may not seem like a lot, but coming before Christmas, at a time when our reserves are running low, it was tempting to hold on. But faith is about letting go, and so we did. And so far we are still living in our house, and getting enough to eat, and we have two cars, so I guess it's working. I'm thinking this may be an even bigger challenge when I start full time teaching, and the first paycheck is a full month's worth, and I don't have income from another job to help us get by. But we will face that challenge when we come to it.

Today's school was New York elementary, just a few blocks from downtown Lawrence. It's an old school, though it has been well kept and remodeled in places. The secretary told me that there is a fireplace in one of the kindergarten classrooms, and there was a belfry tower over the main entry way.

Today's challenge was a room full of fifth graders. There was good news, and bad news. The good news was that I only had them for the first half of the day, with their teacher arriving at 12:15. (Her son had the flu, and her husband took off his afternoon to stay home with him. Nice arrangement, don't you think?) The bad news was that the class had already had a substitute last Thursday and Friday (today being Monday). So when they showed up and saw me, they were not too happy.

Fortunately, the teacher had planned well. She had obviously come in over the weekend and straightened up, as well as leaving a note on the board to her students. Her plans were extensive, and all the materials I needed were out on the desk. I had almost half an hour before the students were to arrive, so I had time to get a handle on the schedule and materials for the first part of the morning, up until they went to art class.


Unfortunately, the best laid plans, etcetera, etcetera.

Fifth graders are definitely boundary testers. There were three or four students in that class who wanted to see how much they could move around, talk to their neighbors, talk to me without raising their hands, and get out of work. But when they finally had something to work on, they were amazingly capable of sitting down and focusing on it for 30 minutes at a time.

There were a couple of times during the morning when some students left to join another class. These went very well for me. It was not a large class, only about 16 students, but when it was cut in half it sort of snapped into a well-behaved little unit. Of course, I've learned this lesson many times before, but it bears repeating: a small class is much easier to teach than a large one. If you really want to leave no child behind, provide enough teachers!

I guess my biggest trouble maker was Phillip. [Once again, I remind you that I am not using real names on the Roblog when writing about substitute teaching.] Phillip managed to find every reason in the book to move around the room, and quite a few that weren't in the book. He must have sharpened his pencil down to a nub, he was up there so many times, and it's amazing that he could hold as much water as he did. And when I asked what he was doing up this time, he always acted as though I had accused him of something terrible: "Who? Me? I'm just blah blah blahing. It's ok if we do that!" Still, he worked when it was time to work. Wrote quite a bit during writing time, and plowed through the math assignment. So even though I said his name quite a few times, I doubt that I will remember it a week from now. Especially if I teach every day for the next week.

The next biggest challenge in the room was Tiffany, who seemed to be working with the attention span of a 3rd or 4th grader, instead of a 6th grader. She danced around a few times, and sang a song or two when she was supposed to be working on something else. She was really good at finding reasons to talk to other kids, but she was always polite to me, and actually sat down or stopped talking when I told her to. It just wasn't usually too long before she was doing it again. But again, she wasn't really a trouble maker, or a headache. Just a challenge.

The other challenges in the room were some kids struggling to define themselves, caught in that grey area between the little kids who don't know how silly they are and the big kids who want to both be serious and impress their friends, even when the two are mutually exclusive. Devin was an odd kid: he said some things that were funny, and some that were funny in an out-of-left-field kind of way. He whipped through his math, even the extra problem I made up on the board, and came to me to get his book (Ripley's Believe it or Not, believe it or not) rescued from the teacher's drawer from last week. I could see him heading down a path that would not lead to popularity, but might eventually get him into the Peace Corps, or something equally strange.

I taught math, reading and social studies. I took them to art, and presided over snack time. I threatened to punish them, and complimented them on their good behavior. Nobody got hurt, nobody cried, and I didn't have to send anyone to the office. In other words, it was a pretty standard sub day. If they all go like this, by summer it will all be a big blur. And while no news is good news, I do feel like I learn more when things go wrong.

Knock on wood.

Peace,

Rob

Fourth Sub--High School Spanish

Thursday I got not calls to sub. Didn't bug me much. I could feel some sort of virus testing my defenses, trying to get in. It eventually succeeded, and is now waging a minor war in my sinuses. Not serious enough to lay me out, but it is distracting much needed resources from my brain. It didn't really settle in until Friday evening, so Friday's subbing went okay.

I got the call around 6:15 a.m.: Lawrence High School, 9 a.m. until 3:05 p.m. (The regular teacher a had planning period for the first hour, and no duties during the zero hour, so I got to show an hour and a half later than usual.) Of course, I couldn't get back to sleep after waking up, taking down that information, going to the bathroom, going on the internet to find the exact location of the school, and verifying the work info online. So I had a leisurely breakfast, shower, and plenty of time to get my car de-iced before leaving. Which was good, because I had to circle the school to figure out where to park.

I had my doubts as to whether or not I should have taken this call, because the subject was Spanish, and I probably couldn't come up with a dozen words in Spanish, much less a conversation.

I had nothing to worry about. The Spanish II classes were working at a pretty lame level. They had quite a few vocab words under their belts, and they could read a passage and answer questions, but they weren't sitting around just talking with each other in Spanish. And I made it clear from the get-go that I would be unable to assist with Spanish related questions.

The Spanish V class was a different matter. Some of them actually talked with each other in Spanish when it wasn't part of the assignment. I was impressed. Not so much with their ability, but with their dedication, that they would maintain that level of practice even with a sub who didn't know any better.

My trouble situation on Friday involved a teacher's aid. She was an upperclassman with an attitude. When she came in I asked her what she usually did in class, and she told me she just "kicks." I take it that this is the latest version of "hang out". She also said that she usually just talks to a couple of students who sit near to her. The warning bells should have been going off at this point, but I am still learning. I asked her to go make some copies of an activity, as the teacher had instructed me to do. After she had come back, I was trying to interpret the lesson plan, and asked her opinion of the paper. Her response was to tell me, in front of all the students there, that the teacher never planned very well. The other students backed her up, and they all agreed that the teacher was usually just winging it.

So I made the judgment on the lesson plan on my own, which perhaps I should have done from the start. The students got to work, and I asked the aid to step out into the hall with me for a word. We had a bizarre little conversation that went something like this:

R: I don't appreciate you disrespecting the teacher in front of the class like that.

A: What do you mean?

R: Saying that she is disorganized, and that her plans are not very good.

A: I was just saying the truth. All the other students said so, too.

R: Yes, but you are the aid in this class. I expect you to be supportive.

A: I don't understand why I'm out here and no one else is.

R: Because you are the aid. You are not the same as the others.

A: Everyone knows that she's disorganized, so why are you picking on me?

The conversation kind of spiraled inward like that. She either wouldn't admit or couldn't see that she had disrespected her teacher, making my job more difficult. Eventually she just turned away from me and walked back into the room.

I have to admit, I was a bit upset at this. I decided that she was on her final warning, and that if she tested me again she was going to be sent to the office. Fortunately, she must have sensed this, because she sulked for the rest of the class. Perhaps she thought that her uncooperative silence would annoy me. Far from it. It freed me up to deal with the rest of the class, and there were no more problems.

I was kind of sad that she didn't say goodbye when she left the classroom, but I got over it.

In my last class I had to deal with a jock, one of the wrestling team. Big guy, and very cheerful. Liked to play dumb, but I think he may have been pretty smart. He demonstrated for me at one point that he could conjugate verbs on the computers well. He just wouldn't do his work unless I was nearby watching. The rest of the time he focused on entertaining himself and the people around him. Not in a bad enough way that disciplining him would have been worth the trouble, just enough to be annoying. I let him go to the restroom (probably a mistake) without paying attention to when exactly he came back (definitely a mistake). I'm not sure if he was gone just a few minutes or 10, which gave me nothing to work with. And of course, at the end of the class he was perched on a desk by the door, even though his desk was on the other side of the room. I tried to convince him to return to his desk, and he out-talked me. When the bell rang he was the first one out of the room.

Perhaps I am becoming a control freak, but the behavior of the aid and the jock very much offended my sensibilities. I feel that as a good teacher, I need to be in control of situations like that. Though they cause no serious harm in a one-shot substituting situation (at least no harm so far), I can see these behaviors dominoing in a regular, full-time class room. This time for me is like a laboratory, where I can experiment with discipline methods. As a sub, I often have little power or influence, so I have to leverage it to the maximum. Friday's experiences with the aid and the jock felt like minor failures to me. Dragged my grade for the day down to a B-. In both situations the solutions seemed clearer to me by the following day:

I should have told the aid that I was unhappy because she did not help me to understand the instructions, but rather added to the chaos in the room. Her attitude towards the teacher was secondary. Maybe she would have understood that. I'm not convinced that this would have worked. She felt to me like the kind of person who just never admits to making mistakes, so maybe I was doomed from the time I asked her to step outside.

On the other hand, she stayed out of my way for the rest of the class, so maybe I passed that little test after all.

With the jock, letting him go to the bathroom was the trigger. I should have reminded him that we are no longer in elementary school, and that he had only 50 minutes to go. Perhaps offering to let him go later in the hour if he seemed to be working well.

Oh, I almost forgot. One of my Friday classes was an ESL class. There were only four students, from [in the interests of privacy, I'm omitting their countries of origin]. We ended up just chatting the whole time. They were very curious about me, and asked a lot of questions. Except for the guy who didn't speak English. At all. He has been in the U.S. for a year. Told us (through the other [blank]-ish speaker) that he had worked at McDonald's. There was something very odd about that. A year of working at McDonald's should have at least taught him how to ask and answer the basic introduction questions.

The guy from [redacted] spent most of the class time working on an assignment for another class. I later saw him walking the halls. Apparently he has managed to wrap most of the teachers around his finger.

The guy from [Nunuvyabizness] stayed for my next class, Spanish V. Seems like he was a very good influence on the other students. They used him as a resource from time to time, without swamping him. Seemed like a good way to help him build a peer group, which can be difficult for an outsider who doesn't speak the language.

It was cool being back in an ESL setting. I didn't really teach anything, but I slipped back into the conversation-leader role quite easily. And I found that I can still speak "Special English." It sounds easy to most people: you speak slowly, with very clear enunciation, simple vocabulary, and minimize the idioms you use. Very vanilla. Almost everyone can slow down, but clear enunciation takes some work and focus. Most people can do it for a short time, but they start slurring and speeding up after only a few minutes. The vocabulary and idiom issues also take practice to eliminate, or "weed out". You are probably unaware of how many idioms you use in daily conversation until you have a classroom full of students who are puzzled every time you use one that they have not previously encountered. When my parents came to visit, my mother slipped more easily into this kind of language than my father. I was a bit surprised; my father taught high school shop for many years, and I had assumed that it would help him. The lesson I learned is this: talking to second language learners is not really the same as talking to people who aren't that smart. Not that all students who take shop aren't smart, but a lot of them are there to avoid more academic subjects.

It made me a bit homesick for Korea, actually. Puzzling out what someone is trying to communicate and teaching them the language skills to do it. It was fun stuff.

This may be my last post for a while. I work again tomorrow, then Chaeryon will arrive on Wednesday. That will take up the whole day for us, I'm pretty sure. Once she is here it will be the countdown to Christmas, which will definitely keep me busy on the work front.

Still, I will definitely get on the Roblog one more time before Christmas. Hopefully.

Peace,

Rob

3rd Sub

I was at Sunset Hill Elementary from 7:30 this morning until about 3:15. I taught a 3rd grade class. Easier than first, but not easy. I think it would have been easier if it hadn't started snowing around nine o'clock. Someone said, "Hey, it's snowing!" and the next thing I knew they were all gathered around the windows giving commentary on the weather. (e.g. "Wow, it's really coming down!" and "Look at how it's snowing!" and "Cool!")

The principal commented at the end of the day that you could feel the "Snow Energy" as you walked down the halls. The kids were abuzz with excitement, and everyone had to deal with it. Of course, dealing with it as a sub makes it that much more of a challenge, but I think I did okay. At least no one came to tell me that the class had been very loud.

It was fun to watch them at recess, goofing around in the snow, throwing it at each other, making tracks, and being silly. One kid was picking it up and dropping it on his own head. After all, it had stopped snowing, so he had to do something to bring back that loving feeling.

I spent the entire day five or ten minutes behind the schedule left for me. I felt kind of bad about it, but catching up just seemed impossible. Every time I figured we were going to catch up, the kids took five minutes longer than I expected.

They were reading (and studying) "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", one of my favorite books from back in the day. It was a bit difficult to do a discussion, because some of them had seen the movie, running some serious interference with the book. You don't have to think to make predictions about what might happen if you've already seen a version of what happened.

I learned one important lesson today: during silent reading time, I was struggling to deal with a full bladder. I told the class that I would be stepping out of the room for a minute or two, and that when I came back I would listen from outside the door. If it was quiet, every table would get a point, and if not, the tables I could identify would not. The principal was in the resource room outside the teachers' restroom, and I told him that I had stepped out briefly. He told me that he would go cover the class, which I thought was nice. When I got back he told me that it was school policy to not leave classes unattended for any length of time. A sensible rule for many reasons. If I had given it any serious thought, I might have called for help instead of just leaving, but for the last ten years I've been teaching people who can take care of themselves. Time for a paradigm shift.

After school I apologized, but the prinipal, Mr. Bay, told me not to worry about it, and that it was as much for my own legal protection as for the kids' safety. And he assured me that when he got to the class room you could have heard a pin drop. I will confess to a bit of pride at hearing that. Mr. Bay asked if I could give my contact information so that they could request me in the future, and once again I felt pretty good about the day.

I found Mr. Bay to be a very dynamic principal. He starts every day with a short assembly, which I saw today. A student read the announcements, and another student read the cafeteria menu for the day. (Breakfast burrito or french toast strips with a sausage patty, I had both. Not bad for caf food.) They introduced the school Watch Dog for the day, the father of one of the kids. I talked with the Watch Dog a bit during recess. It was his first time, and he enjoyed it. They basically have a parent around to walk the halls, provide a bit of additional security, as well as an occasional extra pair of hands. Good program. Mr. Bay knew lots of kids' names, and had a good rapport with the students. I'm guessing that my Uncle Tom Sack runs a similar ship up there in Effingham. (Curse the ham, we hates it! we hates it!)

The teacher had assigned a helper, Vivian (once again, I'm not using the kids' real names in these write-ups). Vivian is a nice girl, but a little high strung. I feel bad, because I may have piled that on her by telling her at the beginning of the day that I could really use her help to get through the day. I had to tell her a couple of times during the day that the best way she could help me was by not getting up without permission. So one more lesson there: don't depend too much on the helper.

The other kid that sticks out in my mind, besides little Anna with her twisted ankle, hobbling around on crutches in the snow!, was Steven. This boy had an attitude. He talked back to me in little, not-quite-over-the-line ways. If I were going to be back in that classroom tomorrow, I would start the day by having a little talk with Steven about respecting others. At one point a girl had accidentally bumped into him. Well, she said it was accidental. He argued repeatedly that she did it on purpose because she didn't like him. He then went on to show why she might not have liked him. I asked her what we say if we hit someone accidentally, and so she said she was sorry. Steven said he couldn't hear her. Fine. So she repeated it. Then he said he couldn't hear her again. I was starting to get a bit pissed at this point, but didn't say anything. He accepted the next apology, though with unsurprisingly little grace.

Here's my moment of regret: next time I will talk with "Steven" (in whatever class I come across him or her) about being kind and forgiving, and how other people see you. Of course, it would depend on having the proper time and place to do so. This kind of behavior is becoming too widely accepted in the world, and it is up to teachers to HELP with a more positive shift. I say 'help' because I'm sure that Steven has inherited his attitude from the people he lives with. I am also sure that his teachers have done what they could to improve that attitude, but no one has the effect of a parent.

Well lookie. It's 1:15 a.m. I'm not sure if I can keep up blogging about every classroom I spend time in, but I want to. I'm so tired that some of these lessons may not sink in if I don't reinforce them, so here I am. I hope it's also good reading for you.

Peace,

Rob

Substitute Teaching--Days 1 and 2

Last Friday I had my first subbing gig. Half a day (11:30-3:30) with 19 first graders at Deerfield Elementary School.

Needless to say, it kicked my butt from here to New Jersey and back.

The problem was this: I like kids that age. I love the way they completely accept you the moment their regular teacher says, "Mr. Sack is your teacher this afternoon. Be good for him!" I love the way many of them will come up and hug your leg within the first few minutes of being in the classroom. I love the way they talk, completely guileless, eager to speak their minds, and ready to please. I love watching them interact with each other, and I love trying to figure out what's on their minds. And all of that kind of gets in the way of being The Enforcer.

For the first hour or so, things quickly spiraled out of control. They started popping up out of their desks to go do stuff or talk to me, they started talking as they raised their hands (if they raised their hands at all), and I felt like I was herding 19 kittens. Then I took them to art class, which is in a different room with a different teacher. I had a chance to talk to another teacher in the same team, and she gave me some good advice.

When the kids came back from art, we went directly to recess. (Remember recess? That's like a coffee break, except you spend the entire time running, climbing or kicking a ball around, BY CHOICE. And you don't get coffee, thank God.) After recess, I asked them to sit down, and we had a little conversation about classroom rules and etiquette. I then told them that they had a choice about what kind of letter I would write to their teacher: a good letter, or a bad one.

I'm pleased to say that they chose a good letter. Unfortunately, they had already misbehaved, so they had to pay the consequence: Fun Friday was cut from 45 minutes down to less than 10. They didn't complain much, not after I got them to admit that they had been pretty rowdy.

I felt a little bad about letting them run amok. If I had cracked down from the first minute, they never would have gotten out of hand, and wouldn't have gotten in trouble. I made that clear in the note I left for the teacher. It was my first time to substitute in a long time: twelve or thirteen years. On top of that, they had just had a sub the previous day, so things were already a bit out of control.

However, it was a good return to subbing. Not too long for first graders, a well-organized teacher, and students that were ready to behave when handled correctly.

This morning (Tuesday) I got a call at 6:10 a.m. asking if I wanted to take an "Inter-Related Resource" position at West Jr. High. (The name is now a bit ironic, as it appears on a map to be almost in the exact center of Lawrence. Reflects how much the city has grown, I guess.) It turns out that Inter-Related Resource means Special-Ed, so I had a good day. There were paras (para-professional, a person trained to work with special needs students) for each kid there, and they kind of traded off jobs. I spent some time reading with Peter, and went to a regular photography class and a math class with John. I also spent a fair amount of time just having conversation with Peter, John and Chris. (I am just making up names for these kids, even though I can remember them right now. It just doesn't seem like a good idea to name names on a blog like this.)

Three or four of them were not capable of conversation per se. They had serious behavior issues, or just sat staring at nothing if not given instructions. James kept slapping his own legs, grinding his teeth, and making funny noises. He had an electronic device with USB ports that he could use to communicate. It was set up as a sort of hi-tech See and Say; he touches the picture(s) and it says what he wants to say. A speech therapist came in and worked with some of the kids, though I didn't see her work with James. She was working with Suzie, who had a tendency to just sit and do nothing until instructed by someone else. The therapist played a card game with her; she picked up the cards one at a time, and Suzie had to say what the card was. It was a pretty big deal for her. I never heard her make any other sounds the rest of the day. The other girl, Deana, was also very quiet. I found it interesting that the two girls were content to just sit in their chairs and watch videos (as we did through the afternoon, watching "Home Alone", "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and most of "Stuart Little"), but the boys wanted to be up and moving around, getting into stuff, talking with someone, or causing trouble.

Horyon commented that this is a good chance for me to try some different classroom styles on, and remind myself of how American schools are run. I am enjoying it so far. When I went to class with John, I was impressed by both the photography and math teachers. In the photography class she was juggling what seemed like half a dozen different tasks, and students at different stages in their projects, including some in the dark room and some outside writing up paragraphs about their photos. Once she had taken roll and reminded them of their tasks, she put some classic rock n roll on her computer speakers. It made the time pass quickly for me.

The math teacher was working on ratios and percentages with the class. Apparently she had driven the point home in an earlier class by dividing the class into different sized groups, and then passing out apparently random numbers of Skittles to each group to share. She had them report how many Skittles they had in their group, and wrote the numbers on the overhead so that they all knew what each other had. Then she made them come up with a solution to the fairness problem.

It struck me as a fantastic way to connect gut feelings to math. I imagined the students saying, "It's not fair that their group has four people and 90 Skittles, but my group has ten people and 27 Skittles!" Suddenly the words "ratio", "average" and "cross-product" have very practical meaning: they help make sure you don't get shafted on the Skittle count!

She also had them spend some time in the journal section of their notebook, writing a reaction to that Skittle activity from a previous day. I'm guessing that it was a review of what they had talked about in class, though I didn't find out for sure.

I ate lunch at the school cafeteria. I was starving, so I had some ravioli, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, beef stew and salad (all in small bowls), an orange, and a chocolate milk. Cost me three and a half bucks. Not a bad deal. It tasted exactly like I remember school cafeteria food tasting: boring. Not bad, just boring.

I ate my lunch in the classroom. While I was eating, John came up to me and started talking as he stood over me. I was listening, but I didn't stop eating. He told me a couple of things that I can't remember now, then he told me that there was someone he knew named ____ ______ , but she died, and she was his grandmother. Then he put his hands over his face and started sobbing very loudly. No transition at all. For a second or two I thought that he was pretending, forgetting that I was dealing with someone much simpler than your average 13-year-old. Before I could decide how to react, one of the paras came over and held him in her arms, a woman old enough to be his mother. She told him it was okay, and tried to distract him a bit. When he had calmed down some, I gave him a hug, too, and told him that my Grandfather had recently died. I then reminded him that we are still here, and we have each other.

John, Peter and Chris seemed to have a lot of the same educational skills as other kids their ages, but were socially and emotionally quite a bit behind. They actually reminded me of the first graders I had just taught the previous Friday in that respect; John came up to me when he first walked into the room and introduced himself. Chris told one of the paras that my name was just the same as a grocery bag. All three of them were my buddies from the get-go.

It was a good day. It's not what I want to do for a career, but it was good for me to be there. I think it would do many people good to spend some time in an environment like that once in a while. I was glad that I didn't have to work at Wal-Mart today, though. (I will resist the temptation to make comparisons, trusting that you, my faithful readers, will manage just fine on your own.)

Working two jobs isn't going to kill me, but it is going to make me tired. And I still haven't written about our new (to us) car. It will have to wait, as well as catching you up on Maxine. I am working on a Maxine update post, I promise. Please be patient with me, and try to be content with a picture of Maxine eating (a popular pose):
and a picture of her with her friends dressed up for Halloween:
Is she not adorable? And it's okay to say it, she's more adorable than her friends! I only wish that I could have dressed up as a clown, too.

I must especially beg Aunt Becky for forgiveness! I know I said I would do the Maxine pics tonight, but I just had to get this post written while it was fresh in my mind.

Peace,

Rob