It is my fifth year subbing. I like the special ed classes, reading classes, and elementary grades. Each year I seem to form a bond with one of the schools more than the others. It all just rotates around. Recently, I've been showing up at the K-2 school. I can look for sub jobs and plan my month a bit with a program called Aesop. I looked a few weeks ago and saw Kindergarten was open. It was a 4 day job but taught by a man (MA) who has good control on the class. I thought about it. I kept watching and nobody was picking it up. I wrote an email and told him I could do 2 maybe 3 days but I was pretty sure I didn't have the stamina to do 3.
After sending MA the note, I was in his building again. He found me and told me, he would consider my request but was really hoping for the same sub. Then MA told me he had a full-time Paraprofessional (teacher's aide - TA) which made the class so much more fun. MA also indicated that I could assist and let TA do most of the hard teaching. I indicated that I liked his classes because he usually had great control over his classroom but that meant, he was often given the toughest kids. MA smiled, nodded and indicated that is why TA was a full-time aide in his room. TA smiled and indicated she'd happily teach anything I was uncomfortable with. So they won, and I signed up.
Monday was a dream. What a great class - even with a new student! TA did the teaching while I assisted and learned the procedures. MA's class doesn't vary too much, it was easy to follow the routine. I had a good time and thought maybe kindergarten was my new favorite class. Tuesday came along and I did a little bit more on the teaching side of things. There was a bit of discipline breakdown - kids will push buttons, but it wasn't too bad. There is one student who cries whenever things don't go his way exactly. He mostly got ignored. One student whose speech is hard to understand but generally pretty well behaved. One student that needs the TA to remind him how to handle himself in the classroom and else where. One very pretty girl, who also has speech problems and is hard to understand. 18 kids in all and by Tuesday, I already knew who would fly with the concepts and those who would struggle.
TA had some special projects she wanted to try. One coincided with the shapes they were learning. I love doing this kind of teaching and was ready to follow her lead. We were going to have shapes all cut out and ready to go (their time is pretty limited for these activities). Then they could chose any color and number of shapes to glue a picture on paper. TA's eyes suddenly lit up and she wondered if the pictures wouldn't look better on black paper. Yes! We told the kids to play with the shapes for a bit and arrange them on the paper anyway they wanted to. They could make anything they wanted. I found it interesting that the lower learners were very good at this and made some beautiful designs. Most looked like stained glass windows when they were done gluing. This ended up being a two day project but they worked diligently. Yay, us!
There were a few fill in spots with nothing planned. So I brought out good ole' "Where is Thumbkin?" Some of the kids knew this, the new kid knew it and changed the words from "How are you today, Sir?" to "How are you today, Friend?" I liked that better - it could be generic. Of course, when we got to Tall man (middle finger) a few students piped up and said, "That's a bad finger!" I ignored them. Kindergartners shouldn't know that. It was a big hit, especially with Pinky and All of them. Right on cue, after we were done with "Here we are!" "Here we are!" The school counselor came in and did an activity about being mindful.
This exercise included a glass of water. We sat in a circle and we were told to be mindful-to really think about the water in the glass. We should pass the glass to our neighbor and if we were mindful, we could do it without spilling. We could and did! Then she told us to close our eyes, but that we should still be able to do this without spilling or talking. We did it! Then she told us that she'd tell us to reverse so we'd have to change directions. They did great (and I did, too). Finally we passed two glasses of water. They were quiet for half an hour, it was wonderful!
Wednesday, was a little crazier. More talking, less listening. More team teaching between TA and I. We had some trouble with the Smart Board - it might be smart but we weren't. TA really wanted to to use the digital pen to help the kids with their math homework. We finally pulled in a teacher from next door and she got a pen to work. TA picked a pen and it wrote orange, eventhough it was red, same with green - it was orange, blue wasn't going to be left out, it was orange, too. Black joined the game and put his orange on also. Then she picked up the digital eraser to make it all go away. Nope - orange smears all over the board. The kids laughed at us, we shrugged our shoulders and carried on.
There was an unplanned naptime on Wednesday - chatty kids, breaking rules, not listening. I was ready for a time out, but TA was gone so I couldn't go to my pouting corner. I made everyone go to their seats and put their heads down. I cooled down, they rested, and we began anew. Because of this they missed their center time. I would feel really bad about this but they seemed a bit bored with the centers I was told to let them do. Except for Leggos. Leggos are always a hit. And the day ended and I went home and took a wee nap before going to church for Lenten services.
I was warned by TA before I left school on Wednesday that MA would be in early on March 17th and would reign havoc on his room. The Leprechauns, you know? He would also hide gold for the kids to find. I arrived and checked in. The secretary told me I would need a key to get into the classroom because there had been a break in. It took me a minute - I thought she meant a real break in. I knew TA was planning on footprinting Leprechaun footprints all over the room and I thought a few buckets of toys would be strewn around. TA was in the foyer area, looking like a Leprechaun and talking with an Irish accent -her accent sounded pretty good to me, but would probably make a true Irishman cringe. She was smiling from ear to ear. "I hear there was a wee bit of mischief happenin' in our room, lassie!" she says with a glimmer in her eyes.
I thought I was prepared. I wasn't. I unlocked the door and it was a mess!!! Tables were overturned. Chairs were spread everywhere. Every bin that contained some sort of item was strewn across the floor. The big rug was made to look like a tent. Books were topsy turvy. Little leprechaun feet were everywhere along with "gold dust". One student had made a leprechaun trap. The leprechauns made short work of it. That snooty leprechaun took the gold pieces (chocolate candy) and pulled the wrapper off, took a wee bite and left it on the floor. The trap was pulled apart, too. Needless to say, the trap didn't work. Some teachers peeked in. The best part of the day was that the teachers felt sorry for me all day long!
The children were delighted! I told them that the leprechauns probably hid some gold somewhere and they should look for it while they cleaned up. They looked for it, and slid on toys. I was afraid someone was going to slide right into a table and have stitches, so the toys got picked up first. Table were put to rights and chairs put in place. The rug was put down properly and they finally found the gold as I played "hot and cold" with them. Each student received a $1 gold coin. They were happy. Happily for me, they did settle down pretty quickly and weren't much of a handful the rest of the day. A snack bribe of chocolate mint oreos in the afternoon was a great tool. Thanks, MA. Whew! We even took some time to finish their shape-stained glass window AND write a story about those pesky leprechauns.
It ended up being a fun day and fun week. I had asked everyone I knew to pray for me as I have grown acccustomed to living the life Riley and wasn't sure I could get through a whole week. God was gracious in giving me a yes answer to that.
I did have some fun with MA - the teacher I subbed for. I wrote him a long note about the sorry mess his room was in when I arrived. I stated that the rumors were that it was he, himself, who had done the damage. I was pretty sure however, that a minimilist and neat and tidy man such as himself wouldn't dare do such thing so I was squealching the rumors whenever I heard them. However, his class was pretty sure it was the leprechauns and he should stick with their story because they would be his best defenders. I also stated that it appeared the topsy turvy room caused no undue psychological damage, but he might want to be sensitive to PTSD for a few days. And while I left the room after school to return some items I had borrowed from others in the school, those pesky leprechauns were back! They had cleared nearly every item off his desk. Most items were gone! I think I interrupted them before they managed to lift the computers, though. Good luck filing the police report. (Yes, it was me, I hid everything I thought I could.) I happened to be there when he returned to school. He asked how it went. I just shook my finger at him. He had the audacity to laugh! Then he read my note and laughed some more! I think I got the last laugh. He told me in an email that he found his pencil/pen holder right away but his teacher's manuals, stapler, tape, leader stickers and the remote to run the smart board took him a bit longer.
All in fun. I'll probably sub for him again if asked.
