The First Week

School has been in session for a week now, and I already have stories!  I've been blessed to find half day jobs for every day but the first day of school so far (more on this blessing in a future blog).  My first day I was covering for a teacher who only needed to leave for an hour but by contract the sub has to have either a half day (3.5 hours) or full day (7 hours) of work.  So, I bounced around to a few different classrooms performing odd jobs to help several different teachers.

My second day was very similar.  I taught two periods for an orchestra teacher and showed films to both classes that the students were uninterested in.  It made for two very long hours.  After the classes, the office was supposed to put me to work but they had nothing for me to do.  I spent the extra hour and a half reading.

Yesterday (Tuesday because of the holiday weekend)  I again read in the teacher's lounge for an hour and a half due to a lack of busy work.  Then I taught two periods of junior high English.  I had a fabulous discussion with the 7th graders about what makes good writing.  After explaining that showing in writing is always better then telling, one student asked if that meant film was better then books.  I then engaged the students in a conversation about how film and books were very different mediums and each did different things better than the other.  We then played a rousing descriptive game where each member of the class had to describe part of their "dream car."

Today I had a job teaching at a special school for performing arts and reasoning.  The teacher I worked for teaches English, social studies, and performing arts.  Today I taught two performing arts classes that were a blast.  I led the class in warm-ups and led them through several dance exercises.  At the end of the day, the teacher was interested in my endorsements because she is having a baby in the spring and needs a long term sub.  She was very excited that I have a theatre endorsement as well as the English endorsement.  If all goes well, I'll get a few months teaching in the same classroom.  There are a few hiccups that might get in the way, but I'm very hopeful that this will work out for next spring.

I've got a few more jobs already scheduled for the next few weeks.  I'm very surprised and grateful that I acquired so many jobs so quickly.  I'm hoping the rest of the year is just as fruitful as these first few days.