Winter Break

I know this may sound a little self-serving, but I'm giving myself the Gold Star of the Week award.  Surviving the week before Christmas break as a substitute is an amazing feat!  My week constited of self-contained elementary special education, second grade, fourth grade, second grade again, and eigth grade humanities.  Let me tell you, students are ready for break!  They are very ready for break!!  Every day this week has been a management struggle.  Students have a hard enough time paying attention in the last days before a two week break, but you add onto that a new temporary teacher who doesn't know what she's doing and it's a disaster waiting to happen.  I have never been so grateful for elementary teacher's management systems.  I gave students checks and "color-changes" more than I ever have in all my substitute work combined.  I think I am equally grateful for the upcoming break and the much needed rest that will accompany it.

In other news, today I am back at the junior high school where I completed my student teaching one year ago today.  I started my day at the starbucks down the street from the school, just like I did a year ago.  In that moment, I realized just how much I've grown in the year since my student teaching.  I am a much more confident teacher.  You have to be as a substitute.  I have learned so much patience.  I smile and tell eight year olds to return to their seats for the sixteenth time that day.  I painstakingly describe how to write a well-developed paragraph to junior high students.  I laugh and ignore the high school students trying to embarrass my with their inuendo.  Very little phases me now.  So readers, this is me, signing off for 2010, grateful for the experiences I've had and looking forward to the new stories to tell in 2011.

Gold Star of the Week

It's the second Gold Star of the Week.  This gold star is brought to you today by a lovely first grader.  Just as I dismissed my first grade class to recess on Tuesday, Suzy came up to me and started crying.  Suzy missed her mommy and wanted to go home.  I gave little Suzy a big hug and promised her that her mother would come pick her up after school like she always does.  After a few moments of comfort, fellow classmate Sarah came up and tried to cheer up Suzy by showing her the nice purple dragon stuffed animal that she had.  Sarah also offered to play with Suzy during recess.  Because of Sarah's kindness, Suzy had a great day and a wonderful recess.  For her kindness and for bringing a rockin' purple dragon to school, Sarah wins my Gold Star of the Week!  Congratulations Sarah

*Note*  I have changed all students names (and this is true in every blog post) to protect the privacy of my students.

What's in a Name?

I know I've written before about names.  This is not a post about the interesting names that I've come across over my months of subbing.  This post is about my ineptitude at correctly pronouncing names.  Even easy names!   There are so many names where one small letter can change the pronunciation, and more importantly the gender, of a name.  Like the name Louis.  I know that this is generally a boys name.  Yet, is it pronounced like C.S Lewis or like the king of France.  Then you can add an "e" to make it Louise.  I have to somehow have to remember in the split second that I look at the name on my attendance list how I'm supposed to say this name.  I often get it wrong, and in turn get laughed at by the class.  I have a similar problem with Gabriel and Gabrielle.  There's just not enough time in my brain to make a decision and correctly impart to my mouth how I'm supposed to say the name.

More embarrassing is my inept ability to say easy names I've seen all my life.  I could blame it on the mass population of Indians (East Indian, not Native American) in the area.  For some reason, I've started to pronounce the name Adam  "Uh-dom."  There really is no reason that I should think that name is said that way.  I really do no better.  One of the first Bible stories I learned was Adam and Eve.  My last manager was named Adam, and I was his assistant!  I've met numerous Adams in my life and never tried to call them "Uh-dom."  I think the constant change in students is starting to mess with my brain ability.

It's for these very language mix-ups that I've started to warn students about my roll-call failures.  I always tell them to just say "here" if they hear their name or something that sounds similar to their name.  I really hope these students can forgive my failure to say names correctly.

New Feature

I decided that I need something to keep me posting more regularly.  An idea came to me yesterday that I should make a special once a week feature to make sure I at least have one post a week.  I've decided to call this feature:  The Gold Star of the Week.  I occasionally joke with students that say cool things or make cool answers that they get extra credit or a gold star.  Well, as a sub, these "awards" don't really count for much.  They won't really count for much on here either, but at least I'll remember the fun and funny incidents at school.

This weeks gold star of the week goes to Harry Potter loving high school girl in the hall.  This girl is the first person to recognize the scarf I knit for myself as a Ravenclaw scarf.  I'm not counting the people that I told I was making a Ravenclaw scarf or the people that knew because I was wearing it at the movie premier.  So, hats off to you girl in the hall!

Runner-up goes out to the student today that said I was the "Luna" substitute because I look like Luna from Harry Potter (I think I had a themed week :)

Look forward to new feature ever Friday!  Have a good weekend everyone.

Finished

I finished reading XKCD today at school.  Now what do I do during my free time?

SNOW

Today is my first sort of snow event as a substitute.  I live in an area of the country where it snows very rarely.  When there is any snow, people tend to freak out and close everything because no one really has the necessary equipment to get to work and keep the roads clear.  This morning, it was snowing lightly when I went to school.  Several other school districts had a late start or had already announced an early release because temperatures are expected to drop and more snow is expected to fall.  This morning marked off and on snow flurries.  For once, I am a bit sad to have a classroom with several large windows.  Almost an entire wall is made of windows.  As if being a substitute wasn't bad enough. . . as if working three days before Thanksgiving wasn't enough. . . as if working within view of snow wasn't bad enough.  So far classes have been ok.  There's definitely a bit of a "we're not having school tomorrow so I don't have to work on this assignment" kind of feeling though.  I have two more ninth grade classes, so we'll see what happens.  I'm still trying to get a job for tomorrow, but it could be a very interesting Thanksgiving week!

Update

So much has happened since my last blog but nothing seemed worthy enough no get an entire blog to itself.  Today will be a hodge-podge of my goings on in the last few weeks.

First, I finally got my first full pay check of the school year.  Because the ridiculous pay-periods and only getting paid once a month, my first paycheck for an entire month of subbing came last Friday.  It was a very exciting day because my husband and I were at zero dollars and hadn't really been able to buy anything for a long time.  We celebrated by grocery shopping and feasting on our shopping spoils.  And there was much rejoicing in the Snyder household.

I also received several apology letters from some not so stellar sub experiences.  These letters reminded me of my own assigned apology letters (see previous blogs for more info).  First, several weeks ago I subbed in an ELL classroom for a friend of mine.  I had one class that was terribly noisy.  It was pretty sad because it was even a fun listening exercise with a scene from the movie "Coraline."  My friend made them all write me apology letters in English.  I'm sure it was great practice for them and they were great fun to read.  I also was mailed apology letters from the girls I ninja attacked.  They all said they were sorry and would be more respectful of a sub in the future.

This week seems to be specialist week.  Every assignment is just a little bit out of the ordinary classroom experience.  Monday I taught preschool.  This was an exhausting day working with teachers who have been together for a very long time.  It was quite frustrating because they weren't real great at telling me what I could do.  They were however fantastic at telling me what I shouldn't do!  The next day I taught elementary English.  I was there on the one day that the teacher didn't have a break except for lunch.  After about ten classes teaching the same lesson, I was ready for a nap.  Yesterday I worked in an elementary special education transition room. This was basically the self-contained children with more severe disabilities.  This day I had fabulous para educators that helped show me what to do with the children.  Once I figured out the schedule and rotations I was able to jump right in and help out.  The paras were impressed with my fearless attitude and hoped I would return again as a sub in their classroom.  Today I taught two periods of Jr. high Spanish. I am so grateful for a pretty easy morning.  Tomorrow I return to the same school for Jr. high P.E.  As usual for me there's nothing normal in my schedule.

Best of all, next week is vacation.  I get to spend an entire week in Hawaii with my wonderful husband and parents.  I am so in need of this break.  I am ready for the sun, the sand, and the great company.  So until next time, this is your sub chronicler saying, "Aloha!"