Star of the Week

This week I have a bunch of students that could be my Gold Star of the Week.  Today, I am choosing the marketing/entrepreneurship class at one of the local high schools.  This class runs the student store at school that sells school apparel, lunch food, and snacks during lunch.  The students in this class ran the store all by themselves.  The got everything together, ran the tills, and even closed out the tills at the end of lunch.  I was very impressed with how professional the students acted.  They did a fabulous job serving their fellow students even though half the class was gone on a field trip.  I literally just sat in a chair and watched them work all class period long.  And so high school Marketing/Entrepreneurship class, you're the Gold Star class of the Week!

Burning the Candle

Teachers work hard.  Teachers work very hard!  I found out just how hard a teacher's work really is last week.  A few summers ago, I had a summer job nannying a two year old girl.  Since then, I've filled-in for their school year nanny off and on.  Last week I worked substituting and also nannying the now three year old after school.

It was quite the exhausting week.  Three days I went directly from school to pick up the three year old from daycare.  Wednesday I took a half day in order to meet up with a friend visiting from Japan (miss you already ReBekha!)  Monday I left to teach at 8, went from school to pick up the child at 4, and went from that work to dance class.  I came home at 9.  Gone for over twelve hours.  Uhhhh! 

It wasn't just the hours that were long either.  One day I showed up and the teacher had no idea I was coming.  This happens occasionally when the teacher is absent because of a class or meeting for the school district.  The district sometimes puts the substitute position into the system and if the teacher forgets about the class.  Thursday night, the child decided to scream at me for 45 minutes mostly because she didn't take a nap and was exhausted.

I am so glad that most days and weeks I don't have a second job.  Most days I would just go home and go to bed at the end of the night.  I can hold on to double duty days for a little while, but I'm content to just work one job!  I'm also so happy I didn't have to worry about grading or planning for teaching.

Star of the Week

This was an interesting week to pick a Gold Star award.  Everything seemed to go by in a blur.  I am very grateful that all my classes this week were absolutely fabulous.  I came to a second grade class on Monday expecting the worst.  I assumed students would be wild and crazy from their holiday break.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that students were pretty quiet and respectful throughout most of the day.  I had my first elementary school fire drill this week that went mostly well after I found all my students.  I also got to teach at a special district school that primarily teaches classes to home school students.  Children and their parents choose which classes their student to take and they go to school for only those classes.  I had mostly small classes that day and great students.  I am so grateful to have had wonderful students this week because I've been pretty busy (too much to explain in this blog, but perhaps I'll write again over the weekend or on Monday).

I have to give my Gold Star award to a group of sixth grade boys.  Wednesday I taught a half day for an elementary special education teacher.  She primarily did reading, writing, and math support for mainstreamed students.  I was playing some word games with these students and quickly realized I had some very strong personalities in the group.  I started to play a game that was a lot like Million Dollar Pyramid.  One student would pick a card and have to describe the word or give examples of the category to the group until they guessed the right thing.  It took several rounds for the students to understand how to play the game.  At first they tried just describing the words, which doesn't really work for a category like things in the refrigerator.  Then they had trouble not saying the words on their card.  Finally they all understood the game and really got into it.  There were several rounds where the game got super intense and the students started shouting out answers.  It was exciting to see them so excited, though shouting isn't really a great idea when you share a classroom with another teacher.  I am very proud of these boys for sticking with the game even though it was difficult at first.  I had a wonderful time with them and the hour went by quickly and with little problems.  So, sixth grade special education reading class, you're my Gold Star of the Week Winners

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.