Rollercoaster

It's been awhile again.  I've found it difficult to find the motivation to write something.  Also, most of my days are starting to feel pretty typical, even the more colorful days!  Today finally has given me something that feels "blog worthy." 

Today I subbed at one of the local junior high schools.  I've subbed for this teacher several times and now know the typical classroom routine.  This teacher does everything through power point and in the past has left me her login and password so that I can access her files and power point.  This morning, the login password didn't work.  I tried to mess around with the login a bit to see if she just missed the number or made another silly mistake, but none of my guesses produced a successful login.  I knew from the printed notes she left me that there was some sort of video that the power point had a link to.  I then logged onto the computer under my account hoping I could find some information or a link on the district website or perhaps a personal classroom website.  Again, even my technical wizardry couldn't produce the needed video for the days class.  Now in a slight panic, with only ten minutes before class started, I attempted to make a plan.  I looked through the worksheet they were supposed to fill out during the video and it seemed like the book could maybe provide some of the answers.  It would have to do for now, and perhaps the first period class may know more as to where to find the needed video.

All too soon, the first period kids trooped into the room.  I quickly took attendance and explained the situation to the class.  Luckily these students were eager to help and one of them bravely volunteered to log onto the student site to see if the needed link was there.  Unfortunately this only led me back to the same information I had found before school.  My next course of action was to hand out the worksheets, assign the reading and hoped it all would work out.  In the meantime, I sent the class TA to find one of the other science teachers that might know more about where the missing video was located.  A helpful teacher showed up at about the same time the students realized that the book wasn't very helpful in answering the worksheet questions because it didn't quite present the information in the same way.  So now I have thirty confused seventh graders with nothing to do, one helpful science teacher trying to work his technological wizardry on the computer, and one frazzled me.  Luckily the helpful teacher knew what it was I was looking for, even though he couldn't find it on the computer.  He then quickly got the needed disc from another teacher and I tried to get the students back to work.  Only for some reason, I can't find the right presentation on the disc.  I look around the information on the disc, I try to play a few of the slides, but nothing is quite right.  I again send the TA to ask the teacher who loaned us the disc if there is another disc with the right information.  A second helpful teacher arrives who informs me that the disc loads different material when you click "intermediate" or "advanced" on the loading screen and I apparently clicked the wrong one.  Finally I get the right video going and the students successfully answer all the questions for their worksheet!  Wheww.  And that was only period one.

The second period class I have to try and piece together what the rest of the days assignments are supposed to be.  I walk them through the video and worksheet and then assign them some of the reading and reflection questions from the book and then give them time to work on another worksheet.  By the end of the second period class I'm starting to get the flow of the class and decide that I've given the students enough work time that the second worksheet should be homework for tomorrow.  Third period also proceeds without incident.  At this point I'm starting to feel pretty good about my day as I go into lunch.

Then, fourth period happened.  Because I had already subbed for this teacher before, I knew there was a fairly difficult student in the fourth period class.  Ryan had worked pretty hard in my previous days to push my buttons and I knew today would probably be the same.  As soon as the video started, I noticed him folding paper stars and not really working on the worksheet.  At this point I wasn't too worried because he wasn't really bothering anyone else.  When I assigned the book-work, he continued his paper folding and then decided to distract his neighbor as well.  I tried to give Ryan options: either do his work or he could go to the office.  Unfortunately, the office seemed to be an enjoyable option for Ryan instead of motivation to work.  I could tell that his neighbor would get work done if he didn't have Ryan distracting him.  I decided to try and move Ryan to see if that would help the situation.  This sort of worked.  Ryan's neighbor did finally started working and actually finished almost everything (yeah!).  Ryan, however, did not get anything accomplished.  Instead he started making distracting noises to try and get attention from the rest of the class.  I decided to try and ignore the behavior to see if it would disappear.  Ignoring worked to an extent, and then Ryan tried bigger means of getting attention like falling off his seat.  After about half of the class time though, students were really trying to work on their assignment so they wouldn't have any homework.  No one was paying attention to Ryan, so he started calling students names to try and get their attention.  I was so happy when these students were so engrossed in their work that they didn't even look at Ryan.  At this, Ryan seemed to give up and just doodled and occasionally made a week effort to try and get attention again.

Then, I had my last class of the day.  I'm not sure I ever have enjoyed a science class so much (except for maybe the "lab" in high school where we got to make ice cream sundaes).  This class got really into the video explaining earth's layers.  Together as a class we made a lot of food analogies about the layers.  I think my favorite thing that came out of this was a student noting that basalt (the main component of the oceanic crust) was like B-A salt.  It quickly became a class joke that the salt was BA!  We also compared continental crust and oceanic crust to pizza crust (deep dish and regular crust!).  It was a bit surreal going from such a hard classroom management class to one that was so easy.  This is one of the reasons why I often find teaching high school and junior high easier than subbing for elementary schools.  With the older students, I get a whole new class after fifty minutes.  With elementary students, if there's a difficult student, I have to deal with him all day long!  Mostly, though, I'm glad my day ended with a positive classroom experience.

I sure know how to pick 'em

It's been a little while since my last post.  Mostly, my life has been a bit crazy of late, and I didn't have time or the motivation to blog.  The school district is also coming off mid-winter break as well as a few snow days, so there hasn't been a lot of school to blog about lately.  Here is an update about life at school in the last several weeks.

A few weeks ago, I arrived at school and noticed a police car as well as a fire truck parked in front of the school.  I knew I was in for an exciting day.  I checked to make sure there wasn't a gathering of students and faculty outside somewhere before I headed inside the building.  Inside, I discovered that there was a gas leak somewhere in the building and we were ushering students into the commons and teachers were waiting in the lobby until there was more news.  Right before school was scheduled to begin, the principal explained to the teachers that there was a gas leak, but the school's equipment was pumping the gas outside and the building was safe for classes as usual for the rest of the day.  Amazingly, class pretty much did go as usual.  Luckily my lesson plans for the day were very simple (students working individually on computers) so I didn't lose before school prep time.  Besides a little extra chatter and reassurance to the students that the building was not going to explode (I hoped!), it turned out to be a pretty regular day.  It just started more exciting than most.

Then, last week I had my second unplanned fire alarm.  I had just sat down to enjoy my lunch when the sirens and flashing lights started.  I abandoned my warmed noodles and shuffled hurriedly to my classroom, grabbing the emergency folder and stealing a pencil for attendance from the nearest desk.  I didn't even pause to lock my door.  I followed the flow of students to the football field where I somehow managed to locate and recognize my homeroom class.  I managed to find all my students and confirm that they were in fact a part of my class.  And then, I waited.  First, we waited for the fire department to arrive.  Then we waited for the all clear from the administration.  My fellow teachers and I found some comfort that the whether had at least stopped raining while we maintained our chilly vigil.  Every twitch from the administration sent ripples of hope through waiting crowd of students and teachers.  Finally, they tell us all that's it safe to reenter the school.  Later, I found out that a student burned his cooking in home ec. (or "consumer living" as this school calls that class).  All this to say, I sure find the best days to be a sub!

Gold Star of the Week: Favorites

Yesterday I subbed at one of the local high schools.  I've been there several times including one day last October where I spent all day supervising a study hall while half the school took the PSAT.  During one of the sessions that day, one of my students was helping a friend "Maria" create a character for an RPG game that I also play.  I had a fantastic time chatting with them about the game and they also seemed to have a great time.

Well, yesterday I had one of the students in my class again.  When she saw me she said, "It's my favorite sub, and we're watching my favorite movie today!"  Totally made my day!  This is why Maria is my Gold Star of the Week!  Congrats Maria.

Also, said movie was the end of "Dead Poet's Society.  Unfortunately, my first period class didn't quite get to finish the film.  They wound up ending right after the main character kills himself and then all his friends found out and were really sad.  Yup, that's how I began the day with thirty tenth graders.  I apologized for starting their day off with a depressing film and promised that it would be much better when they finished the film tomorrow!

Stars of the Week 1/28/11

It's that time again: it's time for star of the week. This week we have an entire class! That's right, there are twenty-three shining stars this week! I was so honored to be asked by a teacher to return to her classroom as her substitute. Tuesday I was back with the same fabulous fourth grade class in which I experienced my first elementary fire drill. Well, I thought these students were great before, but it seems as if these students are now even better. The teacher recently instituted giving points randomly to table groups as an incentive program for good behavior. The teacher instructed me to give out points to whichever groups whenever I wanted to. Because the students were so intent on getting points for their groups, they were pretty much silent the entire morning. Not that these kids don't know how to have fun! They were great at offereing suggestions and answering questions during our science discussion on water. I had such a great time giving points to "super chickens" (I'm not sure what that means, but that's whatthe teacher calls the points program). I hope I get the opportunity to visit these fourth graders again.
I also have two runner-ups for the week as well. Last Friday I subbed for an elementary drama teacher. I was so excited to see what an elementary drama class looks like. The teacher is currently teaching a dance unit and is teaching all her students how to tap dance. I was so disappointed I didn't know this and left my tap shoes at home. The teacher scheduled pairs of sixth grade students to come to each of her three classes for the day (grades K-2nd) and teach the dance lesson for the day. I am so impressed with the sixth grade students that taught with me. They did an excellent job explaining, showing, and helping the students master the different steps. My first two groups in particular were very patient and paced the class perfectly for such young learners.
My other runner-up is actually the teacher I'm working for today. He teaches high school social studies and left me the answer key to his current class's worksheet on democracy. Students were supposed to read through "democratic scenarios" and decide which democratic attribute the scenario failed to live up to. The teacher based each scenario on a real country or historical political system. My favorite answer was describing a democratic system that was used in order for a leader to become a dictator (based on Nazi Germany). The teacher also explained that many dictators have used democracy to come to power. His note said, "It (democracy being used to creat dictatorship) has happened many times, with Rome (Caesar), France (Napoleon), Hitler, and Chancellor Palpatine in Star Wars!" This totally made my day.
Thanks to my wonderful stars of the week and my equally fabulous runner-ups!

Last Weeks Star

Last Friday was a bit busy, so I didn't get a chance to post my star of the week.  This star comes complete with a story about my day teaching band.

I have a bit of a musical background.  I took piano lessons from my grandmother pretty much from the time I could sit upright on a piano bench through junior high.  This foundation in music prepared for high school and now church choir with basic theory and note reading skills.  I've usually been able to work through my music substitute positions on these skills alone.  The upper level teacher's generally assume a random sub won't have much musical background and either assign a student to take charge or schedule non-music things for the students to do like watch a film.  Sometimes I've had to direct a choir through a few warm-ups or exercises, but I never had to do anything that I felt was over my head.

Until last Wednesday.  I substituted for a junior high band and choir teacher.  The day I happened to sub the teacher only taught one class, but it was band.  A huge seventh grade band.  Oh, and I also had them in class for an hour and a half.  They were practicing for a concert in a few weeks and couldn't afford to have the day off of practice.  So I was given the score for their three songs and a little information about warm-ups.  I was terrified!  I've never really conducted anything, much less conducted a band through several songs I had never heard before.

The bell rings for class and the students troop in.  They then noisily set up their instruments, and after a reasonable amount of time, I step up to the conductor's podium and begin the class.  I tell the students we're going to be warming up with a B flat scale.  I am then told I need to conduct them through it using the solfege sign language symbols.  Great!  I at least know that this exists, but I have no idea what they are.  A helpful student pulls out his chart and I attempt to make the correct hand signals throughout the scale.  The students somehow figured out when to play the next note!

Next, I jump into the songs.  I pick one of the three to start with and ask the students sitting closest to me to give me an approximation of the songs starting tempo.  They thankfully let me know that it speeds up in two different places of the song and then give me the starting tempo.  I then gripped my pen as if it were a magical wand that would somehow give me conducting prowess, and I flapped my arms imitating the movements I'd seen my choral conductors use.  Perhaps my pen did have magic because the students began to play.  We made it through the song without any major incidents, though I did get a little lost in the score halfway through and kept flapping my arms for a measure after they finished playing.  I decided they needed to practice the song again, just for good practice and I repeated the same movements with my magic conducting pen.

Then we moved on to their second piece.  I once gain had the front row students give me the tempo and swished my arms through the song.  Miraculously, I even had tips for the students to work on in our second time through the song.  The brass section was pushing the tempo too much when they joined the clarinets in the middle of the song.  We tried the song again, and they took my advice; the song was much more in control.  Finally, we moved on to the last song.  This is where my magic wand failed me.  The students obviously did not know this song as well as their other pieces.  I was also told the tempo was fast, but changed a few times throughout the song.  Even worse, the time signature changed from 4/4 to 3/4 for random measures throughout the piece.  Well, my three attempts to get the class through this song dissolved into utter chaos after the first random time signature measure.  Finally, my helpful tempo-keeping student volunteered to try and conduct the class through the song since she was more familiar with the piece.  She somehow got the class through the song, though it was quite rough.  After that, the class wanted to play through their pep band songs.  I obliged, and we played through some classic pep songs like "Louie Louie" and some non-traditional ones such as "Bad Romance" (Yup, bands are playing Lady Gaga, took me by surprise too).  After we played through all their pep songs, there was about ten minutes left of class.  I figured the students worked very hard and they told me they rarely played the entire class period when they had a long period.  I gave the students the time to pack away their instruments and just hang out.

As for my star of the week, I couldn't have gotten through this class without the wonderful clarinet player that gave me the tempo for all the songs as well as a few tips for getting the class's attention.  She totally stepped up and gave conducting a try, which was probably as terrifying for her as it was for me.  So, tempo-guru clarinet player, you're my Star of the Week!

Fire Drill

The other day, I completed my first successful elementary fire drill.  I found elementary fire drills quite different from high school fire drills.  First, the other teacher announced to my class that there was going to be a fire drill that day.  I am so used to fire drills always being a surprise to the students.    I think part of the announcement was the students had to help me find the emergency bag and clipboard before the fire drill (they were tucked into a closet).  I made sure I knew how many students I had and when the alarm sounded, we trooped out to the soccer field. Unfortunately it was a cold drizzly morning.  Luckily it wasn't pouring rain like it had been the day before!  Once on the field, I counted my students.  Unfortunately there were only 26.  I needed 27!  Quickly I count the students again.  Still 26.  I think, the last student had come back from his ELL class fifteen minutes before the alarm.  I try to yell at the kids to make a straight line so I can count again.  Finally, the last teacher to get their kids counted, I get the last student (who I think was talking with a friend in the next line over).  I was worried because when I worked at the junior high, I was told that sometimes the fire department "steals" a kid to make sure that teachers are actually counting their students.  But, at the elementary level, it seems that the fire department isn't as sneaky.  In fact, they weren't even there.  The principal was running the fire drill show!  Overall, I had a feeling that this year would be the year of the fire drill!  Now the only substitute horror story left to finish is teaching sex ed.  I still got four months left for that.

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!