As most of you know, I work as a building sub at an amazing elementary. I've worked with all the kids from Kindergarten to 5th grade and know them all pretty well by now. They all love me, and I love working with them. They are all very respectful and nice, even the ones who come from rougher families. Of course, I especially love the younger grades - that's why my certificate is EARLY childhood education. Although I'm certified to teach preschool to 3rd grade, I don't even care to go that high. Second grade is as high as I've ever wanted to teach. Although, you don't always get a say in what grade you teach, and that is especially true when you are subbing. You are asked to go all over the place as a sub, and in my position I could be in kindergarten one period, then up to 5th grade, then I head on over to special ed. But I know the kids, and it's fun. Today was different though. My school had parent-teacher conference today so they didn't need me. I could have just taken the day off and lounged around in my fuzzy socks all day, but I needed the money, especially with all these snow days and the fact that we just lost our food stamps! I went to another district to see if they needed subs for today and they were looking for a sub to teach 12th grade social studies. I've never wanted to sub in a high school before, but with all the experience I've had out of my comfort zone in 5th grade I figured it couldn't be too bad. You can do anything for a day, right? (Especially if they offer you $100.) I guess I survived, so I shouldn't complain too much, but I should have stayed at home in my fuzzy socks.
To put this day into perspective for you: I've never taught a grade higher than 5th (in a terrific school), I've only been taught HOW to teach up to 3rd, and I've never attended public school higher than 2nd (I home schooled after that). I had no idea what to expect going in today.
First period I had to supervise all the kids who had in school suspension. Luckily for me, there was only one student in there today. I thought it was going pretty well and that he was behaving very nicely until a lady came in to give him some work to do. He simply said "no" while she was in the room, but after she left he started shouting that he wasn't going to do any work. He tossed his work onto the next desk and sat there muttering under his breath for 3-4 minutes. He quieted down for a while, but after another couple of minutes he stood up to come toward me. I thought he was going to ask me a polite question but instead he threw his work in the garbage and started muttering under his breath again. I wasn't trying to make a good impression on anyone in the school, so I didn't feel like correcting his behavior. I just ignored him and started practicing my cursive handwriting to pass the time. As long as he wasn't hurting me, himself, the building, or anyone else, I didn't care.
And that's about how I spent the next 8 hours of the day; writing in cursive and ignoring the students' bad behavior. I went back to the social studies classroom and every 45 minutes a new class would come in, ignore me while I tried to take roll, listen to about half the directions I gave them, and then continue to talk to their friends. For all the personal finance classes we went down the hall to the computer lab so they could work on an essay about careers they thought they might like. The moment I unlocked the door to the lab the kids scattered to a computer. Some kids did their work. They talked the whole time, but they worked. Others spent the entire time watching movies, playing games, instant messaging, shopping on the Lids website, researching cell phones, or texting on cell phones. There was even one group of boys who were playing music on their computer speakers and singing along to it! They didn't once work on their assignment. Everyone knew I was watching them, but they didn't care. And the language of these kids! In 5th grade kids will tell if someone says "shut up" but I guess in 12th grade anything goes - every other sentence!
In American Government the kids were supposed to use rulers to draw time lines of important events. Some kids used them to draw straight lines, but others saw them as good weapons. I'll give them one thing, they were creative. They used an ordinary ruler to battle in a sword fight, slice across arms (luckily it didn't break the skin), slap people, and choke people. That time I decided I could no longer hide behind my desk and write a letter to my friend on a mission, I had to regulate. I've learned I'm not very good at regulating. I'm not a very stern person and I ended up smiling as I walked over there, and of course they couldn't take me seriously then. They did stop using the rulers as weapons...for a little while.
How do such Kute Kindergartners turn into such Slothful Seniors?
