Substituting: Day 4
On Friday I substituted in a third grade classroom. Eeek! I was a little bit scared about teaching a class so young, but I wanted to try. Also I got the job over 24 hours in advance, so I thought that the teacher would have great lesson plans. Well that was not to be. I arrived at the school a good 35 minutes early. After I had signed in and went to the classroom, I found a lesson plan book open, but no letter to the sub, etc. The lesson plan book was written to the teacher by the teacher so she could understand it but some person off the street (me) could not. So then I went to the office to ask for some clarification. They said they would send someone to assist me.

A nice other third grade teacher came by. She said the teacher had been sick so had not been able to make good notes. I later discovered from the kids that she had been out all week. Tuesday they had a sub. The sub left this note on how she had not "connected" with the children. I didn't quite understand that, but not my business. Wednesday they were not able to find a substitute so the children were divided into several different classrooms. Thursday was veterans day and they had no school. Friday was my turn.

Overall things went very very well. The kids were charming. I managed to go with the lessons the teacher wrote, although I ended up substituting worksheets and had to fill an hour completely on my own. I ended up bringing Matilda by Roald Dahl and read 44 pages of it throughout the day while the children drew pictures. The class had three specials that day. Lucky me! The music lady came to the classroom in the morning and then we went to Art and Library in the afternoon. I sat in on the Library class and was bored (as the kids were too). The lesson was ok, but it was not taught in any context and they really didn't get to practice any so if I went and asked them today how to access the Ebsco for Kids site, I doubt they could. I am more and more in favor of flexible scheduline for libraries of all ages. Or of not boring librarians.

One of the girls asked me if I had a daughter. I told her no. She said that she had seen someone who looks just like me. They said she had glasses like me too. I later saw this girl (Kindergarten or 1st grader) and she was too cute. She had on jeans and a red turtleneck and a bluejean jacket and her hair was half-up in these little side ponytails. She was just adorable. I was complemented by the girls who thought she was my daughter.

All of the kids wanted to know how old I was. I let them ask me but I never told them. It was humerous because guessed everything from 6th grade to 200 years old. The smart ones concluded I was in my 20s or 30s.

At the end of the day, I had notes from some of the students (besides the excuse note from one student's mom: "Please excuse Ashley. We had things to do this morning." Short, to the point, evasive. I love it!) One note must be from one of the talkers in the class. It says: "Dear Teacher, I am Sorry for not listen to yeo can you for give me Please." It says PS something but the page is torn in half and I cannot get it. Second note: A heart drawn in many colors, LOVE is written in the center. Also unsigned.

Favorite note: A full page of notebook paper. A sun and clouds on the top of the sheet. The right hand upper corner has an angel made out of one of those erasers that fits on the end of a pencil. The eraser is gray and is covered with a piece of masking tape. It is a masking tape covered pencil erasor with a yellow halo and wings. It is weird. In the sky are little psis (as in the greek letter) flying around. I think they are supposed to be birds but they look more like the greek letter psi. At the bottom there is a cute picture of me (me with very large lips) and the girl that drew the picture. It is very cute.

- posted by Alicia @ 4:01 PM