I just got home from my second day of substitute teaching and I am exhausted!! You would not believe the days I've had. Yesterday I agreed to teach a kindergarten class. I arrived at the school at 7:30 (school starts at 8...way too early!!) and found my way to the class only to find that the room was full of Spanish words. Yep, that's right, I was subbing for one of the bilingual teachers and had 15 Hispanic kindergarteners. Those of you who know me know that I don't speak a word of Spanish other than the food items (e.g., taco, enchilada)...you catch my drift! Why aren't' there any German or French speaking children in Texas?! I would have done much better with them :)! The other teachers found it pretty humorous that it was my very first subbing experience and I couldn't speak the language!! I was supposed to take roll as soon as school started and the kids were laughing at me trying to pronounce their names. Thankfully, there were a few helpers in the class who helped me throughout the day, including translating between me and some of the other students. I had a few behavior problems, but overall, the kids were pretty good. By the way, I have decided that glue is from Satan and should definitely NOT be allowed in kindergarten! I had to laugh at the experience!
Today's class was completely different than the class I had yesterday. I agreed to teach first grade for a different school, which is located in a subdivision that I would love to live in one day. Despite what you read below, I think first grade is for me. My class looked like a good group of kids, but I found out quickly that I had some real troublemakers. Four of the boys in that class were horrendous!! I'm pretty stern with kids, but no matter what I did, they would not mind me. Two of them were especially bad because they were the mean type and would kick and punch the desks. Having four trouble makers can even stir up the good kids by lunchtime. One of the troublemakers had a birthday today and his mom left cupcakes for the entire class. I really did not want to give them to those who were misbehaving, but it is hard to know what to do when it isn't your class. At 1:00 all of the first graders go to Specials (art, music, pe, or computer lab) and the teachers have lunch together. I was so lucky to get to work with such awesome teachers (yesterday I did not get much support)!! They were women that I would definitely be friends with. When they started asking me about how it was going, without even realizing that they were coming, tears streamed down my face. I was pretty embarrassed to let the kids get to me like that and for the other teachers to see me for fear they wouldn't want me to sub for them, but I was at my wits end. The other teachers told me that I had the worst class and that the regular teacher lets them get away with too much. They promised me that I was doing the right thing and that it wasn't me. One teacher was so infuriated with the boys that she had a big talk with them and punished them by not letting them go to the pep rally this afternoon. Instead, they had to go to another room and write sentences. I almost felt bad for them, but not really!
The pep rally was pretty cool. Apparently, this school has one every Friday afternoon so that everyone (well, most everyone!) goes home on a good note. There are a few opening talent show acts, then lots of dancing and cheering, and finally a cheer competition where the grade with the most spirit gets the spirit stick for the week. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, I took the kids back to the class after the pep rally to get their things before they headed home and the four troublemakers brought me a stack of papers that read, "I will make better choices" along with apology notes. One even actually showed remorse and apologized to me. I thought that was nice and I couldn't help but smile. It was a rough day, but I'm learning and I know it won't be my last! TGIF!!
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6 comments:
Wow, that's pretty bad that they gave you a class full of latinos and didn't even know that you don't speak Spanish. Did you fill out a form that says what you are interested in teaching? We had to put down which schools we are interested in and what subjects and then only those jobs would show up for us. Glad the teachers supported you, I had the same issue my first day of subbing. The kids were horrible and the other teachers helped and said the regular teacher let them get away with too much. No fun. But hopefully it will get better. So glad you were able to start subbing!!
Aww, I'm sorry for these last two hard days, but hey at least your finally get to Teach!!! (even if it's not your own class) I'm sure you were great in both situations!! Miss you
Way to go, Jill!! That sounds awesome. And I completely admire you - I couldn't handle a class of 5 first graders. :)
Hey...if you can survive those two days of subbing, you can do anything!
(Hey... this has nothing to do with his post, but I wanted to tell you HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!)
Love ya, chica!
How is it going?? Are you still subbing this week? I'm so sorry that you had a rough intro, but it sounds like you quickly adjusted as necessary. I'm glad there are openings for you to sub---what a blessing! Fill me in when you get a chance. I hope each day is getting better and better for you.
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