OK so it is now officially summer and all the schools are out around here. Part of me is thrilled for the break as many of my fellow teacher's are as well. One thing keeping me from being overly excited about summer is, there is NO WORK in the summer! During the school year I stay pretty busy as a Substitute, but it is the summer time that is a killer to all Substitute's. Contract teachers actually have a payment system they have set up so they earn less money per paycheck so they can continue to get paid during the summer hiatis. Substitute's don't have that option. Many are asking me about summer school, that would be a miracle if I could have gotten into that. Most summer school classes were canceled this year due to budget cuts, and the small number of teaching positions for the summer school classes that are offered, have gone to the teachers that were pink slipped (lost their jobs). Therefore that leaves me with having to fill time with other jobs during the summer, cause even my Tutoring jobs take a hiatis in the summer. Their were almost NO summer jobs available anywhere this summer! The one Club I was suppose to teach at this summer left me hanging until I finally couldnt wait anymore and had to go almost full time at the part time job I have had for a couple years. Luckily the part time job I have during the year at the retail store is working me close to full time! THANK THE LORD for them! If it wasnt for them I would be making NO money this summer. I have a great boss as well that works great with my schedule! I get paid considerably less than I do Subbing, but hey its something, and luckily September will be around the corner in no time.
Ok so I have always said I would NOT teach Middle School because that's when the attitudes and hormones are going full force. I have patience for the little kids but when it comes to hormone emotionally driven adolescents that's where I draw the line lol.
Well anyway before I got off on my tangent, I was called by the woman in charge of substitute assignments and she nearly begged me to take this assignment, knowing I have only done elementary. I agreed because she has done so much for me in helping to ensure I stay so busy with subbing. Well I took the assignment for half day in the 6th/7th grade Literature class. The day actually went really well, the teacher totally left great easy to follow plans for me and the kids were good as well. I came to realize the kids are the same little 5-9 year old's I usually sub for but are just in bigger bodies. Plus if there is a class you don't like you only have to be with that group for 50 minutes before they switch to the next group. I really liked that idea. Needless to say it ended up being a good experience and I will consider subbing in middle school again for sure :)
I had my favorite kindergarten class today and the kids were having to write a sentence in their journals on their favorite animal. One little girl came up to me asking if her sentence looked ok and I could barely contain my laughter once I saw what she had wrote. Not only do I love what kids say I also LOVE what they write lol.
PS: What she meant to write was SEE A OSTRICH.
As a child, adults always try their best to shield the "real" world from children, hoping their innocence can be preserved as long as possible. As a teacher I do that everyday as well, by watching what subjects and topics that are talked about and by what kind of information the kids learn.
I was in a 3rd grade class recently and the kids were looking at a 2002 World Facts book. Well of course the September 11th attacks were in there and the kids only knew of it as "when the towers fell." I was shocked they knew this already and quickly made a move for the kids to clean up for recess without acknowledging their conversation. Now looking back I dont know if I should have ignored it, or if I should have acknowledged the event. If I had acknowledged it what would I have said?!
Fast forward to now, I am finding it more and more difficult to avoid the topic of terrorism with todays children, just in the past couple of days there have been several instances of close calls with terror. Just a couple days ago a man tried to blow up Times Square with a car bomb but with the good Lords protection and several T shirt vendors that alerted police, a tragedy was avoided. Then today as I speak, they are trying to determine if a man has a bomb on a bus, as he claims to in New Hampshire. This world is getting crazier and crazier lately and soon it may be impossible to not have the topic of terrorism come about in the classroom, particularly the older kids. What does a teacher say and to what should they hold back? I wish their was a class for teachers on that!
On another note these terror events are getting too close to home for me. The 9-11 events happened on flights to LA from Boston, the usual track I fly with my family to see my family in Boston. The Times Square close call happened less than a block from where my best friends and I stand to watch the ball drop almost every year. And then todays bomb scare is happening on a bus I regularly take from the same station Portsmouth NH, to the same place Boston Logan. What is going on in the world?!
I have come to the realization that when you are a substitute you will more than likely from time to time be given the jobs/lesson(s) that the regular teacher does not want to be there for. One example was a kindergarten class I had not long ago. I was left the Art Masters project to do ALONE (Parents have always done it in every other class I have ever been in). Well needless to say we got through the art project with many tearful/frustrated 5 yr old's and ink all over the place. If a teacher reads this PLEASE never leave that much work for any one person to do with such young kids. I felt more sorry for the kids than myself because they didn't understand anything about the certain brush strokes or the amount of branches they had to do.
Well today I had a 2nd grade, so luckily the kids were older and it did not involve paint :)Today's lesson was about soil and the things that come in it. We discussed rocks, fossils, sticks, roots, etc what we didn't count on was learning about worms. Luckily the main teacher will be doing the bulk of that lesson with the class on Monday but I still had to give the overview and introduce the worms to the class. Ok I am so done with bugs for a while.
I have had teaching jobs everyday this week and I am stoked, rarely is there this much work. Every job was a request from teachers I have subbed for before so I think I must still be doing something right to be getting this many requests. Next week is full too!
Ok so I had a Special Education class today and one of the ways we could calm down certain children was through songs and we sang 5 Little Duckies multiple times and now the song will not get out of my head lol.
I have been in this class multiple times recently and I have a renewed respect for Special Education teachers every time. I truly dont know how they do all that they have too! They generally have a very short if any lunch break, and have to always be on their toes, with not just a backup plan B but a plan C and D too. I can't give all the credit to the classroom teacher becaue they have excellent aides that are vital to the class too. Without the aides it would be almost impossible to get anything accomplished, these aides help prepare the meals, implement the work testings, help with the assignements and assessments, and frequently have better control over their one on one students than the actual class teacher does. By coincidence an old high school friend Christie is the student teacher for that class and she seems to truly have the patience and knowledge for the Special Educ field, I just hope she has better luck getting a job than general Ed teachers have.
The Teaching field is almost impossible to get into out here in So. California. I had a 2nd grade today and met another substitute that was subbing for a teacher stuck in Europe (Ash Crisis). Well she has been subbing longer than I have. I have been subbing for almost 2 school years, she is in her 3rd year and like me is thinking of quitting the job for a while. We both graduated at the exact moment the economy started plummeting, and I thought a year or two at most and things would start improving. Not the case, we learned that more inservice days, informal testing days, and other personal days will be cut from the teachers school year next year, along with added furlough days. All of that equals LESS subbing days that myself and other fellow subs will be able to have (on top of this yrs cuts). Therefore I am considering looking into preschool work or the such because at almost 26 I feel like I should be having a stable job, benefits, and having that 401K going. I hate leaving the profession though because the second the market opens up, I hope to be somewhere near the front or more likely the middle of the line. Plus the CA Credential is good for 5 years before it EXPIRES! I am in my 2nd year now and am starting to wonder how the state is going to handle the thousands of teaching credentials expiring in just a short while just from the fellow teachers I graduated with, let alone the tens of thousands of others all over the state that have graduated since then.