Background

5/30/08

Jumping Rope

Ah, the chants overheard while young students jump rope.. they do bring back the memories....

We used to sing one on the playground about Cinderella and some fella and a snake. The more doctors, the better.

Today, however, I heard a new one. It may take you singing it aloud to really focus on the part in which I was all "Huh?"

"Strawberry Shortcake,
With cherries on top.
How many girlfriends
Do you got?"

1. What they CAN do: rhyming words

2. Since when does STRAWBERRY shortcake have cherries?

3. I'll leave number three up for you to sing out. Who came up with this one? Little Johnny, this is one I WILL believe you made up.

5/29/08

Substituting

At the end of my independent teaching, I am put back in the mix for substitute teaching at my assigned school. This means first come, first serve (usually) assignments, unless you have already signed up for a job.

My fellow interns and I realized that if we were the LAST ones to get there, then the jobs were probably already all assigned. Suddenly, those of us that usually would arrive at 7am began showing up at 7:30. 7:31. 7:35. And entering through a side door.

It's not that I have an aversion to subbing, I definitely enjoy it... it's just that those first few days after IT, my brain was fried. Seriously torched. And there were still the performance based assessment projects for grad school leaving us all sleep deprived on top of brain dead.

Feeling uber-guilty about tip-toeing to the main office every morning for a few days, I followed an interns discovery and signed up for as many sub jobs as available on the calendar. All grade levels, all classes, I was up for anything.

In the past few weeks, I have subbed for all grades, and a variety of teachers. I have to say that it is a joy to work in a school with such extraordinary professionals. My sub plans are stellar. I have time tables, extra activities, all supplies plus some, and the support of all surrounding teachers.

Today was my favorite so far. I was in kindergarten, the first time EVER. I was a little apprehensive about it this morning. A whole day with kinders? EEK. But I had a grand time. It took me a little while to get my bearings - but as soon as I did, I was on a roll. And the little darlings did a fine job - as long as they didn't smell blood.

Some highlights of my day:

-Even with great sub plans, a guest teacher never quite does it the way the regular teacher does. This, in Kinder, is the ultimate sin. I used the wrong pointer and said the date in the wrong order. No worries - I had 21 persistent reminders. (times 3).

- I was served food at the classroom restaurant. While the service was similar to a dive bar, and the food was a little, uh, plastic, the tips were still very generous. My favorite interaction:
Student: "What do you want?"
Me: "Well, what is on the menu today?"
Student: "(Huff) I will just bring you something."
Student walks back into the kitchen and was overheard saying "She doesn't know what she wants!" and then a flurry of little cooks compiling one HUGE plate of miscellaneous food.

- Playing barbies. There's nothing quite like overhearing conversations between barbies, and ken and barbie - from the brains of a kinder.

- The look on the face of a 6 year old on his birthday. All day.

- The look on the face of a 6 year old. When it's an EMERGENCY.

- Duck Duck Goose in the gym. I was in the way.

Overall: Great day.

Here I come first graders (tomorrow's assignment)!

5/8/08

WienerMobile

For the second day in a row, I was sent to an afternoon sub job - only to find that 1. it was the wrong day or 2. there was someone already covering. So, instead, I went off to help with the Kindgarten dismissal. I am fairly new at this dismissal depot, so I was only in charge of two minifriends.

I sent my two friends happily skipping off with their parents and then went outside to the car pick up area. It was there that I was playing "Miss Mary Mack" with a few kids. When all worn out, I asked one of my friends: "What does you car look like?"

He sang back to me: ".... it looks like a hotdog, and smells like one too!"

I was half expecting the weinermobile to roll up. I got a minivan, and a good laugh.

5/7/08

EARTHQUAKE!

Yesterday there was an earthquake about 1 mile from my "home" school. How exciting. There was a noise, a flurry of activity on an otherwise calm earth. There wasn't much of a disruption apparently... just a buzz through email of possible explanations... and a posting or 2 on staff news - teachers inquiring about the activity.

Can you imagine? Being stuck in a small world, a little bitty space of the world, with twenty or so little ones and one adult... and then wondering "What is that noise?" The small bubbles (classrooms) full of fluttering wings and then disturbed by the world outside.

I missed it. I was at my grad class on a campus across county. I missed it. We missed it. My co-interns and I were all stuck in a room of about thirty people, all intently refreshing our email screens. Suddenly there's a whisper. Did you hear? Did you get the email? Then a highway of email messages begins flooding all inboxes. One principal emailed this.... One administrator emailed that... We continued to refresh our email screens, all the while thinking about our home schools, our little ones, and wondering what they were thinking (if anything). Did they hear it? What did they think they felt? What did they think it sounded like?

I wished that I had been here. And I feel bad for the profressor that had to hear the click click click of our mouses as we refreshed continuously.

5/5/08

Without a room

I have this long list of things "to-do." I have gone from being classroom focused in creating lesson plans and SMARTBoard lessons and collecting resources to crazy LONG papers for grad school and reflecting. I had the best of intentions over the weekend - but I was enjoying the glimpse into my former life so much that I got NOTHING done.

Since the completion of my IT (Independent Teaching) on Friday, I have done.... I have done... I have done nothing on my list. I have enjoyed a skeleton of my former life. I saw friends. And yes - they are still my friends after my long absence. I went to the market. Mr. M and I went bike riding and out to lunch and dinner and played games.

So, here I am, Monday morning. I have been lucky enough to NOT be chosen to sub today. So I am sitting in the library of my school... typing away... getting that list done. So, if you see me and I'm frantically typing - it means I am either being productive or I am blogging to provide you with some reading enjoyment. (and that list of "Things to blog about" has grown over the last 4 weeks!!) I will do my best to get it all down. Distraction for you and for me...

5/1/08

Things they say

I was speaking to a sparkly-eyed minifriend today, discussing summer trips she was taking with family. She is going to Somaly (minifriend speak for Somalia), and Rome for a day. She also mentioned something about Africa.

I ask: "Oh, are you going to Africa, too?"

Response: "Africa? Noooo! It's toooooo risky."

The look she gave me as she said it was "And to think you're the teacher..." Pfft.

Apparently I need to get out the atlas and start putting more stamps in my passport.