Today is Tuesday, and I had work Friday, Monday, and today, YIPPIE!!! Who knew it would be sooo wonderful to get out of the house?!? Of course my time was spent in class rooms as a substitute which can be a challenge.
Friday was spent at my youngest child's old school in a second grade class, they were fun, and a few of them knew me from volunteering at the school. It was a good return to work, then on Monday it was time to face, dun, dun, dun (in an ominous deep voice), middle school - 8th grade to be exact. Let me start by saying this was a make up day, to cover some of the snow days, AND an early release day. The kids were hyper, and the schedule was rearranged just to keep it fun. First class went ok, had a few smart asses who required a snappy come back to put 'em in their place and we moved on. The kids were bored with the class work I was assigned to give them, so I needed to think of additional work.
Then, the second class came in, they were pretty quite and got to work, asking me odd questions as I went around the room - Is global warming a problem because of the water, uh, ocean water is going up or what? Charmed though I was, I told the smart ass, climate change matters not just because of the rising water but because of changes in weather patterns and the increased intensity of storm systems. He seemed shocked that I answered, I guess I was supposed to become stumped and flustered - ha ha take that miscreant!!! To quote my beloved Sheldon from "The Big Bang", 'Ba-zinga!!!" Next inane question, what would you do if there were a gay kid in class? I stared at this kid, what do you mean? I wouldn't do anything, I don't have a problem with gay people, I used to live with two gay guys. This didn't stop him, next he tried well what if he tried to ask someone out and. . . .STOP right there, what is the scariest part of asking a girl out? Getting rejected right?!? So why, would someone who is gay, ask someone who isn't gay out??? They KNOW they will be rejected, why would they do that??? Ok, that one was interesting but that stopped him. This group thinks they are smart, so lets get an answer to one of my burning questions.
I offered this class an alternate assignment - you can write me a paper instead of doing more of the workbook, (it is a writing class) tell me why is failure the norm in America. I said they could write a story about a person who fails and why, or about a teacher or manager trying to motivate people, or just tell me why you think failure happens. They were talking and asking questions so it actually took a minute for them to ask, how long does it have to be? I told them to write until they proved the point like a lawyer. To be fair they are in 8th grade and they only had 15 minutes to write, but the ideas were interesting. I will write a post about what I learned at a later date.
Next was fourth block, but it happened during our third period of the day - uh, ok. When I called roll I had the right kids, so I ran with it. They were chatty and took longer to get work done, so no fun for them just boring workbook - until a young lady said under her breath - yet loud enough for me to catch, Ms B left this work 'cause the sub can't teach and it doesn't matter anyway since Ms B won't check it! Question for the class - how will you use the skills these lessons are teaching you? The work book assignment was about scanning, skimming and summarising. And they knew these skills helped with testing, but it took a minute to get them to think about summery being part of writing a longer paper.
Third block, which was coming up, was the one I was warned about, and I have to say even with, what I felt was a successful day so far, I was nervous. Just a little, I know you just can't let 'em smell fear or they'll eat you alive. To up the ante, the time was broken down - so 10 minutes of class time, then take everyone to lunch for 15 minutes, and return for 15 minutes more of class. Crap how I am going to get them working in 2 minutes? As they entered the class I was barking to get out your composition books and correct the sentences on the board, marching around the room looking at their work. Soon the questions started, when is lunch? I am hungry. Don't worry about it get your work done, I barked back. Wow, I am doing it they are getting work done, then the 4 (holy crap - yes 4) group leaders fired up their respective teams, damn I just couldn't keep them focused. We began to review the work, in the middle of the 3rd sentence (there are just 4) the class across the hall left for lunch. Time to go, calls one of the stooges in back. NOPE, not before we are done. Moaning and groaning in sue, sorry I can't hear, you need to respect your fellow student, I call over the noise. As their peers start to call for quite, so we can just get through this, I know I have won.
Tue was kindergarten with an OCD kid but that's its own whole post.
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