kokopellinelli | (no subject)

Got a sub call this morning! I had taken the phone into my room last night, just in case. At about 6 this morning, it rang and the lady asked me if I would be willing to take over for an art teacher. He had his first class in the high school, then he moved to one of the elementary schools for a fourth grade class and then, in the afternoon, three kindergarten classes.

The high school class was 90 minutes long and BORING. I explained what they were supposed to be doing (I had talked to their teacher on the phone before class, and he gave me lesson plans), and then there was nothing left for me to do except wander around the tables and look at what they were doing. I don't like high school kids, they're snotty. These ones were okay, for the most part, with just a couple annoying ones.

After I left them, I had an hour to get to the elementary school and set up for my fourth grade class. I showed them a 20-minute cartoon about Van Gogh (some of the girls were terrified that it might show him cutting off his ear), and then they drew portraits of the person sitting across from them. Some of them got into arguments--"he's making me ugly!" "He's giving me a lot of zits!"--but for the most part it went smoothly and I wasn't bored. Then I had an hour and a half free, where I cleaned up from the fourth-graders and ate my lunch and prepared for the afternoon.

I LOVED the kindergarteners. It might be because each kindergarten class came with a teacher's aide, so I had extra help. The kids worked with Lick-n-Stick art tape and used it to make shapes on their papers, then they got to draw inside the shapes. It was great fun. I had a class from 1-1:30, one from 1:30-2:30, and the last class from 2:30-3:00.

One of the things I loved about the Kindergarteners was they insisted that each color of tape had a different flavor of glue. "Ooh, the white tastes like mint! The purple is icky!" But my favorite was a little boy in my last class of the day:

Little boy: Ooh, the brown tastes really good!

Me: What does it taste like?

Little boy: Beer!

Me: ...oooookay.

Also, since today is St. Patrick's Day, a bunch of the kids were wearing construction paper hats and headbands that they'd made. One little boy had green glitter in his hair.

Me: What's your name?

Him: Zachary.

Me: Zachary, you have glitter in your hair.

Him: It's from the leprechaun! He made everything glitter!

Another kid: Yeah, he gave us money, too!

Evidently, a leprechaun had visited their classroom, chucked glitter at them, then given them each a gold foil-covered chocolate coin.

Anyway, there's probably a lot I'm forgetting, but my brain seems to have shut down. I had a lot of fun today, though.

And here is what Keely said about her subbing experience yesterday, cut and pasted.

After I got over the shock (of getting called in to sub) I went to work and had a great day! I did learn two important things:

1) I do NOT, and I mean DO NOT, want to teacher kindergarten. They are sooooo neeedy. Cute, but needy.

2) Kids are GREAT for the ego. I got pictures that said "I love you" and "You are a nice teacher" One girl gave me a hug and told me "You are the prettiest teacher ever" I loved it!

Anyway, the day went SO fast, there wasn't time to think about anything but what to do next. I was an art teacher for a day and so all I had to do was supervise kids doing projects. It was great! I made the money I spent on my license back and had fun doing it.

The only bad part of the day was the last class. It was a group of 4th graders. They were great for the most part but this one girl, who was the leader of her little gang, was SO rude. She kept calling me "Lady" and "Gal" and would not work on her project. One time I told them to be quite and finish their art and she said to me "We can't help laughing, it is a natural reaction." Then as she was leaving she said "You won't write me up will you?" I did write her up. She was SUCH a brat. But even that was okay.