Sunday, November 13, 2011

A Day in the Life of a Substitute

This past week I substituted for the first time. It was definitely full of ups and downs but here’s how it went…
Monday- My assignment was to sub for a 10th grade Geometry class at Pope High School. As the students started walking into the classroom I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they were…saying hello and asking how I was. They would also ask me the normal questions, “are you our substitute today?” or “what are we doing today?” At the start of each class period, I would tell them a little bit about myself, that I used to teach math and that I recently moved from Texas. Some of them got a good laugh when I told them that we don’t all ride horses to school and, no, we do not all wear cowboy hats. ;) I think they felt comfortable to ask me questions about their assignment- which I loved and I felt like I was in my zone! It was a great day and went very smoothly. Yay!
Tuesday- No School because of Election Day
Wednesday- I subbed for a co-teacher at McCleskey Middle School. When I got there, there were A TON of trailers in the parking lot. I later found out that the school was being used to house busses and trailers for the production crew and actors of a movie being filmed that Ben Stiller and Vince Vaugh are in. It was so funny to hear the kids tell me all about it, saying that their school was famous. LOL! Most of the day I helped out in an 8th grade Science class (and I learned a little about Acceleration and Velocity. LOL!) There was one class period that the teacher had their own class for students struggling in Math… once again, I was in my zone! Teaching and helping them with their assignment was so much fun! It was interesting to see the math they were expected to do here in Georgia versus what is expected in Texas. Some of the stuff they do in 8th grade in Georgia is not taught until 9th grade in Texas (but that is apparently going to change next year in Texas from what I heard last).
Thursday- I only subbed for a half day in the afternoon at an elementary school for a special ed preschool class. The particular class I was in had 6 students who all had autism- SO PRECIOUS! There are always 3 teachers in the classroom so I pretty much did whatever the other teachers asked me to do. I was able to work one-on-one with a little boy practice his handwriting and do puzzles. Let me tell you, these teachers are saints! The pour things looked so worn out and burnt out. They’ve got a lot on their hands but they were so patient the whole time. It was such a great experience to see how they communicate with the children and what kind of ways they teach them things… very interesting stuff!
Friday- I hate to say it but it was one of the worst days I’ve had in a long time… my assignment was for a middle school 6th grade math class and here is just a little note about the day… I was called a “fool” by one of the students, had a student who refused to give me his drum sticks that he was beating on his desk during a quiz- then he refused to go to the office- then there was NO PHONE in the classroom to call for an administrator to come down. Seriously!? Who doesn’t put a phone in the classroom? What if there was an emergency and a nurse was needed? That probably made me madder than anything because I’ve been in a situation where a nurse was needed for a teacher who collapsed on the campus I used to teach at and they had to use CPR and a defibrillator on her and then rush her to the hospital. The nurse was easily contacted because we had a phone in the classroom! Anyways, I ended up getting assistance from a teacher who was walking by in the hallway... but all of this is just a portion of what I had to deal with. I was pretty EXHAUSTED by the end of the day to say the least.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a roller coaster week! Welcome to the blog world...lobe your blog name!

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