Exciting week in teaching
I very rarely get called on Mondays, and I very *often* get called on Fridays. This really has very little bearing on anything, it's just something I've noticed.
On Wednesday, I got a call to work. I was teaching on class for the morning and a different class for the afternoon, which is not all that uncommon. The afternoon was the grade 1 French class, which is still the only class I've taught more than once, and I've taught them about six times. However, when I got to the school to sign in, I was told that I was actually in for the other grade 1 teacher, although the form I had to sign, still said I was in for the first teacher. Needless to say, I was confused.
I had the chance to talk with both grade 1 teachers in the staff room at lunchtime, and it turned out, I was actually in for both of them! That's right; apparently there was a shortage of subs for the afternoon, so the decision had been made to put both grade 1 classes together with a single sub. The kids had taken a field trip to the fire hall the day before, so we were making thank you cards, which took most of the afternoon, and then they had left several videos to fill time until the end of the day.
Then, on Thursday, I got a call from the sub office at 9:15, which is 15 minutes after the elementary school day starts, to go to a school where I'd never taught before, and when I looked up the teacher I was covering for, I found out that she was the division two behaviour class. I was more than a little freaked out as I headed to the school, not least because the late call likely meant that the class had either already driven one sub to give up and go home, or they had been without a sub for a part of the morning. Either one of these possibilities could have been a recipe for disaster.
As it was, it turned out that the sub who had been booked for the day had ended up having to cancel. The regular teacher, knowing exactly what she was dealing with in her class, had made the decision to be late for her training session, so that she could help me make the transition. Having a sub will throw off any class, but it can be especially difficult for extremely special needs students. The class had 8 students, grades 4, 5 and 6, there were two aides as well as the teacher, and there were two padded time-out rooms and a dedicated bathroom in the classroom.
The plans were, of course, very clear, specific, and structured. It turned out it was only a half-day, and barring one incident, where one student got in another student's face, deliberately trying to set his classmate off, and refused to back down when confronted (he was ultimately removed from the classroom by the principal) it was a very good morning. One of the aides and I wrote a note together to the regular teacher, explaining the incident that had occurred, and she was using words like "brilliant" and "perfect" to describe my handling of the class. While not necessarily completely accurate, it was gratifying, and I even left my card, which is not something I do unless I want to be asked back.
Friday was another half-day, this time in a grade 2 class. There was a priceless moment, early on in the morning, when the students were supposed to be writing in their journals, when one little girl came up to me and said, very seriously, that she couldn't do her work because it was too noisy in the classroom. I agreed with her, heartily and loudly, that it was far too loud, and suggested we have a quiet contest. This is the sort of thing that you can make into a game up until the kids are about 8 or 9 years old, and then it gets lame, but grade 2 is about optimal quiet contest age.
We started our quiet contest shortly after 10:00 and they managed to keep it going, with very few blips (because there are always going to be blips) until recess, which was at 11:00! The kids were writing me notes, and I was writing things on the board to avoid talking out loud. It was so cute!
On Wednesday, I got a call to work. I was teaching on class for the morning and a different class for the afternoon, which is not all that uncommon. The afternoon was the grade 1 French class, which is still the only class I've taught more than once, and I've taught them about six times. However, when I got to the school to sign in, I was told that I was actually in for the other grade 1 teacher, although the form I had to sign, still said I was in for the first teacher. Needless to say, I was confused.
I had the chance to talk with both grade 1 teachers in the staff room at lunchtime, and it turned out, I was actually in for both of them! That's right; apparently there was a shortage of subs for the afternoon, so the decision had been made to put both grade 1 classes together with a single sub. The kids had taken a field trip to the fire hall the day before, so we were making thank you cards, which took most of the afternoon, and then they had left several videos to fill time until the end of the day.
Then, on Thursday, I got a call from the sub office at 9:15, which is 15 minutes after the elementary school day starts, to go to a school where I'd never taught before, and when I looked up the teacher I was covering for, I found out that she was the division two behaviour class. I was more than a little freaked out as I headed to the school, not least because the late call likely meant that the class had either already driven one sub to give up and go home, or they had been without a sub for a part of the morning. Either one of these possibilities could have been a recipe for disaster.
As it was, it turned out that the sub who had been booked for the day had ended up having to cancel. The regular teacher, knowing exactly what she was dealing with in her class, had made the decision to be late for her training session, so that she could help me make the transition. Having a sub will throw off any class, but it can be especially difficult for extremely special needs students. The class had 8 students, grades 4, 5 and 6, there were two aides as well as the teacher, and there were two padded time-out rooms and a dedicated bathroom in the classroom.
The plans were, of course, very clear, specific, and structured. It turned out it was only a half-day, and barring one incident, where one student got in another student's face, deliberately trying to set his classmate off, and refused to back down when confronted (he was ultimately removed from the classroom by the principal) it was a very good morning. One of the aides and I wrote a note together to the regular teacher, explaining the incident that had occurred, and she was using words like "brilliant" and "perfect" to describe my handling of the class. While not necessarily completely accurate, it was gratifying, and I even left my card, which is not something I do unless I want to be asked back.
Friday was another half-day, this time in a grade 2 class. There was a priceless moment, early on in the morning, when the students were supposed to be writing in their journals, when one little girl came up to me and said, very seriously, that she couldn't do her work because it was too noisy in the classroom. I agreed with her, heartily and loudly, that it was far too loud, and suggested we have a quiet contest. This is the sort of thing that you can make into a game up until the kids are about 8 or 9 years old, and then it gets lame, but grade 2 is about optimal quiet contest age.
We started our quiet contest shortly after 10:00 and they managed to keep it going, with very few blips (because there are always going to be blips) until recess, which was at 11:00! The kids were writing me notes, and I was writing things on the board to avoid talking out loud. It was so cute!