teaching
I am still feeling a bit under the weather but I am coping.
My work schedule this week has been switched around in all sorts of crazy directions. I've been staying late, called in early, told not to come in, asked to come in anyway and had my hours shortened. BUT! This was all for the good apparently because at 5:18 this morning my cell phone lit up and began vibrating in the most annoying manner on the bookshelf next to me. Turned out to be the local school district calling to see if I could substitute teach. I was supposed to work today, but had been told I didn't need to come in so I happily, albeit groggily, accepted the position.
I spent the day instructing a Drama class; they practiced lines from Antigone and then we watched a few episodes of "Whose Line Is It Anyway." Then I had four sections of 9th grade English, two honors sections and two regular. We worked on a nice little noun worksheet (quick pop quiz, can you list at least 4 of the 6 categories of nouns?) and then we watched a film about Shakespeare.
I knew it was going to be a good day when I walked into the classroom and was greeted by a poster of my love, Colin Firth in his Mr. Darcy costume. Breathtaking. And the Shakespeare on top of it all was almost too much for me to handle. I was also subbing at my old High School so it was a pleasant mini-reunion throughout the day. The secretary I checked in with is the mother of a girl I graduated with and we hung out when we were younger. And then I ran into my Choir Director a few times and she was just flabbergasted that I was subbing. I think I made her feel old. I felt incredibly old when I saw the Christmas Card picture of her family-her youngest wasn't even born when I graduated and he's in school now! It was kind of surreal too to be teaching across the hall from my favorite teacher ever and monitoring the hallway with the teacher who still adores me to this day. I also loved all the double takes I got from other former teachers as they passed me in the hall and knew I was a former student but couldn't quite remember my name. [I was dropped back into reality for a bit when another teacher briefly mistook me for a student. Hahaha, I know I'm short, and I look young, but not high school age!]
It was a decent day behavior wise too. I knew I was dealing with 9th graders and that they'd only been in school a week so I was ready for some chatting. But they were pretty good about quickly quieting down and staying on task. It probably helped that I told them they were turning things in regardless of if it was finished and that they'd only get the allotted time. And I had to threaten one class with a pop quiz.
I could easily go on a rant here about how much I love teaching and how much I want my own classroom, but I think you all get the idea by this point.
I hope there are many more days like this in the future. It would even be ok if they weren't so awesome. Let's face it, I can just make it awesome on my own.
I am SO looking forward to this weekend! It's my birthday! I'm going to the Guthrie to see "The Importance of Being Earnest" with Katie. Yay!