Gym Class, Spanish, and Math, oh my!

Yesterday and today have been rather boring, but at least I've done *something*...

Make-up school pictures were yesterday so I hung out in the gym registering students for pictures. That took the first 5-10 minutes of class... kinda dull. But again, at least it was something. And interestingly, there were more sixth graders who showed up than 7th or 8th graders. Not sure why.

Today I filled in for a Spanish teacher until the sub showed up right at the end of first period. There were no lesson plans so it was kind of fun (read: frustrating) doing things on the fly. I called the office to see if she had left the sub plans there and 10 minutes later a secretary appears with movies. I play one called "A Day in the Life of a Mexican Family" but it started in the middle (oops). I had them answer two question (hooray for coming up with things to do in 2 minutes!) but they had 15 minutes left of class. Hmmm... I asked them to work on whatever they had to do quietly. They were actually quite well behaved.

Then I taught a sped math class today. There were only three students. It was pretty easy, and the kids did what they were supposed to do. So today worked pretty well for me.

And believe it or not, I'm not posting an outside article. Amazing!

Lunch Monitor!

The cafeteria is a craaaaaaaaaaaaaazy place! It's amazing how much my views of it have changed since I was in school. Today, I was put in charge (bwahaha) of monitoring the snack bar, which contains a (barely used) salad bar, chips, cookies, and other such junk. Man, kids eat a lot of crap! Why does the school even offer such things? No wonder there is an obesity problem in this country.

I was really surprised during 7th grade lunch to see kids actually using the salad bar. But then several of them (plus others) came back to grab cookies and/or chips. None of the 6th graders got salad. But, and this surprised me, every child had the option of going to recess for the last 10 minutes of lunch. Apparently all grades get recess every day unless it's cold, rainy, or snowy (so that means November to March is basically out). Even though it's only for 10 minutes, it's nice to see that they get a chance to exercise and be outdoors. Plus, standing in front of the snack bar, into which only five kids are admitted at a time, made it clear that I was an authority figure and not some random girl wandering the halls looking for something to do.

Oh, middle school. Strangely, how I have missed thee.

First Post!

Woohoo! Blog is up and running.

At the risk of being unoriginal, I, like every other teacher in the world, have started a blog dedicated to the art of teaching. However, my situation is a bit unique, since I am a floater. No, not something that hovers in the air, as cool as that would be, but rather my official title is "school based substitute," which means I go wherever an extra body, brain, or additional body part is needed. As a result, it's possible I may end up in every single classroom of the building, and if there's nowhere to go, I hang out in the library or office updating the website, filing, or doing something else other than twiddling my thumbs. Occasionally, I do that too. Hence why I'm able to write this midday.

Two days into the position so far and I could already write a novel. But I won't. Yet.