I love kids' writing

Second Grade:
"Birds fly passers the porn."

Birds fly past the barn.

behavior

First Grade:

I was handed a behavior chart by a first grader today. He was expected to: keep his hands and feet to himself, sit up, be quiet, listen to directions, stay on task and finish his work. He certainly wasn't a model student but I couldn't decide how to answer those questions. How much of his behavior was him being a pill and how much of it was him being a first grader?

Overall, today was another good day.

First day back 2011

Was awesome! Thank goodness!

Third graders were super sweet. One decided I should continue to be in her classroom as a second teacher and added a note to my sub notes about it. I told the office about it and the receptionist exclaimed, "Oh! And she liked O.! Let's keep her!" Apparently not everyone thinks O. is as cute as I do.

This school does Make Your Day and I probably should've used the program more, but after those other schools last year I just couldn't punish them. They were practically angels.

Oh, and the staff ate in the lunch room. Green flag!

mid-summer blues

I still have well over a month before the school year starts but I'm already getting anxious about subbing again. This will be my third year. I keep thinking back to all the horrible experiences I had in the past two years. Carrots thrown, fights started, unsupportive staff, down right awful kids, and it all makes me feel like I'm a bad teacher.

In teacher school, we were taught about the importance of building relationships and being consistent. They never prepared us for subbing. My first year, I was a much gentler teacher. Last year, my patience went to shit. I feel like I"m downright mean and that's no way to teach. Makes me feel sick just thinking about it.

I applied for two dreams jobs at a dream school. The posting closed a couple of weeks ago so I have given up hope on an interview. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong other than not being someone they already know. Almost all of my classmates have jobs and they have far less experience than I do. You'd think 7 years of teaching and creating curriculum would get you somewhere.

My ego has taken a huge hit. Hopefully this last month or so of summer will re-energize me and i'll be ready to face the classroom. Thankfully I don't have to do that tomorrow.

end of year

Last day of school and last day of subbing for the year. Middle school. Without any sub notes or ways to entertain them.

After first period, my introductory speech had to include, "don't do things like pull your hood over your face and let people kick you." First period was supposed to be the smart class.

Thank goodness for a half day and 35 minute periods.

speachless

Today was so bad I don't want to put it into words. But there are a couple things that are red flags to me now.

1. Office doesn't give you the office phone number
2. No one eats in the staff lounge. You can be sure this is no team environment


I was on the verge of tears and felt sick all day. Almost left in the first fifteen minutes. I should have counted how many times I saw "fuck" or "bitch" written. (these were second graders).

beautiful

There's nothing like the hush that falls on a classroom when students are engrossed with what they're doing.