The Sub that Keeps On Going

Good news: So far I've been working every day! Yay for making money! Since I last posted, I've gotten to try my hand at teaching in quite a number of new settings - a high school weight training class, a special ed. class, a return visit to an 8th grade English class and today (for the first time ever) an elementary school class. Oh boy.

The fact that I am writing these words right now - that I am still alive to tell the tale - is a testimony to my perseverance, but I must admit I had my qualms about teaching elementary school kids. Yesterday I got to return to an English class I had already subbed for (I'm assuming I was requested. Score!), and I revelled in the comfort of familiarity. I knew where attendance sheets were, I knew some of the kids names, I knew the basic structure of the class... And even on my first day in the high school this felt okay. I had just been a high school student myself only 6 years ago. But 3rd grade was a whole new universe to me. I'm not even sure I'd set foot in an elementary school since going to one some 14 years ago...

Fortunately it was only a half day. And the teacher I was subbing for was in the building and briefly stopped by the class a few times. Still, these kids were tiny, and together formed a mob of tiny, kiddie, snotty-nosed bundles of fun (or insanity?). And I was to be the only force preventing hell from breaking loose. I expressed my anxiety over the possibility of this situation to another sub friend and her response was, "yeah, but with elementary school they're all so full of undying love." And now I see that she was right. These kids may be crazy but at least they are still young enough to think that you are the coolest person ever, unlike their older middle school counterparts, who see teachers as the enemy - agents representing the grown-ups' need for them to work work work, all the time! ...

So anyway, cute kids, can be trouble, still respect you (mostly) ... and I'm thrown in a room with them. Cool. Things went well for the most part, but one humorous (and almost disastrous) incident is worth recounting here.

D.O.L. You may or may not remember this from your own grade school days. I do, and I think I even remember liking it. Daily Oral Language assignments are generally short, and they involve exercises in different aspects of writing. Sentence corrections are mostly what I remember and were the bulk of what my kids were doing this morning. And in my lesson plan paper, I had directions that said, "9:10-9:20 - go over D.O.L., sheet should be on overhead." I was proud of myself for even finding the transparency before the designated time. I did not find any sort of answer key, so I figured that teachers were just supposed to know this stuff. I should be reading at a higher level than 3rd graders, right?

We turned off the lights, and I got the kids' attention up toward the overhead. [Okay... here goes. Just don't let them know you have no idea what you're doing and that you haven't done D.O.L. since you were their age...] First sentence. "Who can tell me what we need to do first?" Hands shot up. (This is one thing I really appreciated today. It's so cool to have kids who want to tell you the answer! If only that were true of most older kids too...) "Right, we capitalize the 's' first." The sentence read something like this:

"since you saw your brother now, will you see him later too"

"Who can tell me what we need to change next?" A smart little girl near the front pointed out that "saw" should be "see." [Oh. Right. I knew that. I did catch that, right? Okay, I've gotta play it cool. Think, Matthew. You know how sentences work. Hell, you can write thesis papers!] "Good. And do we need to change anything else? Yes?" A period at the end! "Good. Okay are we all done with this sentence? Yes?" No, it needs to be a question mark at the end. [&$#^!! Okay. You meant to do that. It's okay. It's all part of your pedagogy - see if they can catch it.] "Gooood. Right, it needs to be a question mark because we're asking a question." [God, save me!]

And I did survive - the rest of D.O.L. as well as the rest of the morning. I was constantly reminded of the weirdly imaginative nature of little kids' minds ("Which words doesn't belong: Lettuce, Tomato, Spoon, or Carrot? Good. Spoon, because it's not a vegetable." But Mr. Rody, what if the spoon was made of spinach?! [Good grief.]), but I mostly just had fun. And my faith in myself in dealing with little kids comes none too soon. Tomorrow I'm spending a full day as a floating sub in a different elementary school!

Wish me the best!