Send In The Clown(s)!

So, it’s been back to the classroom for me again, as of last Thursday. My paperwork (well, for one district) came through on Wednesday and I immediately started to pick up subbing jobs. My first one was at the secondary level, in art (and it was an amazing day) and the past three days I’ve been in a fourth-grade classroom. I don’t have an assignment as of right now for tomorrow (I think I screwed something up in the online system this evening that shows me as “unavailable” for Wednesday, so I’ll call in early in the morning to get an assignment). My lunch is packed, as is a gym bag, so I’ll be up at 5:30 a.m. and showering, so I can call in early in the morning for work.

As mentioned above, art on Thursday was a dream. The teacher has a creative set of classes (in a larger department of multiple instructors) and it was a pleasure to work with kids who were taking classes out of sheer love of the subject matter, versus having to be there. If we had electives like this, I might well have taken more fine art (versus music) classes in high school, but my tiny district could not support that much diversity in an elective area.

The past three days have been an experience, as I had a room of 19 fourth graders (so about 9 or 10 years old) in a self-contained classroom. That means the same teacher has these same students all day long, for every subject (well, they have what they call “specials” for 50 minutes each day, an that rotates across things like PE, art, music, etc.). It was an event, for sure, to have them all day long and for me to be constantly changing gears and covering a wide range of topics…..and remembering to not rush through it, as they’re just 9 years old! Well, Day 1 went fairly well–I’m sure they were louder than I should have let them be, but it was alright. Monday, however, was another story…..

One of the students wasn’t sure he could handle being with a sub all day (I met with the teacher on Thursday after my HS assignment–they elementary school was nearby and let out about an hour after the HS). Well, despite Friday going well, Monday was a different story. School starts about 8:30, and before 9 a.m. there he was….beating himself in the groin with a fist and announcing “I’m wearing a cup today”. Talk amongst yourselves about what’s wrong with that scenario—-and it should be easy to find four or five things, immediately. So, an hour later, when they went to PE, I foisted this one off on the coach…..recanting the story above and asking him to address it, since cups are…..well, PE equipment. He did, and the child came back with a small, pink paper sack holding….something..that was to be put in a backpack immediately. He was a disruption the remainder of the day, so he wasn’t with me today. And the room was much more settled, from the onset of the day and until the end.

So, for now, the subbing thing (as well as Fountain City Fibers is paying the bills. And I will continue to look for mroe substantive employment while working as a sub and dyeing yarn. It seems like the right thing to do right now…..which fits into something else I’ll be sharing in the next post or two…..stay tuned! And thanks for stopping by……and for commenting……and for being there!

Oh, and the clown….that’s me……send me in! (but sometimes it could be the student….just sayin’…..)

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