Adventures in teaching (kindergarten)

Wow, 2010 took quite the right turn. On Monday, 01/04, I got a call from the principal at Loyal Heights asking if I'd be interested in a long-term sub job? Um, DUH!!! I'd been subbing there on and off, went to school there, and basically love everything about the school. When first discussing the job, it would be to the end of March - cool, almost 3 months of knowing where I'm going to be everyday. He had me "audition" so he could choose between two possibilities so I had two days of a working interview. I was told that I had the job when he came to the room to give the kids a letter - "Take this letter home. It's telling your parents that Ms. Gaffney will be here until May 4th." WOO HOO!!!!

Then reality starts to sink in:
I have to come up with lesson plans now
I don't know where these students are academically or socially
I'm coming in to a situation where the teacher is taking leave basically because the parents made her life a living hell (the parents have some legitimate concerns about the teacher but I'm not sure they handled it the right way)

In other words, "Holy crap, what have I gotten myself in to???!!!"

First thing, the room needed some sprucing up. Have I mentioned how much I love buying school supplies??? I was in heaven!!! Bulletin board borders, pencils, charts - ahh, love it.

Monday was my "get to know the kids better day" and I quickly realized that they have had very little structure. Sitting still on the carpet was nearly impossible. Mission One - teach them how to focus and be students. After school, The second grade teacher helped me move furniture to open up the room and so my desk actually faced the room (it had been facing the windows with my back to the door).

Tuesday - I quickly figured out who the "difficult" parent was going to be. She griped about the desks being moved "Fifth time in three weeks!" and the fact that she didn't realize it was a testing week - "why wasn't I told???" - it's only been in every newsletter that went home in the last month and, quite frankly, how the hell should I know?

Wednesday - poor little things have another round of illness going through. Even though they were transfixed while the librarian read them a story, they coughed all the way through it. They are starting to figure out that Ms. Gaffney means it when she says "we're not going anywhere until I see a straight, quiet line."

Thursday - After spending 20-30 minutes each morning dealing with kids wanting to go to the bathroom as soon as the 2nd bell has rung, I told the kids that they were to go to the bathroom before coming in to the classroom. I hung a little sign reminding them of this "Remember to please go to the bathroom before coming in to the classroom." To me this was not an extreme request BUT difficult parent (please see above) blew a gasket "one more thing!! This just pushed me over the edge!!" Really??? Wow.

Friday - My class did the pledge and America the Beautiful at the MLK assembly and THEY ROCKED!!!! They were perfect and they totally behaved themselves while sitting in the audience. I was so proud and received many comments from the other teachers. I made sure to heap the praise on them. My first week ended with a rousing rendition of "Tony Chestnut" and then I went to happy hour :)

I'm spending most of this weekend working on the classroom and getting lessons ready for the next 5 days. I'm totally exhausted and excited at the same time. This should be an interesting 4+ months.