DAYS 115 and 116

Thursday: Now, where was I? Oh, yes – the days get mixed up easily!

I had Room 4, which is – 2nd grade. Overall the day went well, although I had to send one particular disruptive student out of the classroom 3 times. I was in this room a long time ago – when they had been having substitutes a lot and their teacher was out on maternity leave. Now that she has been back for a few weeks, I noticed a BIG difference in how smoothly the day went.

It’s only Saturday, and I honestly can’t remember anything else about the day now. 😦

Friday: I was one-on-one with J again. Since it was the second time working with him, it went better – he was more responsive and we completed several assignments together. I also got to observe his teacher teaching a group lesson and she is wonderful. I told her so. What I learned from her – she has a way of reading part of a book and then acting like she really doesn’t know what the answer is to a question, and asking the class.

This classroom must want me to admit to getting older. The teacher asked all of her students to name their favorite movie, and asked the teachers’ aide and me “name your favorite movie as a kid.” Hers was “Toy Story.” Sigh. I really don’t pay attention to peoples’ age – I like spending time with any person, but now and then it sneaks up behind me and slaps me up side the head. BTW, I said “Wizard of Oz” and I was very happy that all the kids could relate to it. Whew!

I also helped the secretary for a task that took way longer than I would have thought: take two piles of papers – go to all 10 classrooms and count out enough pages for each student and ask the teachers to send them home in the kids’ Friday folders. 22-28 students per classroom – easy task, but I was shocked at how long it took. Yay, Ms. Jenny for being the most awesome school secretary around!

What a beautiful day outside! I didn’t get out much, but wow, I appreciated it when I did.

Three pieces of news: found out that the director of the school resigned a few weeks ago. Lots of negative feelings about that but I just heard it today. She was another of the many to make a mid-term exit; some of that situation has accounted for me being at Montessori for about 6 weeks straight now. However….I am officially not needed as a regular sub anymore (you may recall that being one gave me a $20/day raise as well as some very nice stability and a chance to work pretty close to home). So – next week I will be in Plymouth/Canton and Livonia on Monday and Tuesday and I don’t know where, yet, on Wednesday. Thursday I will be at Montessori, and Friday May 8 – I am flying to Seattle to spend 5 days with Amy and Kevin!

Last piece of news: the school is going back to multi-grade (or dual-grade?) classrooms next year: 1-2 grades, 2-3 grades, that sort of thing. Interesting.