Days 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

How did I get so far behind? 😦

He called me a hag (actually it was the second time he disrespected me but I had overlooked the first). So, I wrote him up and walked him to the Vice Principal’s office. Pretty sure they don’t tolerate disrespect in Livonia. It was Day 9 – Livonia Middle School Resource Room. First hour  = prep. Second hour = 4 kids in the room to do homework – I assisted one boy and another boy kept interrupting, interfering, and refusing to do any work. After awhile I pressured him. That’s when the disrespect happened.

Day 10 – a.m. Kindergarten in Livonia, p.m. I think was 2nd grade in a different Livonia school. Can’t remember any particular details now!

Day 11 – 7th grade Health and Phys Ed for the morning. I got to lead the kids in a discussion about conflict resolution – fun to get a chance to teach, tell some good stories, etc. Then I organized two gym classes (about 32-34 kids @) into teams and they played basketball while I watched the time and rotated the players every five minutes. It was amusing to watch them – the “wanna-be-hot-shots” who really didn’t make any more baskets than the other kids did – they just grabbed the ball away a lot more.    Mostly – it made me miss my sons – a lot.

Day 12 – High school History. I still feel a little intimidated at the Taylor charter school, dealing with snarky teens! Stuff and nonsense! I will conquer this queasy feeling of rejection yet. Seems like when a sub enters, all sense leaves, and suddenly every 16 year old seriously needs to go potty, or argues why he or she should. Disrespectful attitudes and responses – from only a few, fortunately. Heavy sighs when I enter the room, snickers when they see me. Not the welcome that I desire. But – I’m there to teach, or make sure some level of learning occurs, not to be friends, right? I will conquer this. Since all of the nonsense happened during the “Do Now” segment, wherein they are supposed to write an answer to a couple of questions when they first arrive (read: busywork), I skipped it in the last class and went directly to the movie. I really enjoyed the film about Vanderbilt and Rockefeller and Carnegie and how they got started and did business! Educational!

Day 13 – back to Montessori and grades 1-2. A good day, overall. This teacher demands and receives silence for most of the day. I started out allowing some level of talking, but realized that they were not used to that and so they quickly went a little crazy. I went back to expecting silence, and the day went well. BEST lunchtime ever – kids have lunch in the room and are NOT allowed to talk – because if they talk, they don’t eat their lunches! Apparently these kids really love their teacher, too.