sharoncopydotcom

I was bound and determined to get to Kensington tonight.

I left work around 4 pm, stopped at a yard sale, and then my car wouldn’t start. Since I didn’t have my phone with me, I asked the yard sale people if I could use theirs to call AAA. Instead, they used my new jumper cables to get my car started. I was only a couple miles from the AutoZone that Dennis used to work at, so I drove straight there and learned that my battery was basically toast. Dennis’s former boss – Tony – was happy to sell me a new one and install it for me. I debated for a moment or two, but then I drove to Kensington and arrived at about 7 pm. It was well worth it.

It’s hard to describe the myriad of feelings that I had while I was there. I rehearsed some pleasant memories, reveled in the beauty of the lake and the sky, experienced the gentle massage of the water as I swam and floated, and smiled at some little kids.

After I got dressed, I sat in my chair on the lawn and a tall sandhill crane came within 5 feet of me and just stood and watched me. Since he stayed around for a long time, I decided to make a couple of sketches of him. I’m sure he was interested in some food, but since I had nothing to offer, I just talked to him and waved my arms – which seemed to make him come closer. He would look directly at me and kind of tilt his head a bit. Eventually he walked on – came back later – and after I finished my sketches, he went to the beach, fluttered his magnificent wings, and took off across the lake.

The sunset was not spectacular, but since the crane was so friendly, I stayed until about 9:30 p.m. or so. I enjoyed watching the silhouettes of the crane and a man, woman and dog – against the water. It was all SO lovely!

On the way home I stopped at the Redford fireworks for about 10-15 minutes and enjoyed them, then came home feeling very relaxed and happy.

At least – I hope so! Three years of subbing has brought me many wonderful and some awful experiences. I am SO glad I was able to do this. But I really hope that I can find a job (or enough customers to go freelance) in graphic design, writing, art, and editing – hey maybe even helping people organize (I did that once before and loved it).

I was able to work a full day today – in the morning I was supposed to be in the Resource Room. I arrived to find everything packed up because they are moving to another room. Nobody came – all the kids were happy today and had little or no work (report cards are already finished…..) so – nobody came down there. I spent an hour reading, getting sleepy, and they went to the office to ask what I might do. They found some filing and I did that until lunchtime.

When they announced that the school year was over, I went into the hall to wave goodbye. I got one hug (from a girl who I drew a picture of last week) and one high-five and some goodbyes from kids who recognized me. Then all the teachers went outside to wave to the kids on the buses as they went by. There were quite a few girls crying as they came down the hall – but I didn’t see any boys crying. 🙂 This school has 5th and 6th grade, so the 6th graders (now 7th graders) will go to the Middle School next year – so it was a farewell for them.

I spent the afternoon working with another sub to completely pack up everything in the teacher’s lounge (it’s being renovated). I enjoy this sort of work, even if it is a bit more physical. I emptied about 10 cupboards and a few drawers, sorted and matched up categories (for instance, there were napkins in about 5 different places) and then we boxed up everything and marked the boxes. The two of us worked for 3 hours and it was finished.

The only thing left to do is to drive to Melvindale and pick up my brand new lunchbox that I left there next week. That can wait until Tuesday, the secretary said. At 3:50 p.m. I picked up my 2nd-best lunchbox at a Livonia elementary school where I worked on Wednesday. Yes, it’s time for the school year to be over. 🙂

I don’t think the kids ever realize how much the teachers look forward to it.

I decided a long time ago that I would not sub in Redford anymore. Too bad, because there’s a school across the street from me. Well, I didn’t have any other work this morning, so I figured – hey, why not, and agreed to sub in 4th grade this morning. I decided that I was NOT going to leave there upset.

From the start, I only enforced having their work out and at least pretending to work on it and staying in their seats. I knew that keeping any level of quiet would be impossible.
Some of them did a few pages of math. Then, to my surprise, all of them worked on reading their Time For Kids magazines since I let them work together on it. It was actually quite nice for about 15-2- minutes. Then they made Minions and that wasn’t too bad. The problem was that certain kids wouldn’t stay in their seats, and when they got up it usually meant trouble. I sent 3 kids to the office at various times.

I debated what to do for the last hour, and decided to turn on a video. There was a lot of arguing about what to watch and I said that there was NO way they were going to agree on what to watch. Ended up watching two Donald Duck cartoons, a couple of Tom and Jerry cartoons, and some of the newer Road Runner cartoons (same plot, updated graphics and Wile.E.Coyote has a computer for ordering from Acme.) The kids were totally shocked when they saw Donald Duck and others SMOKING. I explained that the cartoon was made long before smoking was considered bad for you. It was interesting.

The good news is that I managed to not get stressed out and upset, despite disrespectful looks, comments, and behavior. It’s the penultimate day of the school year – my goal was just to keep people safe and survive. Rain poured down right at recess time – which means that they kids would have the (teacher-dreaded) indoor recess – I was VERY glad to be leaving before that.

In the afternoon, I was the gym teacher at a Livonia school – one that happens to be air-conditioned! Two classes went fine and then the last teacher said they weren’t coming due to their class party. I had a break – then was asked to take recess duty outside. Whew, was it hot out! Some kids I subbed for a few weeks ago saw me and hugged me and some remembered – you guessed it – the Pizza Hut song.

The only odd thing about the afternoon was that as I was passing by the gym to go to the office at the end of the day, I noticed that there were a lot of kids lining up for their buses but NO adult in there. I’m sure that was an error – one NEVER leaves a large group or even a small group of kids alone at a school. I went in and sat down and kept an eye on everybody for about 10 minutes until the principal came. I mentioned that I was surprised that no one had been in there – I wanted him to know, although this late in the school year it likely won’t be addressed.

Gym: varied activities between freeze tag, free play with lightweight soft volleyballs, races, and rock-paper-scissors-capture and r-p-s-last person standing. The kids loved it!

School secretaries are under-valued.

I sat in the air-conditioned office during a half hour break I had (no recess duty) today.
During that time the secretary fielded phone calls, answered questions from students and staff, and no doubt tried to take care of some of her OWN work along the way.

The door opens and a dozen kids walk in. This is a little unusual, since usually it’s just one “injured” person (kids think that ice fixes everything) and a friend who is along for moral support.

Secretary looks up at the entourage (all about 2nd grade level).
Very solemn voice says, “This is an emergency.”
Secretary, not seeing any blood or tears: “Which one of you is hurt?”
Several kids sort of taking turns talking (it’s like waves – one overlaps the other and another and another): “We found a butterfly with a broken wing. (Pause) We want to take care of it, so we need something to put it in.” Solemn faces all around.

Phone rings, other duties are calling. Secretary says that she will find some kind of container. Stands. Says that only two of them may stay – that the rest of them have to go back outside. Goes to find the container and take care of another request. Kids start arguing about who gets to stay.

“Me and L. found it”
“Well, it was my idea to come inside”
Etc.
I stand, put on my “Guest Teacher” identity again, walk across the office and command them all to leave. They analyze me briefly, not knowing who exactly I am, but recognizing the authoritative voice – at least on the second time I tell them. I choose the two who most adamantly seem to think that they are the founders and say that they can stay, and I shoo the rest of them out the door, sad faces on all. Another boy has stayed. He informs me that he is in THIRD grade, implying that the “only two can stay” rule didn’t apply to him. I send him packing as well. Secretary comes back with some sort of food container for the poor broken butterfly. I return to my seat, figuring that this isn’t the best time to tell the kids that holding a butterfly actually causes harm also, or to ask how they expect to help it get well. She tells them to put some leaves and twigs in the container. I’m thinking: fruit, maybe?

Before I think to add my comment, the door flies open and a staff member ushers in a wide-eyed, covered-face boy, stating, “Bloody nose coming through! Bloody nose coming through!” She takes the boy through the office to the appropriate room, followed by the secretary who now has to take care of this real emergency as the staff member returns outside. My “recess” time is over, so I head for the door. The secretary returns to her desk to answer the ringing ringing ringing phone and thanks me for my assistance as she picks up the receiver.

The special ed girl who put her fingers all over my whistle today…..Yuck!

The Kindergartener who, upon hearing that I have children, said, “You’re too BIG to be a mom.”

Sweating a LOT in the 90+ weather – outside and also inside the gym.

Watching the Lego Batman movie – which to me was DUMB. Not meant for my demographic. I didn’t see more than half and that’s fine.

Being in a school when it’s 90+ outside and there’s a community water problem so there are no fountains. Kids brought bottles of water from home and the school also went around providing them. Lots more restroom trips. Kids who were supposed to wear swimsuits and have water parties were not able to do so, though.

I took kids outside for PE today, but only in the morning. It was actually breezy and better out there than inside the stuffy gym. But for the rest of the classes, we stayed in.
Nobody was required to play – many of them had already had outdoor or other exercise time and some were quite tired, so that was fine. As it ended up, most of the kids wanted to play for most of the time.

We did a round of “Last Person Standing” with Rock Paper Scissors as I hadn’t done that with this group before. Then I got out plastic hockey sticks and divided the class in half. I gave them each 1/3 of the gym and kept the other third in the middle as a no-man’s-zone. I got out a couple dozen whiffle balls, and each team was supposed to hit them to the other side of the gym. I appointed one person from each team to “sweep” the center area and keep the balls that stopped there moving. About every 5 minutes I would blow the whistle and everyone would put down their sticks and sit down and were NOT supposed to touch any of the balls (some were still rolling). Then I counted how many balls were in each end and gave points to the winning team. After a round or two the kids realized that they needed to pay attention to their back area where several balls had ended up just sitting unnoticed. It got especially competitive when I pitted the 3rd grade girls against the boys. 🙂   With so much space between the teams, there were fewer instances of someone getting hit with a hockey stick.  The kids seemed to enjoy it.

We also played “crab soccer” where the kids sit in a square formation and 5 at a time “crab-walk” out and try to kick the gigantic (soft) ball past all the other kids who are acting as goalies. Most of them seemed to like this game too. Since the kids were little, I really didn’t keep score, especially since they were kicking in every direction. 🙂

I have another PE class tomorrow. I have no work on Thursday and then I have a full day on Friday, the last day of school in Livonia: half in the RCR, and half helping pack up the teacher’s lounge. 🙂 I’m good at packing.

I’ve been taking some photos (without kids in them) because I plan to start writing my book about being a substitute teacher soon. Working title: “But My Teacher Said…..”   🙂

A Kindergartener arrived at school and attempted to apply the spray sunscreen that his mother had sent to school with him. Unfortunately, he sprayed some in his eyes and he was pretty miserable for the next few hours. Not good to send aerosol anything to school with a 5 year old.

The usual “he said, she said” and “he did, she did” was going on around me. I was playing with about 6 of the kids and most of the rest were “driving” trucks around, playing in the tiny kitchen, or building something or other. B and G came to me to intervene in whatever seismic dispute had taken place. I told them to go to the carpeted area behind me and talk it over and figure it out themselves and then they could go back and play. A few moments later I noticed they weren’t there anymore. 🙂

Kindergarteners are such creatures of habit. Everything is done a certain way and deviation either confuses them, slows them down, or brings about total defiance:

“We never go sit on the carpet after we do reading.”
“It can’t be time to go home: we haven’t gone to Centers yet!” (spoken at 3:30 p.m.)
“It’s my job to pass out the papers.”
“We HAVE to do math right after rest time!”

The good news is that it really is great to have an exact routine that they can count on. Each kid knows what is to be done throughout the day, even if he isn’t actually doing it.

300+ kids ages 5-9 all sat on the floor of the non-airconditioned gym watching the Lego Batman movie. Some wanted to listen; some wanted to react and talk. For some of the Kindergarteners I was shepherding, what little plot there was in the movie went over their heads and there seemed a general disinterest.

This “event” was a reward for meeting their reading goals. I’m certain that it seemed like it would be exciting for them. Except – most had already seen the movie. And when kids watch a movie together they want to talk about it. And it was hot. And it’s only fun to sit on the gym floor for short periods of time – not 90 minutes. And they were all drinking bottled water because all the water in Livonia is no good for the next few days due to an earlier power outage. And that meant hands being raised to go to the restroom and a long line at the girls’ restroom door in the hallway.

I think they also served ice cream. I’m not certain because a staff member announced that if anyone didn’t want to watch the movie, s/he could go back to the classroom. A bunch of my kids started asking to go, so I asked the rest of them if they wanted to, and ended up taking all except 3 or 4 of them. We went to the classroom and played with trucks and toys and games and the little kitchen and dominoes and plastic counting bears and such. Unfortunately, I had left the classroom fan in the gym, but we survived.
Anyway – we didn’t get ice cream or whatever the treat was.

I think the era of showing a movie as a perk anywhere has ended. These kids can watch just about any movie anytime anywhere however many times they want. Sitting still and quiet with 299 of your closest classmates in a very warm gym is not really a bonus.

5 year olds are about the cutest people on earth. Today I taught about 4 songs to a lovely class, collected MANY hugs and a few colorful hearts drawn and cut out just for me, and enjoyed just admiring their beauty and intelligence. Oh, sure, there were the usual “Please sit down NOW” commands and “Are you doing what you are supposed to be doing?” questions (I love the look that comes over their faces when they are somersaulting across the rug instead of filling in numbers on their “math” page – Huh? Oh, yeah……) Today I again asked myself if I am going to miss subbing. I will miss days like today.

There was one surprise today. I was teaching “The Penguin Song” (which has now been learned by about 600 young children in the area – I like to imagine them all meeting up at a park and suddenly belting out this song, followed by 1,000 other kids joining them in the “Pizza Hut Song”. My legacy 🙂 ). I’ll preface it by saying that no matter what level is ALLOWED, there are always one or two kids that move to a more rambunctious level. IOW, if silence is required, little George will blurt out comments and questions. If quiet talking is allowed, little George will shout. If everyone is supposed to sit still, little George will crawl, sneak, walk, or roll. If everyone is allowed to walk around, little George will tag others, run, jump, somersault, touch stuff that shouldn’t be touched. You get the idea.

So – the Penguin Song is FUN because it calls for silliness and motions that encompass the entire body. But of course, our “little George” had to kick his feet higher and wider than anyone of the 600 have ever needed to.  So – here we were in the middle of singing the song, and the boy NEXT to little George suddenly yells out, “He just kicked me in the balls!”

That stopped me. I paused, debating how to address the situation, trying not to laugh, and noting that about 4 other VCRs (VideoChildrenRecorders) were repeating the comment, while a few more were expressing their offense. I decided to tell “little George” to move over and be more careful and then jump back into the song. The other boy – not terribly hurt, lost his frown within a couple of phrases.

I gave 3 math quizzes today.  I did a pencil drawing of one student in each class on the back of a quiz while watching the 6th graders ponder and write.

L. was SO pleased that I drew her that she came up and gave me a huge hug. 🙂