Waffles Radio

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect from this job.  High school English tends to be a bit on the boring side.  Mostly it’s reading a story (or reading something else) and answering questions about it, or pulling out the grammar books that only seem to be used with a sub.  Well, that is if the kids can be believed about that one.

I had no idea what levels of English this would be.  Plus it was the first Friday of the school year.  I was all prepared for a day full of kids not doing the work.

But it went a lot more smoothly than I thought.  I was also ready to give kids a break on being late.  The only person late all day was so late he had a pass anyway.  Nobody got sent out of the room.  Only one person complained more than once about having work to do.

I also decided to try something new with the note to the teacher.  I thanked her for having everything so ready for me.  We’ll see if that gets me any return trips.

Back to the school and subject combination of my nightmares.  Same building even.  But a very different day.

The teacher was out so she could go to the doctor for something not serious but you need to go to the doctor to get it confirmed and probably the treatment for.  I know this because she was there until halfway through 1st block, which was her planning period.  It was like I somehow got to sub for the student teacher.  She told me she’d be back a few times throughout the day.  Which is a bit weird, but at least I knew about it, and it’s math that I couldn’t help the kids with so that was a good move on her part.

The first class came in and did their work.  No whining, nothing.  They also knew the teacher was coming back at the end of the period to see if they had any questions about the work.  I’m sure that helped.  When she came in I stuck myself to the back wall (I later moved to the side wall when she had them work out a problem) and just listened.  Partly because I sort of remembered how to do it and partly so I could explain it to a class later that day if I needed to.

The next class was IB, and weird because it was two IB classes put together.  I was never told why they did that, my best guess is that it’s just a favor the teachers trade so they can get things done without having the class in the room.  The one that was technically mine had a review and the other had a project.  Neither of those really happened.  Instead it turned into people playing dots and spades.  I didn’t care^[1], the teacher did tell me to let them play stuff when they finished with the work.

The last class had the same review as the first one.  There was a lot more talking, but they still worked.  I don’t think they believed me that the teacher would be back toward the end of the class.  One group started having a pretty heated discussion (with everyone on the same side so I wasn’t worried about a fight or anything) and somehow it ended right before the teacher came into the room.  She was there until the end of school so I didn’t want to worry about any sort of end of the day stuff.

I’d say this was definitely one of my weirder days.  But like I say when I have a student teacher, I’m not going to complain about being paid to basically sit around.

1. In fact, I didn’t care so much that I helped teach one girl how to play. [↩]

This was the second half of the assignment that I started yesterday.  I really think I should have waited and just written both days as 1 post since they’re so similar.

The IB kids went to the library again.  This was the other half of them though, and they got a lot more work done.  Maybe it’s because the project was due in their next class period.  But I also got the vibe that this was just a group that took things more seriously.

The other two classes watched a movie and took notes on character traits and how the social class of 2 certain characters impacted their view of the world.  The surprise though was that I got a paper turned in from everyone.

The first of a two day assignment.  I knew before I got there that at least 1 class was IB kids.  That made me pretty happy, I think I deserve a few good days.

The IB kids went to the library to work on a new project.  They have to make a poster about a country and include some facts.  Obviously a boost your grade kind of project.  The kids were not amused that there was new work after they’d already taken the IB exam.  So they spent most of the time playing around in the library.  Let’s be fair, a lot of them were working while they played around.  But the playing was definitely there.

2nd and 3rd block got review sheets for their exam in Econ/Government.  They got to work together.  Again, they didn’t really appreciate having work to do.  But at least it made more sense to them.  Other than some whining, they did the work.  A lot of them finished 1 sheet, or finished a section on the second and just stopped to play around the rest of class.  Normally I would have made them work until they were finished with it, but they knew they’d have a sub for 2 days.

This class was the perfect example of why I don’t want to hear from the teacher about how bad the kids are.  I get it that they might not behave for the regular teacher.  And I really do appreciate that the she tried to warn the subs^[1] about the classes.  But the way she worded made it seem like if I didn’t have them follow the seating chart exactly and if I let a single word be uttered during class I’d wish I was in a prison riot instead.

I had no problems.  Not the violent, get kicked out of class kind anyway.  There were kids talking while they did the work.  Most of the talking was about the work.  There were no fights.  There were people who refused to do the work.  I’m not going to force high school kids to do the work, especially not this late in the year.

The last class of the day should have been the worst if the notes left by the teacher were any indication.  They weren’t bad at all.  Ir probably helped that the school was having a mini Relay for Life event and kids got to leave class.  I know that everyone who left mine wasn’t supposed to leave.  But since I didn’t have a list of who was allowed to go, I left a note telling the teacher who was still in the room when those kids left.

1. A different person was in the room the day before me. [↩]

If you haven’t read about the beginning of the day, you should go do that and then come over here.

I got to the new room and expected the worst.  It didn’t help that they had another teacher and the secretary in there watching the class in addition to the sub who was there first.  The old sub quickly told me what was going on, grabbed her stuff, and left.  She didn’t leave me a key.  I don’t know if it was because she brought it with her or if she never got one^[1].  The class was taking a test and the only issues were that some of the kids didn’t want to do the work and some of them wanted to ask me questions.

Both were perfectly understandable.  This was a lower level math class with juniors and seniors mixed in.  These kids aren’t your stereotypical going off to college in the fall crowd.  Knowing how to factor a polynomial isn’t going to be that important to them.

I had 3rd period planning now, and a teacher from next door came by to tell me that she didn’t understand why the first sub couldn’t handle it.  The class had been talking during a test, but nothing major.  They didn’t understand the work and were asking how to do it.  Some of them slept and just didn’t do the work.

I’ve had to deal with days a lot worst than that.  The fight, the 5th grade class who thought they could do whatever they wanted, the chemistry class where I got stuff thrown at me, the day a kid threatened to jump me because I wouldn’t let them leave early for lunch, and the 3rd grade class who behaved so poorly that a visitor to the school took time out of what he was doing to tell me that they were the worst class he’d ever had to deal with come to mind.  Hell, the Spanish class I had the day before was worse, and that was really only for 1 period.  This lady had nothing to complain about.  The only thing we could think of was that she was expecting perfect silence and couldn’t take the fact that she wasn’t going to get it.

If I had known that’s all it was I would have told them I didn’t want to switch and made her deal with it.

Advising time was nothing special at all.  Your basic Relay for Life presentation with someone telling a story about a loved one who died of cancer.  Not to belittle that at all, but when you hear basically the same script so often it really doesn’t work as well.  The only highlight there was that I had one of the kids from the Spanish class the day before who told me that those two guys get away with everything in there and thanked me for getting those two guys kicked out of class.

The last class came in and it was more kids I’d had before.  Some didn’t want to do the work because they weren’t there to get the notes which they were allowed to use on the test.  Some didn’t want to do the work because the teacher told them they were going to fail anyway.  The only work I made people do was put their name on the test and turn it in.

And you know what?  Everything was perfectly fine.  Yes, the kids talked during the test.  They played around instead of doing the work.  But they were polite about it, and they didn’t keep people who wanted to do the work from doing the work.  That’s really all I can ask at this point in the year.

The best part was that the sub I traded with was leaving a class of people who talked when they were supposed to work alone for another class of people who talked while they were supposed to work alone.  I think that’s hilarious.

I wrote two notes to teacher.  The first was to the teacher I ended the day with, telling her that I came in during 2nd and couldn’t understand why the other sub couldn’t take it since nobody was really misbehaving at all.  The second was to the teacher I started the day with telling her how 1st block was, how I expected 2nd to be since I’d had them before, and how I hoped to get a chance to spend a whole day with her classes.  In both notes I made the kids look better than they really were.  I was worried that the sub would go into the other class with a bad attitude and make those kids out to be little devils.  I was also worried that the teacher of the class I ended the day with would take things out on the first class when they (most likely) behaved just as well as the other two did that day.

On the way out I got a cupcake^[2] and heard from 3 other teachers that the class I ended the day with was great, maybe even better than usual.

That made me feel really good about myself.

1. As weird as that is, it does happen every once in a while.  Although at the high schools I’ve only had it happen when I was sent to the wrong room for some reason. [↩]
2. Yay for teachers not wanting to bring those home. [↩]

This was a weird day that I’m splitting into two posts since I was in two classes.

It was set to be a great day.  Another 4th block planning and honors classes the whole time.  Throw in the fact that I’ve had most of these kids before and it was pretty close to perfect.

The first class came in and did their work.  No phones coming out.  No complaining about working this close to the end of the year.  They were quiet during announcements.  That never happens.  They didn’t make a big deal about shorter classes due to a special thing in the middle of the day.  Even my friends who only sub elementary schools would have had a great day.

The worst part about the class was that they pulled out a Rubik’s cube and tried to explain to someone else how to solve it.  Which wasn’t bad since they were all done with the work.  The bad part was that I was listening and they completely lost me.  Really, if the kids confusing you about something like that is the worst part it’s a great day.

The second class was looking like it would be the same, except maybe a lack of colorful puzzle cubes.  But then I got a call on the classroom phone asking if I would switch classes with an older lady who couldn’t handle the class she was in.  I told them I could do that.

Then I told the kids what was going to happen.  They weren’t happy about it since they knew me well enough to know that I would let them finish their work and basically play around after that.  It probably didn’t help that I’d already told them I wasn’t going to take up the work either^[1].

So they started talking about different ways they would annoy the new sub.  Totally innocent things, so I didn’t try to stop them.  Besides, they were still working while they did that.  Finally, a principal came and told me where this other room was.  I grabbed my stuff, left everything in a nice stack (including the key to the room) and went to the new room.

1. The notes left for me said that anything not finished could be finished for homework.  I don’t like taking things up when that’s the case because I want everyone to have the same opportunities to do the work. [↩]