I don't get bathroom breaks

With only one more week left of substitute teaching, here is a list of things that I WON'T miss about replacing absent teachers:

1. Getting up at 5:45

2. Signing bathroom passes for students all day while I have had to pee for like 2 hours because of all the water I drank with lunch.

3. Being told "you look like a student!" but punk kids with sagging pants.

4. Being asked "how old are you?" 47 times in one class period. Didn't anyone ever tell them it was impolite to ask a women's age?

5. Getting up at 5:45.

6. "Miiiiisssssssss! Did you see that? He just hit me!" (and from high schoolers too!)

7. Watching the first 45 minutes of the same movie 5 times but never getting to see the end

8. Getting up at 5:45.

9. School lunches.

10. Being shorter than middle school students.

I will miss all (well, most) of the kids and teachers (especially at DCIS!). Thanks for some (mostly) good times!

Early morning. . .

Violence? Isn't 8am a little early to be going to blows? At least wait till I've had my coffee.

This morning I had the pleasure of dealing with my first ever in class fight. Who knows what got the two teenage boys all riled up. As the fists flew, so did I- out into the hall to get a security guard. No way in hell am I going to get in the middle of that.

Once the kids were removed from class I knew that the day could only go up from there. Only one more month as a substitute teacher.

I got a sub call yesterday for a music teacher at a middle school with the name of Shawn Funk. With a name like Mr. Funk what else could you be but a music teacher? I didn't take the job, but I really would have loved to take Mr. Funk's music class.

End of summer-joys of subbing

Well, even though the season doesn't officially end until the 21st, I think that summer is pretty much done for me. Part of me is glad that the crazy summer is coming to an end. I feel as if I am still trying to catch up on sleep. I do have a lot to do over the next few months (getting ready for Peace Corps and all) but I don't have a lot of responsibility when it comes to work and that is weird. I'm a (just a little) over achiever, so without work to do, I have been volunteering a lot. Anyway, today was the first day that really felt like fall- I had to wear a sweat shirt when I came into school and the building was not as unbearably hot as it has been the past few weeks.

I am subbing now. . . oh the joys of being a fake teacher. Here is what I like about being a substitute teacher:

1) I get to read a lot- most teachers leave pretty simple things for me to do, often there is a movie or some sort of work sheet involved. I also get to read (or do my own thing) during planning periods and lunch.

2) I mostly sub at DCIS- so far this semester I have only been at one school, DCIS, which is great for so many reasons. I know most of the kids, so I don't get that "you are just a sub and we can do whatever we want" type attitude. I can also be relatively sure that I will have a fairly clear lesson plan and something to actually do, rather than the normal "let's watch a nature movie that has nothing to do with what these kids are learning" type lesson. Even with those good points, I still get the occasional little shits that bug me and don't do anything that I ask. I have a feeling that this is how they act for their regular teachers though, so I don't worry about it too much.

3) If I am every feeling crappy, tired or just plain lazy I can turn down a job. I can also turn down jobs from schools I don't like, teachers I don't like or in subjects I don't like. I have to be careful to sub a certain amount of days a week to make enough money for rent (which is the point, after all) but other than that, I can just say no.

4)I have no responsibilities at the end of the day. After I sign my daily report and leave the building, that's it. I have no homework or papers to grade, no lesson plans to make, no parents to call. That means that I can go home and watch TV, go to movies, go to cooking club/majong/concerts etc. with little or no guilt about what I SHOULD be doing instead.

5) I can be the NICE sub. We all remember that sub. The one you were happy to get because they were actually a better teacher than your regular teacher and they were always nice to you. I try not to be the mean sub. Or the crying sub. I'm the young sub, which I usually liked better than the old sub. It's funny how many times the kids tell me "I like you better than so and so." I don't take it too seriously (just like I don't take kids telling me I'm mean too seriously) but it is kind of funny.

Highlight for the day: three of the seventh graders that I know from last year told me that when I go into the Peace Corps they want to come and visit me. . . but since the tickets will be really expensive they will only buy one ticket and the other two will stow away in her suitcase. Cute.

As the year ends. . .

I thought I was done with this stuff when I finished college. . .

Becomeing a teacher means that once again, the end of may becomes a bitter sweet time of goodbyes and good lucks. The seniors graduating this year are among the best I've ever seen. They are mature and thoughtful and caring and intellegent and all around pretty good kids. So here's to the class of '07. Good luck in college and life beyond.

Okay, enough mushy stuff. Some of the teachers went out for a drink after graduation the other night. My weirdness at drinking with my former teachers (as I now teach at the school I attended not so many years ago) including the principal, has lessened over the past year, but not completely gone away. I remember the first FAC (Friday Afternoon Club) that I went to last year. I had been subbing for about two months and one Friday when I was at West, a few of the teachers asked if I wanted to go out for a beer. I get to the bar and this wave of self doubt washes over me. Even though I am 24 years old and I work with these people ever day as an equal. . . they were my teachers in high school. I mean, can you imagine drinking with your high school principal? Changing roles (from student to teacher) is hard. Convincing the teachers to think of me not as a 17 year old is even harder. I have had to prove myself a lot. This felt a little bit like graduation for me too. I got to wear a robe and walk in with the teachers- the kids even call me Ms. Lipman and I don't mind. Growing up? Something like that.

P.S. It's true- the teachers go out after school and talk about the kids; who we love , who we hate; who we want to throw out the second story window during 7th period. Teachers really are the worst gossips in the world- next to high schoolers that is.