First note: The names of the schools and kids have been changed to protect the (semi-) innocent by-standers of my first few attempts at running a classroom.
My first sub job was at a middle school. I remember calling the sub-finder system late one night after going out. There it was, after the pre-recorded voice of the ever cheerful lady telling me whom I had called (because many people just randomly call subfinder) I entered my pin and pressed 2 for avalible jobs, and, as my heart started pounding I accepted the job from 8am-11:05am at a local (right across the street local) middle school. I would be subbing for "Secondary Humanities" (whatever that meant). I was way excited. I had already made plans to spend the night at my friend's house so I drove home, got my outfit ready and headed over there.
5:30am always comes way too fast and before I knew it was headed over to the school. Visions of fangs and newly budding horns came to mind as I parked my car and walked like a deer in the headlights into the office. What the hell was I doing here?! Middle school was the worst time of my life and now I'm going to SUB here?!?! As I walked into the office and asked about what I should do, the secetary looked at me and said, "You've never been here before have you?" I thought to myself, "yeah how could you tell...?" She assured me that they were "...GREAT kids..." and I would "...have NO problems...!" with the classes because she had "...Sixth graders!!" I was reassured by this (notice how assured totally has the word, 'ass' in it.) and went to the classroom. I had gotten there like a billion hours early because I expected kids to be trying to get inside the classroom to escape evil middle school Indian Burial grounds but there was no one. I sat down and got out the lesson plan. I would have three periods, two of them being with mostly the same kids and the third being the same information as the first. No big deal, okay. Doing some calming down techniques I admently repeated over and over again, "I am in charge. I am the teacher today. I am in charge. I am the teacher today." trying desperatly to get myself to believe it. The first class came in and it went well. Their horns must have been hidden because I didn't see any and their fangs I guess had been filed down for the upcoming weekend's parties.
We went over Ancient India (it was totally watered and down, but good thing because all I know about Ancient India is, its old). Then for the next class she had left a cd and we listened to a play verison of The Phantom Tollbooth being preformed by some snobby Brits. Who do they think they are anyway, always being the actors of great plays and the like. After we stopped the tape and were waiting for the bell to ring they asked me my first name. "okay, what the heck would it hurt?" So I had them guess it. No one was even close so I told them, "it starts with 'A' and ends with 'A'." After Amanda (the obivous choice) they guessed 'Allyssa'. But I told them that they probably didn't know how to spell it. SHIT. Um, maybe that wasn't such a good idea because, I instatly envisioned thoundsands of friend requests on myspace from middle school boys. "No one spelled it right! GOOD BYE!" ::whew:: That was a close one...
Then was break. 10 minutes to readjust my brain back to Ancient India...not enough time but it would have to do. You could tell the classes were being tracked because of the lack of diversity in the first two and the overwhelming amount in this class. Great, just great. One kid was totally teachers pet which was awesome, because as I said to myself again (now a mantra) "I am in control. I am the teacher today." Then before I knew it, the day was over.
As I left the campus, headed home for Gilmore Girls and lunch, I thought to myself, "I could do that...but only if I'm in charge, and the teacher for the day."
My first sub job was at a middle school. I remember calling the sub-finder system late one night after going out. There it was, after the pre-recorded voice of the ever cheerful lady telling me whom I had called (because many people just randomly call subfinder) I entered my pin and pressed 2 for avalible jobs, and, as my heart started pounding I accepted the job from 8am-11:05am at a local (right across the street local) middle school. I would be subbing for "Secondary Humanities" (whatever that meant). I was way excited. I had already made plans to spend the night at my friend's house so I drove home, got my outfit ready and headed over there.
5:30am always comes way too fast and before I knew it was headed over to the school. Visions of fangs and newly budding horns came to mind as I parked my car and walked like a deer in the headlights into the office. What the hell was I doing here?! Middle school was the worst time of my life and now I'm going to SUB here?!?! As I walked into the office and asked about what I should do, the secetary looked at me and said, "You've never been here before have you?" I thought to myself, "yeah how could you tell...?" She assured me that they were "...GREAT kids..." and I would "...have NO problems...!" with the classes because she had "...Sixth graders!!" I was reassured by this (notice how assured totally has the word, 'ass' in it.) and went to the classroom. I had gotten there like a billion hours early because I expected kids to be trying to get inside the classroom to escape evil middle school Indian Burial grounds but there was no one. I sat down and got out the lesson plan. I would have three periods, two of them being with mostly the same kids and the third being the same information as the first. No big deal, okay. Doing some calming down techniques I admently repeated over and over again, "I am in charge. I am the teacher today. I am in charge. I am the teacher today." trying desperatly to get myself to believe it. The first class came in and it went well. Their horns must have been hidden because I didn't see any and their fangs I guess had been filed down for the upcoming weekend's parties.
We went over Ancient India (it was totally watered and down, but good thing because all I know about Ancient India is, its old). Then for the next class she had left a cd and we listened to a play verison of The Phantom Tollbooth being preformed by some snobby Brits. Who do they think they are anyway, always being the actors of great plays and the like. After we stopped the tape and were waiting for the bell to ring they asked me my first name. "okay, what the heck would it hurt?" So I had them guess it. No one was even close so I told them, "it starts with 'A' and ends with 'A'." After Amanda (the obivous choice) they guessed 'Allyssa'. But I told them that they probably didn't know how to spell it. SHIT. Um, maybe that wasn't such a good idea because, I instatly envisioned thoundsands of friend requests on myspace from middle school boys. "No one spelled it right! GOOD BYE!" ::whew:: That was a close one...
Then was break. 10 minutes to readjust my brain back to Ancient India...not enough time but it would have to do. You could tell the classes were being tracked because of the lack of diversity in the first two and the overwhelming amount in this class. Great, just great. One kid was totally teachers pet which was awesome, because as I said to myself again (now a mantra) "I am in control. I am the teacher today." Then before I knew it, the day was over.
As I left the campus, headed home for Gilmore Girls and lunch, I thought to myself, "I could do that...but only if I'm in charge, and the teacher for the day."
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