A List of Things I Learned While Subbing - or

A List of Things I Learned While Subbing - or - Thank You

Teachers have fantastic taste in books.

Connecting with s difficult student will save a day's worth of arguing.

Colleagues genuinely want to help.

You all spend too much money on your classrooms. Case in point I remember subbing in a portable where the teacher had brought in table lamps, a few comfy chairs, and lots of cushions. It made the place glow with roomy warmth.

Field trips are insanely stressful.

Teacher's aides are the most valuable ally, and really underpaid.

So are teachers.

Dismissal time is like a brief daily vacation.

PE should be done every day.

There are many ways to format a discipline system, but without student buy-in the implementation of it is a waste of time.

This is also true when there is not consistency.

Kids want to learn.

I once taught in a first grade room where the students knew how to sing every poem in the book "Ride a Purple Pelican". I thought this pure cheese until I saw the enraptured faces of the kids. When they were done a starry-eyed little girl said "Our teacher taught us that." in the way you might inform your friends your are in love.

Comments

Good

I got word today that my old coworker is pregnant. This is good. A little background: My first year of teaching was atrocious for two reasons. One being that I am not suited to teaching Kindergarten. The second lay mainly in my working relationship with this woman. She was very particular about how everything must be done, from where the scissors went to making sure the crayon cups were in the right order. While she was upfront about how picky she was, she was also completely inflexible and made it clear I was the one who was going to have to change. I like to think her private motto for me was "That's nice you want to do it that way Megan, but adjust or die." Once she bribed my students with candy. Both classes were there because it was a short day. My kids were sitting at the tables, talking and giggling as they got ready to go home. Hers were being angels on the rug. So, to make a point, she told my kids if they were quiet during dismissal she would give them all candy

The Shirt

I was going to write chronologically. Forget that. Memory is not chronological and to make it so would require me getting paid to do this. Also today I put on a shirt that is a loaded gun of memories about one student in particular. When he was placed I was told he was a major behavior. He didn't like female teachers, in part due to his own mother's erratic behavior. In fourth grade he practically lived in the office. I had a strategy with kids like this that worked about half the time, give them space. I figured if a student was having a hard time in me class it was my responsibility. With potentially explosive students I would make it my goal to be as non-reactive as possible. Sometimes this worked, but took so much emotional energy I ended up being super reactive with other students in the class. I would learn later how to be a non-reactive teacher in general, but this year was really a teaching class for me. This child taught me the most. I will call him Frank for the

Through

Recently the word "through" has stood out to me. I like how it describes a process, with a beginning and more importantly an end. I like how it evokes the same image in my mind every time I read it. Through is the way I am saved. Jesus saves me now through the work on the cross. I do not go by him, or under him or near him. I somehow go through him and am redeemed. I am active in the process and so is he. I must move, he must save. And it is his joy to save. I think this has been striking me more recently because I've begun to view the work I am doing in counseling as a process. This is a forum for Christ's healing through my memories and trauma. By working through all of this shit I hope to be born as whole. When the memories come they rise through my body. I often feel the fear and terror before I remember it. As it rises it begins in my stomach. I was nauseous for months this year. Then the feeling passes to my head as irrational thoughts, and to my heart as palpi

Megan's Blue

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