My First Graders Are Artists

Sky Mermaid Strip I just started substitute teaching in Highlands County, FL. Admitedly I started working to soon after an illness. Actually, I was still sick on my first day at work (I'm still a little under). Maybe this was why I didn't pick up on what the kids were doing when I kept telling them to clear their desks of art supplies. The kids kept taking out their art supplies to draw pictures; I kept telling them to put away their art supplies. The kids were making pictures for me!

 

 

 

 

...and now I feel like a mean old man. I was a lot nicer to the kids in my class the next day. I didn't work today because of technical difficulties at home (my cell phone wasn't in service all day when I got home, and I didn't notice it until 1 hour before bed - I switched my callback number to my internet phone, but I didn't start getting calls for substitute assignments until I'd already gone to sleep - my wife didn't wake me up for the calls because she realized I needed my sleep.) ...and I won't go back to work till next week because I have to go back to my old home for a couple of days too finish packing. I have a whole week with a class, next week; I have time to rest (between packing) before getting new students.  

During my first class, the substitute from last week came to the class; he forgot to take his sweater when he got off last week. After the last sub left, the kids told me he yelled at them all day. Maybe the last sub misunderstood their actions, too. ...or, some subs come down hard on the kids from the beginning of the class. I found this out the first time I ever subbed (about 11 years ago); RE: the main office of the school where I subbed for the first time ever (a seasoned sub who was also waiting for the sub co-ordinator, started a conversation with me) -

seasoned sub: Have you subbed here before?
me: This is my first sub assignment, ever.
seasoned sub: What did you before this?
me: I was a software engineer.
seasoned sub: Don't let the kids know that; they'll eat you alive. Tell them you were a New York cop, and act really tough with them.
me: Thanks for the advice (thinking, "...psycho").

Sure, the kids could've been trying to lay a guilt trip on me, so I wouldn't be a repeat of the last sub, but I don't think so; the kids were genuinely nice most of the time (though a little on the undisciplined side). That's the hardest part of being a sub (in the class room); a lot of kids think they should be allowed to play all day long when they have a sub, so its easy to misinterpret a lot of student behavior as bad behavior when it isn't. E.g., some kids are just trying to gift you with their artwork.

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