Substitute Teaching
Since I'm living with my parents in East Texas until my November wedding/move to Dallas, I was in desperate need of a job that would be understanding when I needed to resign in a few months. Substitute teaching is what I could come up with for such a temporary time. Plus, it's the best job ever!
I've been working at my hometown high school and middle school, same ones my parent's teach at. I have been absolutely loving it. I'm surrounded by the awesome teachers that taught me while I was in school and a lot of my students are "kids" that I babysat when they were so much younger!
I've learned a few things during my first few weeks of subbing:
1. My clothes are not very school-appropriate. My dresses are too short, tops too low and I have NO nice shoes (I recently sold all my shoes I didn't "need.") They're not too bad for the general population, but when you're supposed to be in charge of a bunch of teens, you need to be conservative! I've been getting a lot of use out of my favorite black/short/cardigan. Goes with everything and makes it all appropriate :)
2. It's not too hard to wake up early once you get back into the habit. I thought I'd be dragging around much more, but I seem to be making it alright. Breakfast is probably the key.
3. Fridays are the best days. First of all, school faculty can wear jeans. Ohhhh yeah! Secondly, classes are much shorter. Our entire school district goes to a pep rally at the end of the day and to make time for it, each class is cut a few minutes. Third, Fall + Friday + Texas = Football. Football means school spirit! This year, my hometown has a theme to each week's football game. I subbed for "Beach the Bobcats" day and got to where a shirt I got in a Hawaiian Goodwill, flip flops, sunglasses and a lei.
4. I'm still terrible at math. A 7th grader who finished his assignment early asked me to help him with some of his math homework. A 7TH GRADER. I couldn't do it, of course. I literally tried this one problem for about 10 minutes before I gave up. I told my fiance about it (a math teacher) and he did it in about 15 seconds. Lame.
5. I'm finally starting to feel old. I didn't really feel like it until this week. Some of my sophomore students were asked about their memories of 9/11. They were only 3 and 4 years old. They have no memory of it. That kind of threw me for a loop. I remember that day so vividly, so it's wild to think they never knew pre-9|11-America.
6. I absolutely love my small hometown. To give you a taste of what it's like, I'll leave you guys with this picture. Last year as a HS English teacher wrapped up her final day of chemo, the art students (directed by the HS art teacher) surprised her by hanging these thousand paper cranes to celebrate. It's beautiful things like this that make our town and school, one big family.
Have a wonderful week. Only 2 more work-days for most of you! :)