it's been a hard day's night

So, that festina lente thing hasn't been working. I've found that the faster I work, the better. Taking things slowly doesn't seem to increase accuracy for me either. Especially since I've been getting about 4-5 hours of sleep every night and I'm constantly fatigued. Is this normal for new teachers? I've found that I've been having trouble remembering things and I feel as though I'm always behind with planning and marking. Of course, it doesn't help that I have to learn most of the material I teach ahead of time. If the students only knew how little I knew!

Despite being more fatigued and stupid, I'm still enjoying teaching. I enjoy learning new things, and using my creativity. I just wish I had more time to do it. I need to find some sort of strategy to either decrease the amount of work I do or to become more time efficient. As it is, I don't get home until 8:30 pm (due to extra-curricular stuff and taking public transit), by the time I settle down and eat, it's 9:30, it takes me a few hours to plan so I don't usually get to bed 'til 1:00 am and then I have to get up at 5:50 am.

Anyway, if I find some sort of miracle method of becoming more time-efficient, I'll let you know. ;)

Until then, I will work like I've never worked before and then collapse on the weekends!

Man, do I love weekends!

Motto for 2007

In line with taking things a little easier, I've decided that I'm going to make Festina Lente my new motto (which means "hasten slowly" i.e. the tortoise wins the race). I've been feeling so overwhelmed with my new job that I think I just need to take a deep breath and relax a little in order to think more clearly. Is it possible to relax and be more efficient? It doesn't feel like that when I'm getting ready to go to work in the morning. Oh well, it's worth a try...as long as I don't fall asleep from relaxing to much. :p

Feeling Insecure

In the past few days, as I've started my new position, I've been wondering whether or not I'll be an adequate teacher to my students. I've especially been concerned about what the principal will think of my teaching when he comes to observe me. Then I realized that I've successfully completed my practice placements in teacher's college, I've managed to do a pretty good job "on the fly" as a supply teacher, and surely, with my very own plans, I should be able to help my students accomplish something - hopefully it will be many things. And that's really what matters right? Anyway, I'm often too hard on myself. I can be so patient and encouraging with my students but when it comes to me I take out the red pen and mark X's all over. :p I'm still working on that New Year's resolution--to take it easy and be kind to myself.

New Job

I'm very excited since, starting this Monday, I will have a class of my own. I'll be teaching an ESL group and I'm looking forward to it as I've had nothing but great experiences with ESL students in the past.

Now I know what you're thinking…you're wondering "why the change?" after I've been raving about how wonderful supply teaching is. Well…I do still like supply teaching, and I may very well go back to it in September since I've enjoyed it so much. However, the lure of having my own group of students, the opportunities to use my creativity, and the higher pay convinced me to give full time teaching a try.

Anyway, I'll likely be very busy setting up my classroom and planning in the next little while so you'll have to forgive me if I'm not posting as regularly.

Okay, I'm starting to get nervous…I'd better do some more planning for my first day. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

A Typical Day Supply Teaching

I told you several posts ago that I'd write about a typical day supply teaching for me. So here it is:

1. If I knew where I was going ahead of time I'd wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 because I take public transportation and I like to be early to prepare. If I was waiting for a dispatch call, I'd get up at 6:00 or 7:00 since that's usually when I received the calls.
2. If I received a dispatch call, I'd locate the school on a map and decide whether or not I could make it there in an hour. If I couldn't, then I just waited for the next call. If I could, then I quickly collected my things and made a mad dash for the door.
3. I then took the bus, streetcar, subway, then another bus, then walked to get to the school (the things I do to save money :p). And yes, this is typical transportation for me.
4. Once at the school, I checked into the office. I introduced myself, said who and which grade I'd be subbing for.
5. I'd pick up the attendance, and depending on the school, I picked up a key or signed in.
6. If I was lucky, someone would show me around the school (the classroom I'd be teaching in, the staff room, washroom).
7. Once in the classroom, I'd dump my stuff at the teacher's desk and locate the fire exit and emergency folder (which was often difficult to find).
8. Next, I'd focus on day plans, paying special attention to the first half of the day and scanning for any extra responsibilities (e.g. yard duty).
9. After that, I'd explore the classroom looking for items I'd need for lessons (e.g. chart sheets, text books) as well as routine-type things (calendar numbers, chore lists, bathroom sign-out binder etc.).
10. I sometimes wrote an agenda on the board for myself (since each school has its own schedule and I can be bad with time :p)
11. As students entered the classroom, I'd greet them at the door.
12. At the start of class, I introduced myself and wrote my name on the board.
13. If routines/lessons were unclear to me, I'd ask a student who seemed responsible to be a "teacher for a moment" in order to explain what needed to be done. The students enjoyed this as I would call them Miss. Jane or Mr. John, for example, when in their teacher role.
14. During recess breaks, lunchtime, and prep. times, I'd prepare for upcoming periods, and if there was extra time, I'd mark.
15. At the end of the day, I would sometimes mark (as a rule I didn't mark any major assignments or assignments that were subjective e.g. a writing response). I would also write notes about how the day went, commenting on student behaviour (both negative and positive), and effectiveness of activities (usually I would focus on the positive here). I would also leave my phone number and employee number in case the teacher wanted to contact me for future assignments.
16. Before leaving, I stopped by the office to return a key, sign-out, or to simply say goodbye and that I'd left notes regarding the day on the teacher's desk.
17. Return home and wait for dispatch calls for future supply jobs. And so it continued…
    
    Until now…I'm no longer going to be working as a supply teacher. But I'll talk about that more in my next post.
    
    Bye!

Supply Teaching Stories

For more stories on supply teaching, click this link:

http://www.thecanadianteacher.com/archives/category/inspiration/supply-teaching/

I especially like the cute story about the Gr.1's doing the Terry Fox run.

My Worst Day Supply Teaching

And now…the horrors!

After raving about how great supply teaching is, I'll now share my worst day on the job. I have to admit that I've been delaying writing this post since I don't like to rehash terrible experiences. Anyway, I just hope that you don't think of this day as a typical day of substitute teaching.


It was a very rainy, windy day. It was so windy that my umbrella kept turning inside out. As I walked to the school, a man pulled over on the side of the road just ahead of me. I was a little freaked out by this. He then asked me if I wanted a ride. Of course, I said "no". I'm sure that the man was trying to do a kind thing by getting me out of the rain but he still gave me a bit of a scare. Wanting to get indoors as soon as possible, I quickly headed in the direction of the school and stepped into a gigantic puddle, completely soaking my shoes and socks. Once I made it inside, I was extremely grateful for the school's warmth and dryness. If only I knew what I was in for -- it would have been better for me to stay outdoors.

After creating a small puddle on the classroom floor from wringing out my socks, I focused on the day plans. The first lesson required students to read about an African-American family who escaped in the rain using the Underground Railroad. I thought it was very fortunate that the students would be reading such a story on a such a horrible rainy day. I thought that I could tell them about my ordeal in the rain and then inform them that some people had to travel much farther in similar conditions and, even worse, they were running for their lives. The story sadly fell on deaf ears…or rather, ears that were unable to hear because there was too much talking and throwing and every other kind of disrespectful behaviour. Everything from paper airplanes to chalk was hurled about, students were getting out of their seats and moving about the classroom, prodding inside the teacher's cabinets and desk drawers.

I desperately wanted to send someone to the office to pay for the spectacle of defiance. However, earlier in the day, the principal had announced that the vice-principal was away and that each teacher should act as his or her own principal, i.e. don't bother the principal with your problems since she's too busy covering for the VP. To make matters worse, I couldn't make a student stay in for detention at recess since the rain meant an indoor recess anyway. Not that any of the students would have complied with a detention… After exhausting all the classroom management strategies I knew, I decided that the class was completely uncontrollable.

Of course, to make me feel even less respected, the students had to prove me wrong on that one. Almost immediately, they quickly scrambled to their seats and sat quietly when the math teacher arrived. I don't know how he did it but he seemed to have good command of the students. Anyway, I was glad to have a much needed break from the class. I needed some recovery time before the indoor recess.

Surprisingly, the indoor recess wasn't too bad. Perhaps this was because the students finally were able to do what they wanted to do. The only small difficulty I had was stopping a young man from viewing a Snoop Dogg video containing several expletives. Most students were playing cards and other games quite nicely. However, it wasn't until the following period that I noticed a couple transparencies had gone missing... Fortunately, I was able to quickly improvise a lesson on the same topic, but it was just another incident that added to my already growing volcano of frustration.

Eventually, I ended up sending one young man to the office for playing chair wars with a female classmate (and for various other reasons). Things were getting too dangerous at that point and I had to quickly put an end to it…I didn't care if the principal needed a break. Actually, the principal ended up being very accommodating and I ended up wishing that I'd sent him earlier since he'd been consistently defying my requests throughout the day. He took offence to the punishment saying that I was racist because he was black. I thought that was ironic since he had refused to listen to the underground railroad story.

By the end of the day, the following had been stolen: one student's trip money, an elegant self-inking stamp, and my confidence in my ability to manage a challenging classroom.