Tales from the Classroom

I was a substitute teacher.  My Four Year Mission? To teach in strange new classrooms, in different schools throughout the county.  These are the tales of a substitute teacher.

Assignments of two or more days are unusual for substitutes.  Typically, these assignments go to people well known by the teacher or staff of the school.  Only rarely are they put out on the  SubFinder system for anyone to grab.

I felt particularly blessed this particular spring day.  I had found a 2 day job at a school in the Northern part of the county, just before the beginning of Spring Break.  Even better, the job was for a kindergarten aide!  More than likely, the regular aide would be the teacher, and I would be relieved of the responsibilities of classroom management.

I arrived on the first day to find both the teacher and aide waiting for me in the classroom, in order to explain our very unique situation.

The school was being renovated, one pod at a time.  As each new pod opened, the grade would move into the new classrooms, and then renovations would begin on the old classrooms.  At this point in time, the new kindergarten pod and expansion was completed.  The aide was going to be teaching, I would be helping, and the teacher would be moving things down to her new classroom just as soon as the County Building Inspector gave the go ahead.

We started our morning with a classroom full of children and equipment, and the teacher sitting at her desk, working on the kids' records.

Late that afternoon, the teacher got approval to move into her classroom, and things began to get strange.

The teacher had a large cart.  She would load the cart up with stuff, and then take off down the hall.
When we left school on Thursday afternoon, she had emptied her closets, and had the custodian help her move the tadpoles in their tank down to her new classroom.

Friday was surreal.  We started with a classroom full of students and a fully decorated classroom.
As the day wore on, the items in the classroom slowly started to disappear.  Entire bulletin boards, learning centers, play areas, books, just *pouf* gone.  The kids were mostly game, as they thought this was a grand adventure.

When we came back from lunch, all of the tables and chairs were gone.  It was me, the aide, 18 children, a rocking chair with some books, and a CD player.

We improvised for a while.  Took the kids out for an extra recess.  Went to specials.  Went over to another kindergarten classroom to watch a movie, and then... we ended up back in our classroom.  Everything was gone at this point.  We sat in a circle on the floor in an empty classroom and the aide said "I know!  Let's play Duck, Duck, Goose!"

I know, you're sitting there thinking "an empty classroom, a nice, simple little group game.  Great idea!  What a great way to wait for the buses to be called!"

I sat in the circle on the floor as first one little guy, and then another took turns going around the circle "ducking" the other kids.  I kept a close eye on the clock.  We had 10 minutes left until dismissal began when disaster struck. 

The little man who goosed his friend took off at a pretty quick clip around the circle with his friend in hot pursuit. Little man tangled his feet up in each other and crashed to the floor.  As we watched in horror, little man then rolled across the empty floor and smacked *slam* into the closet door.  When he sat up, we noticed in horror that the pattern of the lattice work from the bottom of the door was imprinted upon his head.

I grabbed little man and ran him down to the nurse, before he even had a chance to realize what was going on.

The nurse pulled out an ice pack and called his parents while I ran back for his backpack, because, guess what?  Bus Dismissal was getting ready to begin.

As I turned the corner into the nurses' office, instead of the expected tears, I saw the great big grin on Little Man's face.

"What are you smiling about?" I asked?

"That was awesome!  Did you SEE that barrel roll?  And how hard did I hit that door?  Is the metal still in?  I was trying to knock it out!  Did you see my head?  Look at these cool lines!  And now?  I AM GOING TO BE THE FIRST PERSON TO GET ON MY BUS!!!"

*sigh*