Three...Two...One...

Three classes at two schools in one day?

That was not the intent when I took a half-day 4th grade assignment yesterday.

When I started substituting nine years ago, I took any assignment at any grade level. Over time, I gradually discovered which schools and which teachers seem to have better control on the classroom environment. By "classroom environment", I mean classroom discipline. By classroom discipline, I mean the general behavior of students. My experience with this particular school has rarely been positive.  Nevertheless, every so often, I will take an assignment just to see if my bias should remain unchanged.

That the assignment was for a half day helped sway my decision to take it. If the class was as I expected, I'd be out of there before lunch and not have to endure another three hours.

Let's just say that my bias is still validated for at least another year. The teacher arrived at 11:30am to take over. I was honest with him and he wasn't surprised. He's having much the same control issues with this class.

As I was checking out, the district office called to see if I could take an afternoon assignment in P.E. at the middle school. Since it was on my way home and I hadn't had any assignments at the middle school all year, I agreed. 

It was not much of an assignment as all I had to do was take roll call for 5^th period, hand out locker assignments and P.E. schedules. The P.E. teacher unexpectedly returned for his 6^th period class.

After three hours of utter chaos with 4^th graders this morning, a one hour assignment was just what I needed to balance out what started out to be a pretty crappy day. That was until I went back to the office to check out.  

There, the office decided to have me take over the combined 7^th & 8^th grade ELD (English Language Development) class for the last period of the day.  

I'm not sure what qualifies a student to be dumped into ELD as I could identify only two actual students that were not fluent with the English language. The other seventeen seemed completely fluent as they demonstrated by doing nothing but complain in colorful English the whole 50mins.  

Adding ELD classes to my "not preferred any time soon" list.

 

Easing Back Into Routine...

The first week(s) after a long break can be unpredictable when it comes to class discipline issues. In some classes, it takes a week or two to get back into the rhythm of the classroom and expected student behavior. Sometimes you get lucky and they come back enthused about school.

School resumed Monday (1/7) after the two week Christmas break. I worked Monday (3^rd grade) and again today (5^th grade). In both instances, I had absolutely no discipline or behavior issues.

The 3^rd graders made me laugh And I had a lot of fun.

The 5^th graders didn't really need me to be there today. The teacher has them pretty well self-motivated to run the class with minimal help from an adult. Class officers do the morning accounting of attendance, lunch count and homework checking. Various class officers are trained and eager to run parts of the teacher's lesson plan involving the daily work assignments.

My involvement today was limited to giving a spelling test and explaining a few of the word problems in Math.

All in all, a great start for 2013!

CTA & WTC

School starts up next week and it's been a little more than a month since I last posted something relevant to the main topic of this blog so I thought it was time to get back on track.

The school district I work for does not have any mandated or even voluntary requirement that I belong to CTA Union (California Teachers Association). I know this because searching the CTA website for the word "substitute" generates only one hit and it does not relate to anything about "substitute teachers". CTA has had, in the past, only minor impact on me as a substitute teacher.

So what's happened that I'm commenting on the CTA at present? It's actually a very minor positive side effect of something called "working to the contract" (WTC). It started a couple weeks before the Christmas break when I arrived for my classroom assignment.

It seems that the CTA and the school district have been at odds about pay raises and benefit issues. The district is countering that times are tough so suck it up or quit (not the actual language, but close enough). The facts are not important (to me, anyway) since whatever the outcome, it won't change what the district pays me as a daily substitute teacher.

Apparently, the teachers don't want to strike for some reason. They chose a tactic called "work to the contract". This is where the teachers are to work strictly inside the confines of the union negotiated contract and nothing further.

That means, they are to arrive at school no sooner than the contracted starting time, and leave the classroom at the contracted quitting time. They aren't allowed to correct papers, make copies, meet or call parents or any other school related tasks outside of school hours if it isn't stated in the contract.

 Since my job assignment starts 30min before the first bell, I get a prime parking spot close to the building while the teachers are driving around the school or parking in the street waiting for their WTC starting time!

 It's not much, but I'll take it.

Newtown, Connecticut

As I left for school yesterday morning, I heard only a short report of a possible shooting at a school in Connecticut before I left. I didn't really hear anything more until I returned home to find Claudette sobbing and watching the news reports of the murder of twenty kids and six adults in the small town of Newton, Conn.

On her laptop was a list of names and ages of the victims. It was then she explained that all the kids were the same age as three of our grandkids and she couldn't help bear the thought of the pain and loss those parents and grandparents must be going through when they were informed.

"That could have been Paige, Elle and Nathan...."

 (It's too close to think about even as I write this)

It was then she realized and said, "...and YOU were at school today TOO!"

...I hadn't even thought about that.

We did ALL this stuff as a kid....

I grew up in the 50's and 60's and we DID ALL this stuff...and we SURVIVED!!

30 Days (...and one week) of Friends ...

And the Blu-Ray box set drawing winner IS....(drum roll)...Steve Weber!!!
CONGRATULATIONS STEVE!!
(IMPORTANT: Steve!! You need to email me your mailing address where to send it!)


And the Prize Pack Winner IS: Mike from San Jose, CA
Congratulations Mike!!!

Important Announcement: ONE WEEK SECOND CHANCE DRAWING!!

MORE Friends!!!
Warner Bros. was so excited about the response to the Friends prize pack giveaway, that they are allowing me the opportunity to give away ONE Complete Series Blu-Ray Box Set to a lucky JAST reader in a random drawing to be held on DECEMBER 6, 2012

Simply take the "Which Friend Are You Most Like" quiz and post your results in the comments section and send a contact email address to KauaiMark@gmail.com

(Sorry Mike, previous winners are ineligible...)


How well do you know "Friends"? 

Warner Bros. Pictures has announce the release of Friends: The Complete Series Blu-Ray Box Set November 13th 2012; along with the 30 Days of Friends: Trivia Challenge Blog App and Video Player! 

In conjunction with the release, WB is providing a Friends prize pack with two over-sized cappuccino mugs and a picture frame just like the one on Monica’s door to be awarded in a random giveaway hosted here on JAST!

Enter each week by posting, in the comments section, your favorite moments from the Mashup Clip Countdown as the new videos get unlocked!

The drawing will be held on Nov 29th and I'll need the winner's name/shipping address before December 1.

The prize pack will be sent directly via FedEx or UPS. No P.O. Boxes please.

Fixing the Coffee Maker

My son made this video about how to fix a Keurig Coffee machine...
...Now I know what not to get him for Christmas