This Week At School

Another full week teaching grade 8. 

It was mostly just a continuation of everything we were doing last week. 

In math we were talking about Pythagorean’s theorem 

In ELA we were reading Half Brother (and we also did an Orange Shirt Day activity, a listening test, and some writing activities). 

In Music Education kids continued making their mix tapes. I had them colour a photocopy of a tape to go with their themes and write in the songs for one of their sides… here are some of their tapes 

In Social Studies they handed in their family trees or timeline assignments and we moved on to some textbook work.

And nearly all week my homeroom begged for me to take them outside (because I had taken my other math class outside to measure triangles earlier in the week) but it was such a crumby week outside that I decided they could do the activity with their regular teacher (today it was even snowing on and off throughout the day!)

I must admit... I'm going to miss this class.


And I know they're going to miss me too.

It's been a swell 2 weeks.

Orange Shirt Day

On September 30th we honor residential school survivors and the painful experiences they had to endure.

Why an orange shirt?

Phyllis Webstad wore an orange shirt on her first day of school when she was 6 years old. It was a shirt her grandma had purchased for her with what little money they had. She was proud of that orange shirt. But when she got to the mission school that shirt was taken from her and she was given other clothes to wear. She never saw that orange shirt again.

The orange shirt represents more than just a shirt though… it represents the many things that were taken from these residential school survivors (their families, their language, their heritage, their freedom, etc.)

Tomorrow , Friday, September 28th the school I am subbing at is participating in orange shirt day… I’ll be wearing orange. Will you?

If you are looking for resources to help you plan something for this year (it’s never too late). I found some here.

If you want to share Phyllis Webstad’s story with your class here is a short video on YouTube about her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's just about Thanksgiving here in Canada and I found this great writing activity you can do with your students around Thanksgiving.

Go visit Mel D-Seusstastic's Teacher's Pay Teacher's store for this 100% free resource and download it for your students.

When your students have completed it come back here and let me know how it went!

This Week At School

My home away from home for the last week

I’ve been lucky enough to be in the same classroom all this week 

(and spoiler alert: I’ll be back in this same room next week as well).

I’m also a pretty lucky substitute because I hit the jackpot considering what I believe a grade 8 class could be because they are amazing. They work quietly (and yes, most of them are working), don’t interrupt, and are just overall a lovely group of students.

So what have I been up to in this grade 8 class?

We are reading Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel and they are super into it. I read them about every third chapter or so and we are on chapter 10 already (they had started before I arrived though).   Even I'm into the book... in fact I brought it home with me this weekend to get some reading done and have every intention of finishing it so that I know how it ends.

We are learning about the Pythagorean Theorem in math which is going pretty good. One of my math classes is definitely better than the other (behaviour wise) but for the most part they are getting their work done and understanding the theorem and how to do it… we are still working on recognizing if a measurement is an area or a line (I mean it seems so simple to me).

In Social Studies they have been working on a timeline or family tree. I assigned it for homework to be completed on Monday though so next week we are moving on to some textbook work.

I also teach a grade 6 music education class and they are creating a mix tape. I found a blank mix tape template online and had them colour it one day when we didn’t have access to the computer lab. Their mix tapes have to have an overall theme to them. There are a lot of “happy” “sad” or “dance” themes but I’ve done my best to steer them away from genre themes or artist themes so that there is a bit of variety in these mix tapes. I think the hardest part of the assignment will be to make sure when you add up the songs that they don’t exceed 30 minutes per side.

Yesterday afternoon I was missing about half my class because it was a fun afternoon spent outside (in what I would consider almost too cold of temperatures to be outside all afternoon... I should have tried harder to find some gloves to bring this morning I guess).  We played a bunch of games keeping score and surprisingly the 8th graders came in 2nd place (out of 3 places)... I really wasn't sure they had it in them.

Overall I would say it’s been a really good week and I’m looking forward to having to be back for another week.

AND, this week I managed to book myself not only 5 days for October already but also another 5 days in January (and a few others in between). I’m predicting it being a fairly busy year.

Carpets

A couple of boys in one of my grade 8 classes I've subbed in were looking at a "Ripley's Believe it or Not" book (or something similar to this) and asked me if I would want a certain rug in my house that was pictured in the book. The rug just so happened to look like it was made out of human skin. I told them that I wouldn't want that rug in my house and when asked why I told them that I already had carpet in my house so I didn't need a rug to put on top of the carpet and then walked away. As I was walking away I heard the boys talking about my decision..

They must have been wanting a certain response

"How was I supposed to know that she had carpet in her house?!?"

For the record... even if I wanted an area rug for my house I would definitely not want one that looked like it was made out of human skin!

This Week At School

First classroom I subbed in 2018-2019 school year

I finally got my first day of subbing in this week!

It was sort of minute but luckily it was at a school I had subbed at a bunch the previous year and they even provided with me with a lunch (so one less thing to do before heading out the door that morning).

Anyways, at different points throughout the day I taught grades K-8

The really nice thing about this day was that I already had a massage previously booked for right after school.

Other than that I would love to say nothing much is happening but we've got this going on...

kitchen renos

We stayed home last weekend to order our cabinets and then decided it was time to start putting some holes in the walls.

and I joined a gym.

I'm booked solid for the next 2 weeks... an excellent way to end off September... the month I figured I would be lucky to get even just 10 days of work I'll end up with 11.  So I'm pretty happy.

Class Pets

I can't say I see very many of these anymore... but I was in a classroom a looong time ago with these little fish (complete with name poster) and figured I would start snapping pictures of all the classroom pets I spotted this year... here is my compilation of classroom pets.

Fish Tank

Fish Name Poster

I forgot to take a picture of Bubbles (he was a fish)

If I had a classroom of my own and if I had any kind of class pet it would be a fish... something that has to stay in the aquarium, is quiet, and easy to take care of.

It wasn't too long ago though that I was seeing all kinds of different class pets. I recall bunnies, hampsters, stick bugs, butterflies and of course, fish... lots and lots of fish.

Psst.. last week I shared about plants in the classroom

5 Things to Keep You Organized as Substitute Teacher

It's that time of year again! School has been back in session for precisely a week now and so I'm hoping to start getting subbing jobs any day now (I currently have one booked... for the end of October... something will definitely come up before that though!). So, I've compiled a list of 5 things that I think could help any substitute teacher keep it together.

1) An Agenda Book

This is a must for me. I substitute teach in 3 different divisions so I can't rely on the sub systems not to double book me (mostly because they all use different ones). When I book a day I write it in my agenda to make sure I don't double book myself and on Sunday's I usually double check to make sure I haven't double booked myself and put in all my unavailability for the different divisions. I also use my agenda to make some notes about the classes I visit. Did I have a good day? Do I want to go back (or more importantly... do I not want to go back?). Finally I use it to keep track of what divisions I've worked for and when so that I can make sure my pay and everything looks correct.

2) Lunches Ready To Go

This last year I was pretty fortunate to often have the majority of my subbing days booked in advance. But there was the occasional day when I booked something last minute. On those days it's good to have something for lunch ready to go... just in case. Be it dinner from last night or a pizza pop.. it just needs to be something. Especially if you don't want to be spending money on your lunch. Some things I do is freeze leftovers in ready to grab containers, make mason jar salads, and I always, always, ALWAYS have a bunch of muffins in the freezer just ready to grab.

3) Packed Bag

I showed you all this picture of my winter gear all packed up. In the nicer months I really don't need to grab much on my way out the door (wallet, keys, phone and that's pretty much it - I used to always bring a picture book to share with the class and leave gym clothes in my car just in case that ended up being my assignment but I really haven't done either of these in a while). Everything is often just stored in my purse so it's not really a problem but in the winter it is handy to keep everything together and ready to grab just in case.

4) Wake Up!

If you are really a keener ahem*I've never actually done this*ahem you should make sure you wake up at a reasonable hour every morning just in case a school calls you last minute. This means, waking up and going about your morning acting as if you are going into work so that you can leave as soon as you get that call (if need be). Like I said, I've never done this. Does this mean I never accept last minute calls? On the contrary. I just grab a quick breakfast and dash out the door somewhat put together. To be fair, I'm usually awake by the time my husband leaves in the morning... but if I can lounge around in bed for another hour... why wouldn't I?

5) Charged Phone

Chances are if you've accepted a job the morning of that your phone must at least be somewhat charged... you did accept that job after all. I've been in the subbing circuit for a number of years now but I still sometimes don't know where a school is or exactly how to get there. That's when I pull out my handy phone and type in the name of the school and a route comes up lickity split for me. It saves me the time of writing out directions. Of course, if you have a car charger for your phone I guess you don't really have this problem.... but some of us don't have that luxury ok?

Did I miss anything? What is something that helps keep you organized as a substitute teacher?

This Week OFF From School

(hopefully this week is my last week off from being in the classroom)

With summer basically winding down here and everyone going back to work and school it leaves this substitute teacher with very little to actually do.

We did manage to head to the lake for a family gathering over the long weekend.  After talking about them for likely the last 2 or 3 years we FINALLY got our beavertails (I got nutella and banana and I HIGHLY recommend).

We should be officially putting a deposit down on our kitchen cabinets today... I'll fill you all in next week but fingers crossed that all goes well.

I made some apple pie filling (and then promptly stuck it in the freezer) and I've officially used up almost all of our apples.  I'm thinking I'll use the last bit to make some apple buns for my Bible study group.

We bought a half bushel of roma tomatoes because they were only $3 at Superstore!  How could we pass up such an unbelievable deal?!?  We'll be dealing with those tomorrow.

Like I said, not a lot going on this week.  I can definitely tell that our summer weather is fading quickly so the days that it still feels hot out I've been spending time outside enjoying that last little bit of heat we'll be feeling for a few months.

I managed to book a few subbing jobs... sadly nothing for next week still but I'm hopeful something will come up!

Hopefully all my teacher friends are enjoying their classes!

Plants in the Classroom

Last school year I was collecting pictures of how teachers use plants to decorate their classrooms... 

here are a few examples of plants in the classroom that I've come across 

decorating a bookshelf

Table centerpieces

This teacher had a whole greenhouse in her classroom!

Psst... last week I shared what I know (and have seen) about Maker Space's

Off to University?

For those of you going back to (or starting) University (or College) this week... I had a dream all about what to do (and maybe what not to do) while there.

In said dream I guess it was my first day there and I didn't have a hot clue where any of my classes were and the odd thing was I thought the shortest way to get to my classes was to cut through other classrooms.... this is not generally the case.  I don't know how your school is designed but at the University I attended we did not have to cut through classrooms to get to other rooms.  That would be odd and likely highly disruptive.  Also, I'm sure your school had some kind of pre school starting information time where you actually learned where everything in the school was.  I'm assuming the university I attended did (although I don't remember attending it I also don't recall not being able to find any of my classes but I also went to a fairly small university).

Also in the dream there was an ice cream giveaway on campus.  Fantastic!  Well at the time when I found this out I was obviously taking one of my "short cuts" though another classroom and it was one of those classes that would have roughly 100 students in it.  Some of them were sitting on the stage with their bowls of ice cream.  This was when the prof was all "it's okay you can eat your ice cream on stage and I'm sure no one will 'boo' you for getting the ice cream before coming to class" which was when everyone that didn't have ice cream starting to boo those students eating it on stage.  Your teacher will likely not say this and no one will likely boo you on your first day.  BUT just to be on the safe side maybe get your free ice cream after class (or finish it before getting to class).  Unfortunately for me I was just passing through the class so when I booked it out the door everyone thought I was running out of there for the ice cream... when I saw that the free ice cream was actually right outside the class I obviously decided to stop my hunt for the room for some ice cream because it was just oh so convenient. 

And that was pretty much the end of the dream.

So remember, don't cut through rooms to get to yours, figure out where your classes are before getting there, eat your free ice cream before or after class, make new friends, have new experiences, and enjoy your time at University!

This Week OFF From School

This week marked the last week of summer vacation (although, I'm still willing to bet that I might just have one more week off before I get my first day of subbing in).

For a weekend that we stayed back from the lake it was incredibly busy!

We checked off a lot of items that we needed to get purchased for our main floor renovations.  We got an oven, fridge, dishwasher, and flooring all purchased this week which feels great!

We switched company's for our kitchen cabinets and met with the new company which just so happens to be clear on the other end of the city.  So we also picked new cupboard looks and stain with them and we are just finalizing everything currently and will likely be paying for some new kitchen cabinets next week!

We made and canned salsa (almost all the ingredients for it are from our garden other than the onions and some spices we added).  We also canned some tomatoes for use later.

I made a bunch of meat buns to go with some zucchini soup because we continue to have zucchini up to our ears here.  Thankfully the soup was good so we've now frozen 3 large bags of cut up zucchinis to make more soup throughout the fall, winter, and likely spring.

I dropped off my subbing contract to one of the larger divisions I sub in.  Officially I'm in 2 divisions for subbing currently although the only division I've booked a subbing day is one that I never received a contract for.  I emailed them about it so hopefully I receive it soon.  The plan is to be in 3 divisions this year (down from 4 last year since the 4th division I only worked 1 day in).

The other week I bought 20lbs of peaches and they started getting softer this week so I blanched and froze most of them... It's hard when you only have room in the freezer to deal with 8 peaches at a time.  We'll likely use the majority of them in smoothies.

Oh, and on Sunday we went to a wedding

Hopefully we've all had a fabulous summer break and are ready to get back at it!

See you all in the classroom!

(and on the blog of course)