Swings and Tears

I was at an elementary school and had the unfortunate task of recess duty (I must admit, it was a beautiful spring day outside on this particular day so it wasn't all that unfortunate). Anywho, the teacher that I was in for had informed me that her spot for duty is usually around the swings. Great I thought, I won't have to worry or watch kids running and tripping and scrapping their knees on the structure, swings I can do, swings are easy.

So we are having a great time swinging away. Then one little girl whom I'm pretty sure I hadn't taught all day (this was an unexpected phys-ed day) took a shinning to me and held my hand while I watched a bunch of well behaved kids swing away. Then a swing opens up and the little girl takes off for it. Telling me that I must push her.

Now, before I continue with this story I told her I was going to give her an under duck. I asked her if this was ok. Pretty sure I didn't get a response so I went for it. I mean, who doesn't love an under duck?!?

Sidenote: For those of you who don't know what an under duck is it is when you pull the swing way way back above your head and then as you push off the child you run underneath it sending the swing soaring through the air... or decently high. Much higher than a regular push would ever get you.

So little girl gets an under duck and about one millisecond into the swing of her lifetime she is balling her eyes out.

Shoot.

I stop the swing.

She jumps off.

Whatever we had I ruined by under ducking her.

Lesson learned.... no more under ducks.

In the meantime... I was nannying over the summer and we would frequent the parks. The kids I was usually with were 3 and 5 and naturally loved the swings and loved being pushed higher.

Having learned my lesson of the under duck catastrophe I did not under duck them. I just kept pushing them (clearly I am unaware of my own strength or how quickly I can get the kids soaring). Yes, it happened again, I made a kid cry on the swings.

Ever since that day the kids I nannied for would tell me "more, more, more, stop" so that I wouldn't over push them.

Swings, they are a complicated science.

School has Started!

Labour Day long weekend is officially behind us and children everywhere are heading back to school.
This means you can start looking forward to some T.W.A.S posts on Sunday's again (probably not this week though)
And we can all get back to inspiring young minds again!

and to kick it all off... a video.

This guy had a lot of intelligent things to say.

and I would have to agree with him...

"Packets" are no fun (I just call them worksheets though).

I don't even like handing them out as a substitute teacher (ok, maybe some days when I am just not feeling like doing much teaching they are alright.  But most of the time I would much rather be teaching the kids in a really exciting way).

Having said that... I can definitely understand why teachers leave them for substitutes to hand out.  It is not always a guarantee that a substitute is going to know how to teach the lesson.  If everything the students need to know is in a worksheet then the teacher doesn't have to worry about whether the substitute is able to teach the lesson or not.

This guy was clearly passionate about his education and I think that is super cool and great.  I'm glad he said something.... I wander if the teacher re thought her teaching methods after this.  

I hope that if I'm giving out too many worksheets a student would have the courage to approach me about it and we could discuss what could work better... but I would rather him (or her) approach me one on one.. I might get a little defensive and taken aback if the student did it in this manner.

Whether you are a teacher or a substitute teacher you are still a TEACHER so let's teach!

Let's inspire some young minds this year!

Be exciting

Show that you love what you do

Let's "touch some freaking hearts"!

Change is in the Air

You may have noticed one teeny tiny change to the blog.

This teeny tiny change to the blog means big changes in my life!

Can you spot this teeny tiny change?

Alright, I'm just going to tell you.  On Thursday I landed myself a little full time, full year job!  It's very exciting and super overwhelming!

So big changes are coming my way this school year.

Which means some changes for my blog as well.

BUT...

Since I landed this job last minute (tomorrow is meet the teacher and school starts on Wednesday!) you can assume that I am just super busy and swamped to the max right about now.  Which means that until I feel like I am at least keeping my head above water the blog is staying as a substitute teaching blog.

Oh, and because I am sure you are dying to know....

I'll be teaching Grade 4 in the morning (mostly math and science).  Then in the afternoons I'll be teaching grade 8 ELA and grade 5 French.

Perhaps once I have some work up on the walls I'll post a picture or 2.  Don't expect any classrooms themes (unless the theme is tidy).

Telephone Pictionary

Games. Kids love them, adults love them, and sometimes they require little more than some paper and pens... this is one of those games. 

I'm willing to bet most of us have heard (and likely played) the game Pictionary. It is pretty simple. You pick a word or phrase to draw, you draw it, and your team (hopefully) guesses what you are drawing. Telephone is similar to this game but (in this substitutes opinion) way more entertaining. 

First I would like to say that Pictionary is a great game to play with students. Write down a bunch of words or phrases on pieces of paper and let the kids use a class (because they were really good and deserve a free period) to play it. But that might get old fast. Why not spice it up a little by including everyone's favourite childhood game... Telephone! 

This game is best played with a small class. As in a REALLY small class. 

Was it -50 outside and the school buses weren't running so you have a class of only the brave souls who walked (or got a ride with their parents)? Perfect. 

Is half the school out with the flu? Perfect. 

Is it senior skip day and you only have the 5 students who no one bothered to tell? Really perfect. 

Whatever the case may be you have the smallest class known to man and since you aren't teaching anything and have already watched 2 movies you need something to fill the after lunch lull. 

How it works: 

1. Cut a bunch of pieces of paper in half. 

2. Every student will need a certain amount of pieces of paper. There is a really simple formula to figure this out. How many students are participating? Cut that number in half and that is how many papers everyone needs. So if 10 of you are participating then everyone will need 5 pieces of paper. 

3. Everyone starts by drawing a picture on one side of a piece of paper. The picture can be anything but since you are playing this at a school you should make sure they keep it PG. I would say set time limits otherwise you might have an artist in the crowd who holds up the process. 

4. Once everyone has drawn a picture everyone passes their entire stack of papers (including the one they drew on) one person to the left. 

5. Once the papers have been passed the new person will look at what you drew and write out what it was on the back of the piece of paper with the picture. They can use as much description as they want. 

*sidenote: This could also be a great lesson on using descriptive words* 

6. Once they are done writing they pass everything one more person to the left. 

7. Now this person is only allowed to look at what the person before them wrote. They are not allowed to look at the picture on the other side. Based on what they read they are to now take a new piece of paper and draw what they have read. 

8. Everyone passes it the left again once they are done drawing. 

9. And once again, after only looking at what the person before them drew on the back of that piece of paper they write what the picture is. 

10. You keep passing the papers and drawing or writing depending on the round until you end up with your original stack of papers in your hand. 

11. When you get your original papers back everyone takes time to share the progression of the drawings and the writings. Usually laughs are had and someone has to take an emergency trip to the bathroom because they almost pee their pants. 

Now I know you are dying to see an example of this... here is a set of the drawings and writings from the last time I played the game. 

ENJOY!