Hallways

Ah hallways... the one place everyone wants to work. The one place I love sending kids to work because it makes for a slightly less hectic classroom. Not the one (as in only) place kids get into trouble (because there are multiple place kids get into trouble these days).

Here is a story about one of the more humorous stories of kids getting into trouble in the hall.

A couple of boys were the first to request to do the work in the hall. They promised me they would get their work done (and they were) so I let them.

Now I'm not going to say big mistake here like I normally might because it made for a funny story...

The classroom I was in this day was on the second floor of the school and was located right beside the stairwell. So the boys were working on the other side of the doors inside the stairwell but still on the second floor.

Well you see there is this other teacher who teaches right below the classroom I was in this day. The thing about this teacher is she is not a favourite amongst the students at this particular school.

So what do the boys decide to do when they see her enter the stairwell on the main floor?

No, they do not spit on her or toss gum over the side so that it sticks in her hair... that would be too cruel and they would have been in big trouble for that.

They toss an eraser down on her.

The teacher flips out on them and comes in to talk with me about how they should not be in the hall because they can clearly not behave.

So the boys come back smirking at each other at their successful eraser toss which got the exact reaction they were hoping for.

Good one teacher below us.

Names

My boyfriend showed me this video.

I must admit that I pronounce students names wrong ALL the time but Blake and Aaron? 

 I would get that right.

Before I do the attendance if I've glanced at it and have noticed there are a lot of names I'm not sure of I'll usually let the kids know that I might pronounce some of their names incorrectly.  

I'll always apologize when I get it wrong and try to do better in the afternoon.

Drawings

I have this friend who is a bit of an artist (ok, a bit of an artist is likely an understatement... he is an artist.. it's what he does).

Anyways, whenever a student draws something that I think he might recognize I snap a picture of it and send it to him.  

Because you are dying to know... the picture I sent him (that started everything) was this one:

The kid told me it had something to do with Star Wars (because I know you were wondering)

Anyways, when I sent it to this friend I couldn't remember what it was of... I assumed it was Star Trek since the movie had just come out.  To help us figure it out I sent him pictures of some of the other art work this particular kid had drawn.  Which was when my friend (the artist) decided the kid had talent and he now wants the kid to sign his crutch.  Which will obviously happen when I break my friends legs just so he has a reason to get a crutch (what can I say, I'm an amazing friend).

The kids were away at music this whole time and when they came back they were to write in their agendas, clean up, and then go home.  There wasn't really going to be too much more of the day.  But my friend had one request "get him to draw a robot ninja ordering a coffee from a space dog"

There wasn't a lot of time to spend drawing but naturally I had to get the kid to do this to see what he came up with (plus I expected my friend to be super pumped that I actually followed through with it).

I did forget parts of his request though.  I believe I asked the kids to draw me "a robot giving a space dog a coffee"

So in the end this is what he drew...

 I had a couple of his friends also draw it

I think we can all agree that it was a productive day in grade 3/4!

Notes

Write a note to the teacher about how the day went. I've never had the opportunity to call in for a substitute (yet) but I'm sure the teachers appreciate it. My "notes" often turn into a novel and I feel somewhat bad about this but hey, I have big printing.

Sometimes I'll break up the day in morning and afternoon, sometime I will break it up for each class so that the teacher knows exactly what we did in each class, other times it will be more of a "the class was great and everything got done" kind of note. I usually write the first half of the note at lunch so that I don't forget about the morning during the afternoon.

I also try not to write too many bad things. Sometimes the teacher asks for a list of names of kids that could have been better and then I'll give them the list. But this rarely happens. They have to be really bad to get their name in the note. I think in all 5 years of me subbing I've only written a completely horrible note a couple of times. The last time I did, the teacher e-mailed me and apologized. She also told me she made her class write letters of apology to me but I was too scared to ever return to her class to get those letters.

Don't forget to write about the good things. Lots of amazing things happen every day. I like to write about funny moments (I hope the teachers get a little laugh about them) and write down names of anyone who was extra helpful that day. Like parents, teachers don't just want to hear about all the horrible things their class does when they are away. Tell them some awesome things about their class in the note too.