This Week At School

It's official everyone... we're on summer vacation over here!!

And... on my last week of school I worked on 4 different days!... so pretty much every day I could (because no one is going to book me to come in and substitute teach when the kids aren't even there!).

How'd it go?

I had one teacher tell me that if she were a sub she wouldn't book herself for these last 2 weeks because the kids have checked out already (and lets be honest, a lot of the teachers have as well).  Luckily, the kids I taught in elementary school this week (which was one day) were not checked out yet and still eager (for the most part) to work... and it may have helped that they were having a class party in the afternoon that the teacher told me to bribe them with.  

Other than that this week at school I...

Watched a lot of movies (Despicable Me and The Incredibles, and one other that I can't remember what it was).

Gave students A LOT of time on the iPads (which I'm kind of on the fence about... I mean, they may as well stay at home if they are getting free time on the iPads since that's [likely] what they would be doing at home).  

Did TUSC... and students got to decide what role they wanted to have this last time so there were a lot of "angry chefs" which meant a lot of sugary treats being passed around.

Took my classes outside.

Had a "gym riot" that was neither in the gym or rioty in the slightest (it was outside and very well organized).

All in all it was a pretty swell last week of work... and now I get to switch gears to "this week off from school" and enjoy some much deserved time off!

Psst.. I've got my next month worth of posts planned (for the most part) so you can expect regular posting to happen throughout the summer.  Enjoy!

Agenda Book

Last week I talked about ways to keep student supplies organized but there are definitely other ways to keep students organized and on track. One of those ways is through the use of an agenda book. Some schools use them but many do not... I'm definitely a part of the camp that thinks they still serve a valuable purpose. In fact, if I had a class of my own I would be having my students write a couple of things that we did during the day whether it was homework or not (and of course I would also have them write in their actual homework too). Then I would sign it each afternoon before my students went home and have someone at home sign it to indicate that they've read it.

I think agenda books can be such a good tool for students that even I, as a substitute teacher, still use one today

Substitute teacher agenda book

I pick mine up from the Dollar Store at the beginning of each year... I'm even fussy as to which one I get because I need one that has a calendar view page and the weekly pages to keep me organized.

As a teacher I also found myself way more organized the times I used a day plan for myself. When I was teaching French I spent some time after work each Thursday to update my day plan for the following week and put things into file folder boxes that they students would need each day. Of course my plans would often change as we actually did the lessons but it required a lot less prep time during the week if I spent a bit of time doing it one day after school.

One of the divisions that I work in is striving to use less paper and so they use Showbie instead. The teacher just goes over what their last period class did throughout the day and any homework they have and updates it for them. They can view it at home and their parents get alerted when something gets posted.

What Parents Need to Know About Youtube

This summer I'm doing a series on What Parent's Need to Know about *insert some type of online thing here*... because it's not just parents that need to know these things but teachers too AND if there is one thing we all know it's that online stuff changes so often it's hard to keep up (especially when you aren't even using that app/program)!

Today I'm talking about Youtube

If you haven't I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find someone who went on Youtube to look up one thing on how to change their cars windshield wiper blade and an hour later is watching videos of cats being scared by cucumbers. It happens to the best of us and it is SO easy to spend way to much time watching videos.

This poster is available as a free download from National Online Safety

Here are a 3 take aways from this poster...

1) You can restrict what your child watches online (if you enable this it means content that has been flagged as mature shouldn't come through... of course there are likely many flaws to this though)

2) Survey a class of students and at least one of them will say they want to become a Youtube star when they grow up. So, it's not even them watching content anymore.. it's them creating content. You can place restrictions on who can view their videos and *I think* can turn off comments (to help with cyber bullying).

3) Be aware of what your child/student is watching and what they are taking away from that video. Remember the cinnamon and Tide Pod challenges? Not the greatest of ideas but people still watched them.

Last week I talked about what you need to know about the app store.

This Week At School

I found this on the board in one of the classrooms I subbed in (at the beginning of the week).  Only 3 more days of work for me (and 4 more days of school until summer break for the students - teachers have another 5).

You know what grinds my gears as a substitute teacher?  When a teacher doesn't put it into the online notes (which I know for a fact is a very simple thing to do) that we will be doing things outside for the day.  Sometimes it's hot *ahemJUNEahem* and sometimes it's cold... hello all winter long.  Just do me a solid and let me know in the online notes if I'll have recess duty or be spending the whole day outside... please?

Anyways, rant over.

One of the days this week we spent outside with a kindergarten class for aboriginal activities day.  The kids had a lot of fun (it was pretty draining otherwise).  Luckily not ALL the activities were outside so it was a bit of back and forth.

Another day this week I was a middle school teacher where not too much happened... I worked my way through almost another entire YA novel (I'll finish it next week when I'm back in that classroom).

And another day I was a French Immersion teacher... which got me thinking... French Immersion is very popular here.  So popular that most (if not all) school divisions in the province will have at least one school with a French Immersion option.  We also have Spanish, Ukrainian, and I think Cree and was wondering what other places of this world have for Immersion schools?  

3 more days of work for this substitute teacher!