He had a file cabinet's worth of worksheets (probably necessary when you show up without any plans or much idea of what to do), and he was very nice about the fact that I knew the routines and could handle most things, but he was being paid to be there and wanted to work with the kids too. Ummm, ok. We agreed on some times that he could have them do worksheets that he had brought. Having the entire day thrust on me was one thing, because I know that with the kids' help, I can handle it. They were super-good today, and did tell me when I was going seriously astray, and didn't abuse the opportunity to boss me around. But a sub with very different ideas, who is technically responsible for the class? Yikes.
So.... how'd it go? It was ok. We didn't team-teach. I kind of felt bad about that, but it's not like we had any time to plan anything. We were collegial. Even though Gustav's English was hard to understand (and I don't think he understood everything that was said to him), the kids were very polite and attentive- more so with him than with me. No hard feelings!
But he was definitely European old school, and that was interesting to watch. He said things like "I'm only giving these instructions one more time, and if you don't hear it, too bad," and "the most important thing is to cut neatly," and "you have fifteen minutes to do this; work on your own and make sure no one looks at your paper." This is not the way we do at PSOhYes! The irony is that he lectured me that morning about how kids what to do things that "are fun" in second grade. Worksheets? Fun? Really? Maybe because it involved coloring.... ?
At one point he tried to get them to work on a math worksheet silently, and it was just a little too hard for about half the kids in the class. I explained that they were used to working together in math, and it would probably be easiest to let them do so for that activity. He assented. He tried to get one group to do what he wanted to show them at choice time, last period- nothing doing. He almost had a mutiny until they each came to me and implored me to break out the modeling clay, which is what they had "signed up for" for choice time. Can't really argue with getting to have choices at choice time!
Although the students really were very good, we were all a bit out of sorts by the end of the day from trying to get used to each others' ways of doing things. They were tired of trying to simultaneously do what I asked and make sure I got the routines right. This made me really appreciate how well Ms. Lee knew the schedule and what she wanted them to accomplish on any given day, and how seamless her transitions are by comparison. Something to aspire to!
The part that was the hardest was that we were supposed to have a Curriculum Conference at 6 pm. This will need to be rescheduled. Ms. Lee let me know at 2 pm that she was not going to be able to do it, and good thing we had a planning period because I had to run off a note and get it in the folders to send home, and make sure Gustav understood what to tell parents at dismissal (don't come tonight!).
The sub praised my classroom management skills. That was nice. He said he knows it is very important "in this country." He was nice but kinda clueless- more a credit to the kids than to him that he could have managed them on his own.
I learned a lot today- there is a whole new level of things for me to pay closer attention to in the classroom, and to focus on in my own teaching. Transition would be an important one. And how about how long they work on a given subject or lesson? No bells at PSOhYes! It's easy to tell when they're "done" with a mini-lesson because they get wiggly, but I had to keep one eye on the clock to get them to lunch and the library, and it was pretty hard to do that piece of multitasking too.
Also, it was relatively easy to do what Ms. Lee asked me to do and focus on the surface issues of sticking to the routine, the things that the kids perceive as "the way we do things," but while we got through the day, I am not sure that today was my best teaching day, because I was focusing on getting through and being on time, and not as much on delivering the lessons.
Boy am I tired!
Here are a few nice choice-time products for your viewing pleasure:
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| Portrait of our class pet |
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| Vegetables from the school garden, where we did some sketching Tuesday |
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| A modeling-clay project |
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