It Worked!

Wow, this is so cool. I was going into a class that had a sub and was noisy, and I just stared at them. Pretty soon I heard "you know she's watching yall right?" At that point, I went in and gave them the I need your attention signal. They were quiet! Everytime I use boys town, I feel like it's not going to work, but then it does. This is so cool.

Which Leg

9/28
I've written about Student J before, how she cussed me out, and then a week later I cussed next to her in the heat of the moment. Well todays incident with J was , well, it was interesting.
J came in 1st period with another student. The other student signed in, and J did not. Now we have to have our kiddos sign in, cause otherwise we could get sued. Not complying with federal regulations and all that. So I tell J, "Please sign in." She throws a bit of a fit, and then decids it will be great fun to stretch from her seat to the other table where the book is.
Surprise surprise, J's booty hits the ground. Well her hip actually.
Now, there is no more happy J. J is talking about how much her hip hurts. So I call the nurse, ( I actually believed she might be hurt when she cried), and the nurse comes and checks her out. Finally, we get the go ahead to help J up.
Here's where it gets funny. She stands up on the leg that was supposedly hurt so badly. The nurse says something about it, and she switches legs.
So were the tears fake? But the wierder thing is, J and I now get along ok. Did this "incident" somehow make me ok?

1 Principle, 2 principle hahaha

Subbing is the thing I like least about my job. But I get stuck with alot. That's the risk of being a TA with a degree. They can legally have you teach.
On this day, I was stuck with a very "interesting" class. 1-3rd periods weren't that bad. No, they were just he warm up. 4th period was the definite winner for the "Drive me Crazy!" award.
I did everything I could think of. I yelled. I threatened. I cajoled. Finally I called the office. I was very surprised to see not only Ms. H, but also Ms. P (a counselor who used to have this class). Even then they would not shut up. Eventually, Ms. H got them quiet (well quiet enough), and took them outside one at a time to talk to them. Then Ms. P taught the class. It was freaking amazing how she started explaining about verbs and suddenly those bratty faces were filled with rapt attention. It blew my mind.
Well after this I thought, Ok, the rest of the day will be ok. Ms. P stayed for the first part of 5th period. She had to go back to her office, but she told them she'd be back in 15 minutes. 5 minutes after they left, the talking started. And got louder. Finally, an instructional specialist, Mrs. R, came over. She has had lots of experience working with difficult classes. But these kids, nothing. Just kept chattering. Sure, 70% would be quiet, but the other 30% would keep going. We had four girls in there with horrible attitudes. You'd try to correct them and they would act all "sassy".
Well Ms. H came by. And Ms. P came back. It wasn't until Ms. H took the sassy bunch to the office and Ms. P kicked two boys out of class, that things finally quieted down. 30 kids, and 4 adults. How can any class be that bad?

And they are off! (crap, come back!)

It had been such a quiet day. The kiddos seemed to be in a good mood. All I had left was 3o minutes of watching parents pick up their offspring. No big deal right?
Wrong.
The trouble started with an altercation between several ladies that almost ended in a fight. I sent the other teacher out there to get help while I tried to seperate the two girls. Well Ms. H comes out and gets one of the kids inside. Mr. C, another vice principle comes out to talk to a parent. Suddenly, Ms. H runs out, grabs Mr. C, and they run off towards the major highway.
Imagine what you would think, if you were 13 and saw your VP's running. Probably the same thing my babies thought.
"Wow, if they are running, something good must be going down."
So all my kids, 40 or so, get up on the benches to watch. When Ms. H and Mr. C switch directions and run towards the south end of the school, all 40 kids run after them.
All I wanted was to stop one kid. That's all. Just one. But they just pushed on by. This is when I was sitting there, frustrated, not knowing what to do, that I said "Oh shit!"
Right next to the girl I'd written up for cussing.
Yeah, that was a big slice of humble pie.

(I never did corral the kids, but the VP's chased em back)

prevent a fight. 2 vp's run off towards highway to chase a kid who was running away from a citation. then they run towards south side of the school. so do 40 kids.
I end up cussing next to the girl I wrote up. That looked good.

Banging my head against the wall

9/22
Sometimes, it seems as if I am in front of a brick wall, just repeatedly walking into it.
In Content Mastery, we often have "problem" kids sent to us. The teacher is tired of the kid, but doesn't have time to write a referral so they send them our way. Student M is that way. When I see student M walking the door, I groan inside. The first time M came by today, I tried to help him, I really did. But he just sang and danced and tapped (this annoying banging the table to a beat thing), so loudly, none of the other students could get any work done. So I told him to leave. He ran out of the room.
That afternoon M was back. Same scenario. I told him to leave and he ran out of the room. But this time I was not alone in the room, so I went to where his class was, and beat him there. Pretty amazing considering the breakneck pace he took off at. And the look on M's face when he saw me. He could just not figure out how I, a lowly adult, had beat him. Now when he sees me he turns and goes the other way. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Cussing

There is this one girl at school, who is known for having a temper. I'll call her Student B. Now Student B and I have not gotten along well in the past. She has seen I'm going to be her sub and has run out of the room before. On this day, I was going in from afterschool duty, where I make sure no one is killed waiting for their parents to pick them up, and was telling a girl that she could not follow me into the school. B starts backtalking, saying "Yes she can." etc. I go in and am walking away when I hear B call me a P**sy, C*nt, and B*tch. Now, these children know they are not allowed to use that language, especially directed at an adult. So I go and try to warn her. I'm not mean, I don't want this kid to get a citation.
And B starts saying "Quit lying Miss, I didn't cuss at you. Your lying..." so on and so forth. So to make a long story short, she received a referral, and I went away bemused.

(3 days later she apologized that "you thought I was cussing at you". She still wouldnt admit it!)

One referal, Two referals....

9/22
This week has flown by so quickly, I don't even know where to start. I know interesting things happened in the past 2 days, but damned if I remember them. We had a fight in the cafeteria, on Monday I think. That is crazy. In the hallway, it is easy to block off the non involved kids. In the cafeteria, it was like watching water flow out of a pool that just had a hole punched in it. It was probably pretty funny, watching me, sitting on my chair with my donut pillow. NIce and quiet. Then I leap out of my seat and start shoving through kids. I get to the front, then little ol 5 foot me starts shoving the other way, yelling to go back to your seats. Half the kids just try to get past me, the other half saying "my seats over there", pointing in the direction of the fight. But there is no point to trying to explain to them, so I just keep yelling and herding. Eventually we get the kids seated again, and our principle comes on stage. It takes her 5 minutes to get the kids to shut up, and then she starts listing the consequences of their innapropriate behavior: losing outdoor time, possibly losing their pep rally. One table just kept talking, so I went over to try to quiet them down. I pointed out that they were not working towards keeping or regaining any privliges. They didn't care! They just didn't give a damn. I don't know why that amazes me so much, but it does. How can nothing affect them?

Chaos

8/20/04
Middle school really is nothing more than organized chaos, or perhaps barely controlled chaos is a better term. When I have to sub for a class, it is crazy. The kids talk constantly, get up from there seats, hit each other, & most importantly, do their best to ignore or derail me. Trying to get them quiet so I can teach the kids who want to learn is an ongoing battle. Then I get the chance to see tenured teachers, and it's the same thing. They are just better at re-directing the little hellions.

The Fashion Variable

8/20/04
Why is it that personal expression in students leads to such bad behavior? Of course, I'm not sure that the worst behaved students understand personal expression. A lot of them are dressing like Usher, or other R&B stars. One think I know, if I see a kid wearing an outfit off a music video, they are going to give me trouble. Also, the kids with the oversized pastel jersey's, look out! It doesn't (or hasn't yet) affected my initial treatment of them. They don't give it time.
Look at me 5 days a teachers aid and already labeling kids.

Survival Tips for the Subs

• Don't expect perfection. Especially right now. Half compliance with an attitude is a small victory.
• Pick your battles. These kids are great at distraction, and can start a fight over anything. Let the little stuff go.
• Give them choices. They can do assignment A (the fun one) or assignment B (This one has lots of writing). Explain that their actions will determine what happens. (This only works for some kids, but it's worth a try)
• DON'T DO GROUPWORK. Screw what the lesson plan says. Groupwork is the death of all subs. These kids don't like you & want to mess with you, and can do so more effectively in a group. One class I had thought this meant play time, another refused to speak with each other.
• Don't show fear. Kids can smell fear, and will eat you alive.
• Don't allow seat changes. Any change in structure increases chaos, and gives your bratty kids more power.
  

Sub a dub dub

Perhaps I'm getting the hang of this subbing thing. Perhaps one day, I'll get the hang of being friendly to the kids & having them obey. I feel a bit like a bear at the moment. But hopefully that will change as we delve deeper into the year. I get the feeling the kids are still testing everything, especially me. I was called mean earlier when I gave Ms. A's class a writing assignment. The sub had given them free time, & they were going nuts. I was proud of myself for not being intimidated.
Why Junior high kids should intimidate me, I don't know, but they are freaking scary!
I see so much going on in there adolescent heads. I hope someday I get to see them mature.