My Last Few Weeks, PART 1

[Geez, has it been a month already since that last post? Sorry - here is a tidbit of some musings that I've been working on. There's plenty more, I just have to sit down and pour it all out...]

So, yeah, there I am at Bryant Elementary School everyday. I get $30 more a day than regular subbing, 8 paid personal days, and medical and vision benefits [these benefits are FREE for me, but to put Brian on it would cost almost $600 a month - outrageous!]. The upside is that it is twice as much $ as I think I've EVER made at a job. The downside is that I only get paid once a month. Sure, the checks are gi-normous, but there's that whole "have to make it last a whole month" junk. Pay periods are from the 21st to the 20th, with payday usually being the last day of the month. On my first payday [October 29th], at the end of the school day, I asked the secretary for my check and she said that she didn't have one for me. "Well, when I was a day-to-day sub they sent the checks to my apartment, so I'll check when I get home to see if it's there." Unfortunately, I didn't get home until after 5pm that day because I had to stay late after school to help set up the Book Fair that was to take place the following week. I got home, tore open the check, and saw that it was payment for only 3 DAYS at my old rate. Where were the 11 days that I worked as the Site Support Sub at Bryant?? We were counting on full payment in order to pay rent which was due early the next week. Of course, someone at the district offices screwed up and I only got paid for the 3 days that I had subbed around the city before landing the permanent gig at Bryant. On Monday morning, I talked to the secretary, she faxed the district offices a new timesheet for me, I talked all day to a guy in payroll who cut me a check that day which I picked up about 4:45pm [I had committed to staying after school for awhile to help with the Book Fair that day...] In line at Payroll to get my check, the woman in front of me kept muttering under her breath about how much the school district sucked, and how they can never get anything right. I'm beginning to understand her frustration.

The first couple of weeks that I was at Bryant Elementary School [my start date was back-dated to October 5th which was my first actual day at the school, not the day that they said, "Ok, the job is yours"...] were great because I pretty much did the CELDT [California English Language Development Test] testing one-on-one with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students. One kid that I administered the oral and listening portions of the test to was a 2nd grade boy that Miles had in his class a couple of years ago. Last year, because the kid came to Miles and told him that he was BORED to tears in 1st grade, Miles gave this kid extra assignments and books to read - this kid is REALLY bright. Well, when I opened up the test booklet in front of him he immediately set to filling in circles. "Um, wait a second," I said. "I haven't even given you the scenarios yet that you need to figure out which pictures to choose..." The kid said, "Oh, I took this test last year." The kid remembered which pictures to choose a whole year from taking the test the first time... Brilliant, I tell you.

Well, the whole teacher afternoon release schedule changed. I WAS in the library reading stories to the Kindergarteners on Tuesdays, the 3rd graders on Wednesdays, the 2nd graders on Thursdays, and the 1st graders on Fridays. It was this deal where for 1/2 an hour I would read to one of the classes [there are 2 classrooms per grade: 1 bilingual Spanish, the other English Language Development] while the other class was outside with this other guy at school doing "P.E." Then, we would switch classes for the last half hour of the day. The "other guy" got some other position and the librarian is there full-time now, so... I GOT STUCK WITH DOING P.E. with the kids. I gotta say, I HATED P.E. when I was in school, and I STILL HATE IT. The first week I did it, I had each grade do some simple warm up movements, and then some beanbag activities - much like what I did with Miles' class during my Solo Week last year. It didn't go over very well. One of the worst parts about doing this P.E. stuff is that we do it out on the recess yard [which is a small rectangle of asphalt - no grass whatsoever] where parents come to pick up their kids after school. SO, there I am everyday trying to get these kids to follow directions and stay where I can see them... in front of an audience of parents. On Kindergarten day, it rained and the Kindergarten teachers didn't want their kids back in their rooms so I had to do the beanbag stuff on the STAGE in the cafeteria. Of course, since it was raining, the parents all moved indoors to wait for their kids in... the cafeteria. There I was, LITERALLY, on stage yelling at these kids for throwing the beanbags instead of nicely passing them, and then jumping off of the stage instead of taking the stairs. Disaster.

There is a "scripted" P.E. curriculum that the school adopted which came with a huge binder of suggested games/activities and loads of equipment. My second week of doing P.E. [ick!] I decided to choose something that I could do with all of the grades, so this time I chose something that required much less of my participation - basically, an activity/game that would pretty much run itself, while simultaneously running the kids ragged. Mission accomplished: I had the kids play touch-ball freeze tag. The curriculum equipment included a bunch of soft, cushy balls. I figured the kids who were the "taggers" could run around and tag the other students with these balls - it seemed like the safe way to go. Well, all in all, it was a success, and each class of each grade really enjoyed it. Sure, there were plenty of collusions [well, you've got 20 young kids running around trying to avoid each other in a very small space...], but it truly did just wear them all out.

The first week of November was "Parent/Teacher Conference Week", so the days were all shortened by an hour. To take advantage of having parents at the school all week, the school decided to have the annual BOOK FAIR that week. The teacher that normally takes charge of the whole fair knew that she was going to be absent for most of the week [her husband got the two of them a trip to Paris for her birthday] so she asked me if I would look after it all for her. In the interest of showing how much I wanted to be a part of the school community, and because of, as mentioned here before, my fondness for the Book Fair when I was in elementary school, I agreed to work the fair everyday after school from 1-5pm. What the hell was I thinking? Put in a 7:30am-1pm day at school, and then stick around for another 4 hours every afternoon? Those were some LONG days. Actually, there was really only a rush for the first hour or so [1-2pm] each day, and then attendance really dropped off, but, when it was busy it was WAY busy. AND, I had to work the fair most of the time with this crazy lady who pretty much volunteers her time every day of the week at school. Seriously, I think she is on the payroll for 2 hours a day, but is there from 7am to 4 pm. She does recess duty, helps in the office and such, and is truly INSANE. Nice, but just WAY loopy. Many, MANY times I wanted to strangle the woman because she was getting in my way and making STUPID mistakes ringing people up on the register. I just wanted to scream out, "Just get out of my way and let me do it!"

There are 3 teachers at school for whom this is their first year teaching. All of them seem to be stressed and exhausted to the gills. One woman, a 2nd grade bilingual teacher, is REALLY not doing so hot. That first week of November I had to sub in her room all day for 3 days because she was doing individual assessments - assessments that took other teachers 1 day to do. I'll tell you, these kids ate me up and spit me out. I was SO glad that they were shortened days [it was conference week] because these kids were jerks much of the time. I tried my best with the Spanish, but most of the days just had to be in English. Unfortunately, there are 3 or 4 "newcomers" in the class who know VERY little English, and when they asked me something I either had to just kind of nod and walk away, or get the kid next to them to translate for me. Embarrassing. Being with these kids proved to me just how rudimentary my "classroom managment" skills are. I have really bad follow through, and am easily exasperated. I insist that kids raise their hands, but still respond when others yell out my name or walk up to me and ask a question. Pretty soon, I'm standing there with 3 or 4 kids around me all asking questions, tattling on a fellow student, or complaining that someone else did/said something mean to them. Exhausting. I realized on Day 1 that they sat relatively quiet during read-alouds, so each day I ran down to the Book Fair room during lunch and borrowed a couple of the books that looked the most interesting and read those to them in the afternoon.

The Friday before Halloween was the Halloween Parade at school. I decided to go into the 1st grade classroom of the kids that I had in Kindergarten last year right before the parade to see what they looked like. I walked into the room and immediately noticed the girl with autism lying on the floor in a PUDDLE of used tissues and SOBBING. The Speech and Language teacher saw this as a bit of a breakthrough - the girl with autism showing a strong emotion in school. I saw it as PAINFULLY sad. I mean, I'd NEVER seen her crying like this before. It hurt me. Apparently, she was upset because she didn't have a costume. I remembered that she didn't have a costume last year either, but, I guess now that she is in 1st grade, maybe she feels like "fitting in" more and doing the things that everyone else is doing. Parents in the room offered her pieces and parts of their childrens' costumes, but she just wasn't having any of it. She didn't even want to take part in the parade until I asked, "Here, I've got a bunch of tissues. Will you walk in the parade with me? You can hold my hand." She reluctantly agreed, and we brought up the rear.