Part II: Every Substitute's Nightmare

"MRS. M"

Oh what a day, what a DAY! Got the call at 6am and accepted a job at Lampson Elementary. I was excited to go because my mom-in-law teaches 1st grade there. It just so happened that I was substituting for another 1st grade teacher. I get there around 7:45am and walk into my classroom to find a HUGE pile of worksheets and FOUR pages of class instruction for the day. I read through the instructions and at 8:25am the madness begins.

First off, this class was mostly made up of mexican kids, with the exception of 2 asians and 1 caucasian. Plus, I had 2 hard heads (as most classes do). Time for ROLL CALL. I was good with most of the names until I said "Josue" and I pronounced it with the "J" sound instead of the "H" sound. Everyone in the class yelled together, "Nooooo that's not how you say it! It's "Hosue!" For some reason, I had the hardest time pronouncing his name. I kept wanting to say "Josue" with a J.

After I wrote my name "Mrs. M" on the whiteboard, IT STARTED. "Mrs. M, Mrs. M! He said she was my girlfriend". "Mrs. M, Mrs. M! He took my scissors". "Mrs. M, Mrs. M! He said I was a liar and my nose is bigger because I lie and my eye's are huge". "Mrs. M, Mrs. M! Look at them, they're not supposed to be sharpening pencils cuz we're not allowed to". I'm at home and all I hear is "Mrs. M, Mrs. M" still ringing in my ears.

Since I was their sub, they instantly took full advantage of me (and probably my inexperience as a sub teacher). One student kept bothering the rest of the class and I constantly had to be the referee. But I did learn, from the students, that in order to get everyone to calm down I could ring the cow bell. That did it--for 3 seconds and it was back to mayhem. Then I tried holding two fingers above in the air and it worked--for 3 seconds. When those were unsuccesful, I kicked it old school. This time I gave them 3 seconds to sit down, be quiet, and listen or their name would go on the board. I must say, it was a hit! But there was one incident when I wish I wouldn't have done it. I went up to the board and started writing names of those I saw standing up but, this time, without giving a 3 second warning. (I did this little behavior excercise about 4 times. I was totally suprised they fell for this. They did NOT want their name on the board because it meant something really bad. Whenever I put someone's name on the board, I made sure to erase it after I saw they started to behave again.) So, this time, I didn't give any warning and I wrote 3 kids' names down. But it was my bad because one of them (an asian girl) was simply putting away her glue when I wrote her name down. I didn't know it at the time, but then the whole class told me. They also told me that she was going to cry--which she did immediately after. I felt soooo bad!!! I told her and the rest of the class that I was going to erase the names once I saw they were in their seats again. Then I went and spoke to the girl and tried to console her by saying I was very sorry and I didn't know she was only putting her glue away. I ended by telling her she was a very good student (and she really was!). She felt much better a few minutes later.

Now that I've reflected over my day, I must say that I got a kick out of the very same girl I made cry. Here's what she said when she approached me right before school was out: "Mrs. M, I have to drink this! (holding an 8oz plastic bottle of juice)". So I opened it up and gave it back to her. Then she said, "Mrs. M, I can't drink it all!". So, I said to drink as much as she could. Then she says, "No, I have to drink it all before I go home or my mommy is gonna hit me!". I seriously thought she was kidding until she was on the verge of crying again because she couldn't drink any more juice. I had to think fast because school was almost out and the poor thing couldn't finish her juice. I definetly didn't want her to get hit by her mommy so I told her to dump the rest out in the sink! What else was I supposed to do? And why would anyone hit their child for not drinking their juice? Very odd indeedie.

Those kids I had today were complete and TOTAL opposites of those kids I sub-taught my first day. The majority of kids at Lampson Elementary come from really tough homes and neighborhoods. When you see a kid lifting up his sleeve to show his very own, one of a kind, peel and lick tatoo on his arm, you know chances are he will probably grow up and get the real deal. I really felt sad for some of those kids because I could tell that they were being raised around violence, gangs, and other non-sense. Overall, I think if I can handle this, I can handle anything...*knock on wood*.