Seventh Grade Again

I'm writing this segment of my blog while I'm still at school because I'm so bored and I need some semblance of communication with the outside world, and I already sat in my car and bugged people at work (sorry, J-Dawg) and responded to a text and junk like that.

Today I'm subbing for a special educator who serves as a co-teacher in classrooms where special ed. students are integrated into the "regular" class. I basically help out in the classroom and make sure everybody's on task 'n' junk. Schools in this county operate on a block system, where each class is 86 MINUTES LONG. I repeat. Eighty. Six. Minutes. Long. Each! I am so worn out I can barely function, and I've had a two hour break that consisted of lunch and a planning period. No wonder these kids are so annoying. They're trapped in these unnaturally long sessions, most of which are held in open classrooms and have so much noise from neighboring classes I personally feel like I'm about to lose it half the time.

My first period class, language arts, was with a teacher for whom I substituted a few posts ago. The class remembered who I was but they were on their best behavior and didn't say much to me. I can see why. Their teacher is mean! I don't know if "mean" is the right word, but she's overbearing and doesn't really smile, and she talks too much and doesn't ask questions except to check and make sure they're paying attention. She also doesn't articulate herself very well, which isn't the best quality in a language arts teacher. Worst of all, the energy she projects is very... heavy. I felt so weighed down I had to get up and excuse myself to go to the bathroom, just so I could breathe, ground, center, and try to remind myself of a funny inside joke I could keep in my mind so I could perk up the vibe in there a bit.

When I returned to the class I picked a seat in the middle of the room next to one of the students I was supposed to keep an eye on and casually started helping the students around me. They have to right a persuasive essay where they argue for a change that they'd like to see happen in their school. For once, my creative writing degree came in handy. I helped several students write fun opening paragraphs, gave tips for those who were stuck, and even helped one finish his entire first draft outline thingy. (His was about how middle-schoolers should have recess, which is a cause I believe in.)

Then it was on to math, where i basically had to walk around and around and around the classroom and make sure people were copying down all of the answers and showing their work on this review worksheet for a test, and on all of the other papers that they did. By the end of the block I was ready to jump out of my skin, I was more than ready to go. I somehow got back here to the special education office (this building is so impossibly labyrinthine, I keep waiting for the frickin' Minotaur to jump out around every corner) and shut the door. The cinder block walls in here are painted a nice relaxing blue, not too bright, and it's got a cozy greenish-blue carpet.

Another special ed. teacher and I griped about how long the class periods are. It's different when you're teaching and you've got all these things to do, multi-tasking makes time fly. But now that I experience the tables turned, I have a new perspective on the students' experience.

Luckily, in about ten minutes I get to go to the fun social studies class I've been to when I last subbed for special ed here. The teacher is fun and likes me a lot, we tell the kids stories about the places we've traveled to and it's fun. After that I'm out of here! I can't wait to take the dog for a walk, it's kind of cold but misty and I yearn for some nature time. I'm reminded of a wee snippet from a poem by William Butler Yeats: "Away, come away, Empty your heart of its mortal dream..."

*Deep breath* I'm goin' in!

* * *

As predicted, the last class was fun. Hooray, social studies! When I walked in the kids remembered me and shouted stuff like, "You're back!" and "It's the nice sub!" I don't know where they get these crazy notions, but it was nice to hear. Then a few of them told me I should be a real teacher, which I shut down faster than... a jackrabbit? I don't know, I completely blanked on that simile. Then they said I should be a yoga teacher, which is something I could handle. Apparently word of my yoga sessions with the language arts classes I subbed in before got around. It was nice, though, thanks seventh graders for redeeming yourselves at the last minute.

The teacher asked me to sub for his first two classes next week and give some kind of standardized test to his higher-level students, so I said yes. Always nice to have work lined up.