Last year, in March, I wrote THIS POST about a couple of trashy young 8th Graders and a condom.
Go, read it (it's worth it), and then come back to this post.
Today, I was reluctantly subbing High School Spanish at a local school. (As an aside - I feel like I've totally checked out of subbing. If I never subbed another class in my life, I'd die happy.) Last class of the day - in walks one of those two girls - the "Queen Bee".
The good person inside of you sort of hopes that in a year, at a different school, that she would have matured some. Or at least realized that she's not God's gift to horny teenage boys.
And part of you (the jaded sub who hates children) hopes she's still a snide, miserable bitch.
The nasty side of me won today. Not only is she RETAKING Spanish 1 (and STILL failing), she spent the class period staring at herself in a mirror and fixing her caked-on makeup. She was the ONLY student in her class who DIDN'T complete the classwork. She didn't even PRETEND to try to do it.
Not only is she dumb as a rock, but she's cruel to other students.
And you know what? Beauty fades.
And the little negative person inside of me rejoices.
How awful is that? And how wonderful, too!
Showing posts with label Substitute Teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Substitute Teaching. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Should I be Dancin'?
I spent today subbing dance back at North High. I haven't been in the Dance Room at North at all this year, and I don't know most of the students in beginning dance and half of the students in Intermediate, but teaching dance at North always feels a little like coming home. I ran the program there for four months in the Spring of 2009, and I loved every second of it. I felt needed and useful, and I loved my students - and they loved me, once they adjusted to my larger than life teaching personality and my demanding daily work out.
Friends and family have asked, well, why don't you get your credential and specialize in dance? It's a thought, but in a time of layoffs, the last thing I want to go into is education. There won't be openings for new teachers in years (ESPECIALLY in the arts), so by the time I finished my education and FINALLY found a position - I'm not sure my body would hold up to the stresses of teaching dance much longer. I teach by demonstration, so after five periods of dance in one day - I'm wiped out.
Then there's the other side of it. Many (certainly not ALL) of the students at North High come from homes where their parents could never afford to put them in dance class. So they register for dance in high school. When I came in to teach during March of 2009, they were HUNGRY to learn what I had to offer, what I was so blessed my parents were able to provide for me. Years and years of studio training in dance. You don't find students who are that hungry at very many schools. Plus, North High is SO culturally diverse - and I love that about it. Were I to follow up on this path to teaching, I would hope to land in a school like that.
So, no, I don't think I'm going to get my dance degree and credential (PLUS - I do not want ANY MORE STUDENT LOANS), but I sure love the days where I get to swing in to that dance room and challenge those teens. Days like today make subbing worth while.
Friends and family have asked, well, why don't you get your credential and specialize in dance? It's a thought, but in a time of layoffs, the last thing I want to go into is education. There won't be openings for new teachers in years (ESPECIALLY in the arts), so by the time I finished my education and FINALLY found a position - I'm not sure my body would hold up to the stresses of teaching dance much longer. I teach by demonstration, so after five periods of dance in one day - I'm wiped out.
Then there's the other side of it. Many (certainly not ALL) of the students at North High come from homes where their parents could never afford to put them in dance class. So they register for dance in high school. When I came in to teach during March of 2009, they were HUNGRY to learn what I had to offer, what I was so blessed my parents were able to provide for me. Years and years of studio training in dance. You don't find students who are that hungry at very many schools. Plus, North High is SO culturally diverse - and I love that about it. Were I to follow up on this path to teaching, I would hope to land in a school like that.
So, no, I don't think I'm going to get my dance degree and credential (PLUS - I do not want ANY MORE STUDENT LOANS), but I sure love the days where I get to swing in to that dance room and challenge those teens. Days like today make subbing worth while.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
My name is Erin and I was a workaholic.
Yep. Was a workaholic. I am no longer a workaholic, which some people find difficult to believe or understand. And that's not to say that my life doesn't still have its busy times, but these days I don't choose to be busy, circumstances force me to be busy and I resent every minute of it.
I think that Jason has a lot to do with it. Jason works a normal person's hours. I work all the hours he works and THEN I also work evenings and weekends.
I still work evenings and some weekends, but I'm really trying to make a conscious effort to free up the time that he's not working (it's easier, given the nature of my many jobs), and I will try to do this even more during the first year of our marriage.
I want to give us the time to grow in our marriage, to work through what many people say is the toughest year. How can we do that if we're only together when we're sleeping?
So, I've scaled back on what I'm doing. This fall, I'm substitute teaching (more on that in a sec), caroling again (yay!) and teaching two acting classes. That's it. Any more than that and I'd miss all those important moments of being a newlywed. I won't let my work take that away from me!
What's so interesting about my decision to scale back is that my primary source of income, substitute teaching, has suddenly become totally unreliable. I have had one - ONE! - sub call since school started this fall. This is very unusual as I sub in two school districts, and have always had enough work to keep myself afloat financially.
Now? Thanks to more teacher cuts in the school districts, there is now a "must call" list of laid-off teachers who must all receive their jobs before any other subs get a call. I feel badly for those teachers who were laid-off, I do, but share some work, please! I rely on sub work for a regular paycheck (everything else I do pays sporadically).
This morning, there was no sub call again. I'm starting to get very concerned. I have two weeks of availability left before I take off for our wedding and honeymoon, and if I don't get any work between now and then, I will not receive ANY paychecks before November. WHAT?!
When we chose our house to rent, we chose it knowing that if I had a month of no work that we'd be able to make it, paying rent and all of our bills on Jason's salary. That doesn't make me feel okay about not contributing, but it does put my mind at ease.
Back to the point - I've gone from a workaholic to a person who is actually happy to be given the excuse to spend the day at home "puttering". I define "puttering" as cleaning and gardening at my own pace with little breaks to just relax.
Today I've puttered - the house is spotless and I spent a good hour and a half doing my favorite thing - gardening. :) I still feel guilty for not contributing financially today, but at least I contributed in another way! If you had told me ten years ago that I'd be happy spending the day at home cleaning, I would have told you you were nuts. Today? I'm no longer a workaholic, and I'm coming to realize that there are things that are more important than work and being busy.
Back to my garden!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Karma - it's a b*&%#! (I Hope)
So, to begin this post, I actually have to begin with a story from January, one that I debated posting on my blog at the time. Not only do I regularly sub performing arts and fine arts classes, I also sub for several Spanish teachers throughout the South Bay.
In the middle of one of our days of torrential rain in January, I was subbing for eighth grade Spanish. Because Torrance Schools are broke, and we rarely have rain in Southern California, schools are not equipped for rainy weather. When it rains, the schools go on what is called "Rainy Day Schedule" to minimize students getting drenched. What this means for teachers is that instead of a full lunch break, you get HALF of your lunch, and get stuck with students for the other half of their lunch break. So imagine... it's pouring rain, and a bunch of soaked eighth graders are forced to come BACK to your classroom for a 30 minute "advisement period". You are unprepared for this, and because they were pretty great during class (before lunch) decide to let them chat as long as they're sitting down. After all, that's what they'd normally be doing outside at this point in their lunch.
This particular class has some young women (who are really very pretty girls - at least on the outside... their insides? That's a different story) who are so obsessed with themselves that they put mirrors inside their textbooks and will try to spend their entire class period STARING at themselves. If you ask them to please look at their text and not their own faces, they act like you told them to run around the school naked. No joke.
These stellar young ladies (let's call them 1 and 2) are sitting with their buddies (there's only a few of them... no one else is "good" enough to hang out with them) at a table near the teacher's desk. I keep my ears open for general rumblings of dissent and madness, especially because unusual things seem to happen around me quite often.
1 and 2 get up from the desks they were sitting at and take the longest possible route around to the front of the classroom. Once there, I see them drop something on a young man's desk. Immediately he leaps up, backs away and starts this male version of a shriek. "Eek! Eww. Ahhh!"
It was a condom. Out of its package and stretched out. Here's the rest of the conversation:
Me: "Did you just drop a CONDOM on his desk?"
1: "It's not mine. She did it."
2: "It's not mine, either! I found it!"
Me: "Wait. You FOUND a condom, picked it up, hid it in your hand and thought it was a great idea to drop it on someone's desk?"
1: "Well, it's not mine."
Me: "I just want to be clear. You FOUND an open condom and thought, I want to pick that up. That's disgusting. It would have been better if you had brought an unopened one into class deliberately, opened it, and thrown it on his desk. Instead, you're now the girls who pick up used condoms."
1: "Well, she did it anyway. I didn't touch it."
*Obviously, you can tell which one is the Queen Bee and which one is her little minion.
So... I report it to Administration. They yank those girls out of their classes for the rest of the day. 1 and 2 immediately roll on their friends, turning them in, blaming them. Two delinquent teenagers in the principal's office becomes six, and I am the hero of every teacher on campus who hates those girls and can't do a thing about it for fear of losing their jobs. Or at least, I provide them with something to genuinely chuckle about. I also have the Vice Principal tell me that I win the award for the craziest thing happening in a classroom all year long.
Fast forward two months. I am back in this classroom for the first time since this has happened. The first thing that 1 and 2 say to me is... "Wait, are you our sub today?" (they're obviously very bright since I'm IN THEIR CLASSROOM). I say "Yes", which is all I really can say, because inside I'm thinking - If I was you, and I had been busted for being an IDIOT, I would be too embarassed to say a word. Their response: "Cool."
WHAT?!
Fifteen minutes into class, I see 1 grab all of her belongings and head for 2's desk. The conversation:
Me: "Hey. Where do you think you're going?"
1: "She lets us sit wherever we want."
Doubtful.
Me: "Well, regardless of what your teacher lets you do, I know how you are, and you need to get back to your own seat."
1 huffs back to her seat like a spoiled child.
-Ten minutes later.
Me: "Class is not makeup time. Put the mirror away and get to work on some Spanish."
2 mopes and pitches a mini fit, throwing things around at her desk.
Some kids just never learn. I can only hope that someday, somehow, they get theirs. After all, Karma is a bitch.
I feel guilty for hoping that.
In the middle of one of our days of torrential rain in January, I was subbing for eighth grade Spanish. Because Torrance Schools are broke, and we rarely have rain in Southern California, schools are not equipped for rainy weather. When it rains, the schools go on what is called "Rainy Day Schedule" to minimize students getting drenched. What this means for teachers is that instead of a full lunch break, you get HALF of your lunch, and get stuck with students for the other half of their lunch break. So imagine... it's pouring rain, and a bunch of soaked eighth graders are forced to come BACK to your classroom for a 30 minute "advisement period". You are unprepared for this, and because they were pretty great during class (before lunch) decide to let them chat as long as they're sitting down. After all, that's what they'd normally be doing outside at this point in their lunch.
This particular class has some young women (who are really very pretty girls - at least on the outside... their insides? That's a different story) who are so obsessed with themselves that they put mirrors inside their textbooks and will try to spend their entire class period STARING at themselves. If you ask them to please look at their text and not their own faces, they act like you told them to run around the school naked. No joke.
These stellar young ladies (let's call them 1 and 2) are sitting with their buddies (there's only a few of them... no one else is "good" enough to hang out with them) at a table near the teacher's desk. I keep my ears open for general rumblings of dissent and madness, especially because unusual things seem to happen around me quite often.
1 and 2 get up from the desks they were sitting at and take the longest possible route around to the front of the classroom. Once there, I see them drop something on a young man's desk. Immediately he leaps up, backs away and starts this male version of a shriek. "Eek! Eww. Ahhh!"
It was a condom. Out of its package and stretched out. Here's the rest of the conversation:
Me: "Did you just drop a CONDOM on his desk?"
1: "It's not mine. She did it."
2: "It's not mine, either! I found it!"
Me: "Wait. You FOUND a condom, picked it up, hid it in your hand and thought it was a great idea to drop it on someone's desk?"
1: "Well, it's not mine."
Me: "I just want to be clear. You FOUND an open condom and thought, I want to pick that up. That's disgusting. It would have been better if you had brought an unopened one into class deliberately, opened it, and thrown it on his desk. Instead, you're now the girls who pick up used condoms."
1: "Well, she did it anyway. I didn't touch it."
*Obviously, you can tell which one is the Queen Bee and which one is her little minion.
So... I report it to Administration. They yank those girls out of their classes for the rest of the day. 1 and 2 immediately roll on their friends, turning them in, blaming them. Two delinquent teenagers in the principal's office becomes six, and I am the hero of every teacher on campus who hates those girls and can't do a thing about it for fear of losing their jobs. Or at least, I provide them with something to genuinely chuckle about. I also have the Vice Principal tell me that I win the award for the craziest thing happening in a classroom all year long.
Fast forward two months. I am back in this classroom for the first time since this has happened. The first thing that 1 and 2 say to me is... "Wait, are you our sub today?" (they're obviously very bright since I'm IN THEIR CLASSROOM). I say "Yes", which is all I really can say, because inside I'm thinking - If I was you, and I had been busted for being an IDIOT, I would be too embarassed to say a word. Their response: "Cool."
WHAT?!
Fifteen minutes into class, I see 1 grab all of her belongings and head for 2's desk. The conversation:
Me: "Hey. Where do you think you're going?"
1: "She lets us sit wherever we want."
Doubtful.
Me: "Well, regardless of what your teacher lets you do, I know how you are, and you need to get back to your own seat."
1 huffs back to her seat like a spoiled child.
-Ten minutes later.
Me: "Class is not makeup time. Put the mirror away and get to work on some Spanish."
2 mopes and pitches a mini fit, throwing things around at her desk.
Some kids just never learn. I can only hope that someday, somehow, they get theirs. After all, Karma is a bitch.
I feel guilty for hoping that.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Fun moments from my week.
A couple of moments and conversations I've had this week:
-Filming the All Shook Up promo and the production meeting with Nancy, Tiff, Abby, Eddie, Hedy and Trav.
-Jason asking for and receiving his raise.
-Seeing a person dressed as the Statue of Liberty and carrying a red umbrella crossing the street in the pouring rain.
-Dinner with Solangey. Awesome.
-Winning tickets to the LA Philharmonic at Disney Concert Hall for Valentines Day.
-Spending time with Jason.
-That Grandma's procedure went surprisingly well and that she's pain free!
-A wonderful compliment from a teenage breakdancer - "Ms. Erin, you're awesome! Is there anything you can't do?"
----
(Between me and a 6th grade boy):
Me: Hey, why do you have a rubberband on your head?
Boy: I dunno. I found it.
Me: You found a rubber band and thought, "hey, I wanna put this on my head!"?
Boy: Yep.
Me: But you don't even know where it's been.
Other boy (chiming in): Dude, it could have been in a toilet!
Me: In a toilet? So someone thought it was important enough to stick their hand in a toilet to get it and then forgot it in a desk?
Boy: Yep.
Other Boy: Yep.
Third Boy: Dude, you just got slammed teacher-style.
five minutes later
Other Boy: This is boring.
Me: You're boring.
Other Boy: YOU'RE boring.
Me: That's all you got, toilet boy?
Other Boy: I'm not a toilet boy. You're the toilet boy.
Me: Sure. You just keep trying with that one. You're the one that thinks about pulling things out of a toilet and putting them on your head. And you, rubber band kid, why are you still wearing that thing? Put it away.
-----
...to be continued...
-Filming the All Shook Up promo and the production meeting with Nancy, Tiff, Abby, Eddie, Hedy and Trav.
-Jason asking for and receiving his raise.
-Seeing a person dressed as the Statue of Liberty and carrying a red umbrella crossing the street in the pouring rain.
-Dinner with Solangey. Awesome.
-Winning tickets to the LA Philharmonic at Disney Concert Hall for Valentines Day.
-Spending time with Jason.
-That Grandma's procedure went surprisingly well and that she's pain free!
-A wonderful compliment from a teenage breakdancer - "Ms. Erin, you're awesome! Is there anything you can't do?"
----
(Between me and a 6th grade boy):
Me: Hey, why do you have a rubberband on your head?
Boy: I dunno. I found it.
Me: You found a rubber band and thought, "hey, I wanna put this on my head!"?
Boy: Yep.
Me: But you don't even know where it's been.
Other boy (chiming in): Dude, it could have been in a toilet!
Me: In a toilet? So someone thought it was important enough to stick their hand in a toilet to get it and then forgot it in a desk?
Boy: Yep.
Other Boy: Yep.
Third Boy: Dude, you just got slammed teacher-style.
five minutes later
Other Boy: This is boring.
Me: You're boring.
Other Boy: YOU'RE boring.
Me: That's all you got, toilet boy?
Other Boy: I'm not a toilet boy. You're the toilet boy.
Me: Sure. You just keep trying with that one. You're the one that thinks about pulling things out of a toilet and putting them on your head. And you, rubber band kid, why are you still wearing that thing? Put it away.
-----
...to be continued...
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