Hello my wonderful readers! So I have officially began long-term subbing. It's VERY different from student teaching. While I was student teaching, I had an experienced teacher looking after me and making sure I was doing well and guiding the students to where they needed to be. (I also had to be at the school by 7am everyday.) Now, I have noone to really answer to, but noone to tell me how I am doing. If ya'll remember from my last post, I am long-term subbing for a 5th grade science teacher at the same school that I student taught at. I wasn't supposed to start until next Monday, but this past Sunday, I received a text from the teacher that I am subbing for that her baby had arrived and she needed me to start a week early! So, I cut my wonderful vacation short, drove back with my best friend, Hayley, because she had gone down to the Valley to visit me for the weekend, and started subbing!
So far, my first week has been kind of difficult. I have 4 classes of 22 to 26, with 4 one hour rotations throughout the day. I love it, because I am teaching the same lesson 4 times and can see how I can improve it as the day goes on. I'm not too big of a fan of this because I feel so repetetive! My homeroom class is pretty sweet, for the most part. I have some stinkers though, as most classes do, but I feel like in the five days that I have been in the classroom, one of them has already learned how exactly to push my buttons. Another problem I have in the classroom is the amount of disrespect these kids have for their teachers! I don;t know if it is that I am new to them, and am just a sub (I remember how I behaved for subs when I was younger and it was nothing good.), or if they are just rude and disrespectful in general.
On my first day of subbing, most of the classes were pretty good and well behaved, but on the second day, they were absolutely awful. I walked out of the school so frustrated I was about to call the teacher that I am subbing for and tell her that I didn't think I could do this. BUT, I got my emotions in check, and talked to my friend, Hayley. She brought up a good point when she said, "I feel like this is good practice for you, though. You're not only getting more classroom experience, but you're getting classes that are going to make you an even better teacher. You'll probably never have a perfect classroom, and this will just prepare your even more." So needless to say, I woke up again the next morning, went to school, and as soon as my kids got into my class, I let them know that I will never go home feeling the way that they made me feel the day before and from them on we were going to have good days. I remembered that as the teacher, you control the mood of the classroom, and if you let the students upset you, they will just keep doing it. You have to pick your battles and remember to breathe. The rest of this week has gone alright. I definitely need to get on learning all the kids' names, I think that that is another crucial part of my classroom management.
Thankfully, today is Friday, and tonight is Texas A&M's Quidditch Team's Annual Yule Ball, and Hayley and I plan on having a great time and then going out and enjoying ourselves. I hope that this weekend refreshes me enough to help me keep going for next week.
So overall, I still have issues with getting up in the morning (every day I curse whomever it was that decided to start school at 8am.), and with not getting upset when the kids are rude to me.
Hopefully, I can make it through the next 10 weeks alive and without giving up. Any suggestions for any of the issues I've been having?
Hope ya'll have a great weekend!
