Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Subbing, my second day back in Aly's classroom

My morning definitely started off rough. I woke shortly after 5:30 a.m. and managed to get everyone dressed, fed, lunches packed, and out the door shortly after 7:30. I even made it just on time to KK's preschool. Only problem was it was locked and no one was there! I was in shock! It was just minutes before 8:00 and their business hours are 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. I had multiple conversations with the director that our days were flexible and anytime I was subbing I could bring KK at 8 a.m. What was I to do?

Given that Aly's school was a 25 minute drive from the preschool I had to do something fast. I was scheduled to start subbing at 8:30. So I called my friend Kristi whose son Nick also attends the same preschool. I knew he would be going today at 9:00 a.m. so I asked her if she wouldn't mind watching KK until 9:00 a.m. when the preschool program started. She was a life saver and said she would. Thank goodness to have such a great friend like Kristi!

Kristi only lives a block from the school so I jetted over and dropped KK off. I made it just on time for my sub job. Now that I had already subbed in this class once I knew what I was up against. I had also volunteered yesterday and watched how the teacher ran the class and how she disciplined the students. So I was ready to go. I felt more confident and brought the things I knew the students would love, art and music!

I told the class I would be doing three special things with them today; Popcorn art project, pig puppet, and singing. I told them they had to be good listeners and follow the rules or I would take away one of the fun things I would be doing today. Guess what? It worked like a charm! Even my difficult student that screamed that she hated me last time behaved much better. She wasn't perfect but she was definitely tolerable. Do you know she never told me she hated me today? I feel like going through a day with her and not hearing that is a successful day!

So the day went much better than last time and I felt much more relaxed. I called KK's preschool on my lunch break and talked to the director about no one being there at 8. Apparently she is always there at that time but today was a difficult day with her daughter and she was late. She gave me her home phone number and told me to call her when I have subbing days and she will make sure she is there on time. O.k. so that shouldn't ever happen again!

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