Back in the Pool

I'm back in the sub pool and got my first assignment last Wednesday. It turned out to be at my "home school", the school I'd spent many, many days working at in the past. I've done everything from half days to full weeks to a long-term 4 month assignment there. Wednesday I subbed for a teacher I've known since my 22 year old son was in her kindergarten class!

It was nice to be back and see so many familiar faces at the school, including seeing kids (those "little darlings") who I hadn't seen in over a year. None of those familiar faces were in my class that I remembered. Some did claim to remember me from kindergarten but I had my doubts until one said, "You're funny", which is my reputation among the connoisseurs of humor, five to eight year olds.

Though I was a little anxious about how the day would go after being away from it for so long, everything went pretty smoothly. A day filled with 20 six and seven year olds requires more energy than I was used to giving. It's certainly a different kind of energy than doing a triathlon. And my voice wasn't in shape either!

Thank goodness Thursday's assignment the next day with a 3rd grade class at another school was easier. There nearly all the darlings were cooperative and even the ones that weren't were not that big of a challenge. The day included nearly an hour spent on disaster drills: first a lock down, then an earthquake, and finally a fire. We returned to the classroom and worked for about a half hour before the recess bell rang. Then, during recess, they reset the fire alarm bell. In doing so the alarm went off and all the kids at recess plus all the upper grades that were in their classrooms got to "practice" another fire drill!

A few years back, when I had an 8 week job in a K/1 combination class, we had a real lock down that lasted almost 2 hours. The police were pursuing some guy who had run into the canyon behind the school. The rumor was he may have been armed but I don't really know. Anyway, this was right after lunch and everyone locked their doors and turned out the lights. The worst thing was that we were not in a traditional kindergarten classroom so there was no bathroom within the room. I had two darlings who just couldn't hold it any more. Fortunately I happened to have brought in a 5 gallon bucket so I gave them a little privacy and they went in the bucket. Thankfully no one had the #2 urge!