Friday, December 4, 2009

Substitute teaching and other such fun

The last two days I have been substitute teaching at the high school. Their schedule is called Block Scheduling, so the day is divided into 4 90-minute "blocks". For the 1st and 2nd block, I had a Spanish I class with 13-15 students in each, depending on the day. 3rd block only has one student, an ESL student from China. I worked with her last year too when I subbed at the school, and she is one of my favorites. 4th block is Spanish II. We had a really good couple days, relatively. The first day was a bit more difficult, since the worksheets that the teacher left took very little time and the students had about 30 minutes of free time once they finished. Today was the same, except this time I was prepared! I brought cookies! For the 1st and 2nd block, I split the classes into teams and they competed for the right to choose which flavor of cookie the class would eat (I had to bring pre-packaged cookies since homemade goods are not permitted). For 3rd block I just saved out some cookies and my student munched while we chatted and played a game of hangman--it was actually a really good lesson for her since our hangman "words" were sentences and it helps with both vocabulary and grammar. In the 4th block we also played hangman, except we used Spanish sentences. Even though my background is in Spanish, the teachers don't know who the substitute will be while they are out, so it's impossible for them to leave a regular lesson plan for me. Since I don't know where they are in their textbooks ahead of time, I just have to make things up as I go if their assignments are finished early!
While I was at the school, H3 stayed with Laura, a lady who works as a night custodian at the middle school. She comes into work at 2:30, so she just brings H3 with her and drops her off with H1 until I get over there at 3:00. Yesterday Laura took H3 up to Petersburg for shopping and lunch at Cracker Barrel and today they put up decorations around her house. Laura is very good with her and H3 loves her. Apparently, she doesn't fuss at all while I'm gone! H1 and I like Laura too and I'm very comfortable leaving H3 with her when needed, so that's a blessing when I need to sub at the school for some extra money.
I'm not too sure what the weekend holds yet. Our plans are pretty non-existent, other than grocery shopping. Other than this weekend though, every other weekend in December is packed!
Oh, I'll have to put up some pictures of this later, but tonight, just before bed, H3 was playing near the dog's cage and all of a sudden decided to climb inside! It was so funny and I caught a couple cute pictures of it. Some wonderful moments can be captured on camera, but some of my favorites are just memories in my head, like H3 giggling on our bed while H1 and I tickle her, and that beautiful smile I get first thing in the morning when she wakes up. God has given me such a wonderful family and I treasure these times!

~H2

2 comments:

Carissa Blanchard said...

That was really interesting, thanks for sharing! I'm so glad you have somebody you can trust to leave H3 with! If you lived closer, I'd say come over here this weekend! :o) Enjoy the down time!

Laura said...

Very creative teaching. I'm sure it can be a challenge, but it sounds like you're a "cool" substitute! I'm so glad that you have someone you can trust to leave H3 with. That's such a blessing!! Merry Christmas!!