I lost the Plans!

It was like a circus!

So it finally happened.  I lost the days plans, never to be found again!  I think one of the Kindergartners took them home.  I know that one boy was very anxious about my writing a note to his teacher on the plans.  Maybe he swiped them.  I don't know.   I looked EVERYWHERE during my lunch.  I had a morning Kindergarten class that went pretty well, and in the afternoon I had 4 groups of students coming in and out of the classroom.  I was supposed to be teaching them all different things, pick them up from their classrooms, and return them to different classrooms or specials!!! I looked high and low, I asked for help from the partner teacher, I asked for her afternoon schedule from the office, and I tried to call her from the number the office gave me.  No Love!  I was completely on my own.  I waited until the first time, that I could remember and I hoped that the teacher would know that there was a sub.  She didn't, her kids were left alone in her classroom.  One of them finally came down looking for their teacher and then went back to get all of the rest.  They knew who was coming next, so I took them to where they were supposed to go, but no one was there!  I could go on like this.  Point being, sometimes you have to roll with it and HOPE everything turns out okay.  It did, as far as I know.  Hopefully there isn't still some kid waiting in an intervention room hoping for a teacher to show up!

     So maybe now I will copy the plans first thing and stash a copy, especially if they are complicated, like these!

Sicky, Sicky, Sick, Sick!

I have been sick since early January.  Some days I just don't feel like getting out of bed and end up shutting off my phone.  Most days that I have worked over the last month and a half, I feel like I may have been sicker than the teacher that called out!

I've had the flu, chest cold, head cold, a really bad cough, sore throat, ear aches, and MORE!  It just doesn't stop!!!   It feels like I may just be sick for the rest of my life!

One day I had a job and when I woke up I just knew there was no way I would be able to teach Junior High Science while feeling like that.  I tried to cancel my job at 5am, but the system would not let me cancel the job.  I had to call and call until I could get a hold of someone in Human resources or at the school.  I wasn't able to get a hold of anyone until about 15 minutes before I was supposed to be there.  The HR gal explained that it is cutting it too close if they let people cancel their jobs day of, so they don't.  I explained that they would be able to have someone there on time with no problem, if I would have been able to cancel the job at 5am, it would have gotten snapped up by someone else.  So many teachers have been laid off here that it only takes seconds for sub jobs to get taken in the system.  Every district is completely saturated with subs.  Actually this year has been a bit better for subbing, for me, but that is mostly because I have teachers who request me now.  That has made up almost half of the jobs I have gotten this year!



I need help from the Care Bears!  Maybe they will make me better?

 

Do you lose your sub plans?

I am always walking around with my sub plans.  If I need a room number, specific instruction, or time, I just never remember it!  The problem is, I leave it anywhere around the room!  So I started highlighting all around the edges of the page.  Now, if when I leave it somewhere, I can see it among the other masses of papers.  Plus, I can ask the kids if they have seen a paper with highlighter all over it.  I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now and it's working out pretty good!  The other day I heard, "Ms. D, you left your pretty papers over here again!"  

 

Student Stealing

Thursday I was in a classroom I have been in once before.  I also have known some of the kids for a long time. Last time it was kind of a tough day. This time I felt quite comfortable with this class and we had a really good day. 

 

As I have mentioned before, I sometimes give a little prize at the end of the day.  Yeah, I am one of those subs.  This can be a tough job and if it costs me $3 to have a good day, I'm totally okay with that. 

 

I keep an assortment of CHEAP prizes in my sub bag, which I will lay out at the end of the day for students to choose.  Typically I will have them come up two or three at a time after they get their backpacks and are ready to go.  On this particular day a student asked me for help and, as I felt comfortable with the students, I walked away to help.

 

While cleaning up, after bus duty, I realized that there were WAY more than 22 prizes gone.  Usually I don't put too many out, but I just pulled everything out this time, for some reason.  So there were more than 60 items gone. 

 

I feel like it is my fault because I should have stayed there, or stopped the line while helping someone else.  I also should not have put out so many things.  But, I still shouldn't expect theft from elementary students. 

 

I can't decide if I should talk to the teacher about it or talk to them about it at the end of this week when I am scheduled to come to the same class again.  Or just chalk it up as a lesson for myself.  I am leaning toward the last one, but I also don't think kids should get away with stealing.  What to do, what to do?

Cover the classroom Expectations! Great idea!

One of my fav blogs, Clutter Free Classroom, has blogged about her emergency sub plans.  One of the things she asks any sub to do is to review her classroom expectations chart.

 That's a great idea.  Most elementary classrooms have some kind of chart on the wall.  At the beginning of the day you could have students read each of the expectations and review line rules, free time rules, movies rules, etc.  As those things come about during the day.

 

Emergency Sub Plans - Incredible Gummi Worm Science Experiment

I have created a fun and tasty science experiment for students. I think this would be a great emergency kit to have in your car, just incase the sub plans are a little light or there aren't any at all!  All you need is a bag of gummi worms, a pack of cups and this sheet.  You can get both the worms amd the cups at a Dollar Store.  So for only $2-$3 you can have a good back up that will keep the kids interested for a good amount of time at the beginning and the end of the day.


The Incredible Gummi Worm

I have a few other fun things at  TeachersPayTeachers.com.

FREE Valentine's Clipart Border Set TPT

Teachers Pay Teachers Valentine's Day Clipart Border Set FREEBIE

I have been having fun creating some stuff on Inkscape and I thought I would share a freebie with you.