Moving On (Subbing – 1)
“Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.”
-Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends.
I have been delaying the second part of my tale about working at the chaotic Green Flea Middle School with the most evil children children and the most worthless administration for a while now. Part of the reason is that I don’t like dwelling on the negative aspects of teaching. I came into this profession wanting to give myself to something that is bigger than me; two days as a substitute at that particular school and I had some serious doubts if teaching was for me. Which sucks considering this would be something like a a year and a half into my career overall. However, I took a few more subbing assignments before giving up completely and I’ve come to the conclusion that it really is that school. That school is the exception not the standard or any standard at all.
In the past week, I have been a 1st grade teacher and worked as a Special Ed ELA and Science teacher in Manhattan and the Bronx. All the jobs were enriching and started rebuilding my faith in teaching. These were not easy by any means (the cold weather and the hour plus journey to the schools highlight this to me.) Yet, I didn’t feel like drinking myself into a stupor after I was done.
Of the 3 jobs I worked this week, I want to talk about the 2 that I worked in the Bronx. The first was at an elementary school where I served as a 1st grade teacher. I begrudgingly accepted the job because as I’ve said before, a dude is getting very close to broke. I was quite, quite, quite apprehensive to accept the job, for fear that I may have broken one of the children. But ambition and hunger trumped my fears.
First graders are very much like their South Park counterparts. Their voices are quite funny, and two of them quite literally lost their teeth. Their normal teacher has them trained very well, perhaps it’s even a credit to their parents but they were quite polite with the please and thank you’s. There was only one minor incident with a small girl who decided to throw a temper tantrum; she also threw it in front of the Principal who literally had to drag her out the room by her arm.
The day began with me attempting to find a rhythm/pacing for the kids. 10% of that was about weeding out the trouble makers. 30% of that was figuring out who my cornerstone kids would be. The remaining 60% was about setting things up in a manner that let the children really that I’m not just the “sub.” Which sounds great until you realize that tying their own shoes is still an adventure for most of the kids.
It was in the middle of the ELA story time (which meant I would have to get them to read/recite lines out of ridiculously over sized book.) For writing, they had to make a “Map of the Heart” which is a simple exercise. Draw and heart, and list your favorite things and people in it. Afterwards, students were to construct simple sentences based on what was inside the heart. Things such as, “I love my Mommy”, “I like to play my Nintendo DS”, or “I like playing hide and go seek.” I even gave them some hints by putting some directly as I put them if they wanted to use them.
I’m not going to waste any time bitching about the day because all in all it was a really good day. I definitely would return to that school if they asked me back. As a friend said, “1st grade is the age before they know the words to get smart mouth.” It’s also the age when you want to make your teachers and parents proud or laugh. I would look into early education after my day with them. (Wait, that is kind of hasty, isn’t it?)
[Chester Kent]
