Spent the day with two half day kinder classes today. The morning went really well. The class was wonderful. Kids were ready to follow directions and listen. Yes, they behaved like kids that young are expected to. But they also followed directions. They didn't run in the hallways. They were quiet when asked to be quiet. They raised their hands. They helped each other, said they were sorry when they needed to, and made my morning fly by.
And then the pm class arrived. Oddly the kid who was stuck to his mom's side when I came to the front of the school to pick them up turned out to be the best kid in the class. Followed directions, the whole bit. Think he must've been meant for the am class. The pm class could not all be quiet at the same time to save their lives. Thye were unable to follow directions - no doubt because they were talking - or to treat anyone with respect. I'm talking basic respect here, after all I know it's kindergardners. One kid had a comment about everything I said. 'yeah, yeah, yeah, we know.' And he ran in the halls, jumped onto and off of a chair, annoyed the kids around him in line, and stole a kid's paper and replaced it with his own that had been written on. Yeah, that's just one kid. And every time I spoke with him about his "choices" (that's what we call them, you know, choices. But that's another blog post.), he said he knew that he wouldn't treat his regular teacher like that. Thanks, kid.
What would have been nice is if the teacher had bothered to warn me that she had the devil incarnate in her afternoon classroom. But no, no such warnings were issued. It would have been nice if the kids knew how to treat "guest teachers" (another silly euphemism). It would have been nice if this kid's parents had bothered to parent him. Or if he'd stayed home from school today.
What a day. Glad to work, don't get me wrong. But it amazed me (really, it did) how two classes in the same day could behave SO differently. Yet another lesson learned as a substitute teacher. When I got home, I had an e-mail request to work for a 4/5 grade class. Yes, please.
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