Teacher Lady

Well the goal was to post once a week but obviously that already didn't happen. So in an attempt to make up for lost time I'll post multiple times in one day! :)

I've finally gotten started with Substitute Teaching and already have a few pretty good stories, middle school students never fail to bring hilarity and some "uh-oh" inducing moments into a classroom. I've only subbed one day so far but I am subbing tomorrow as well so maybe I'll have more stories!

First off, the school I am subbing in is the very small private Christian school that graduated from in 2008 and my sister also graduated from in 2013. That same building also houses the church I have attended since birth. So basically my entire life revolved around that one building for 18 years of my life. Going back to it as a teacher was strange, to say the least. It was exciting to see some of my old teachers that are still there and I actually already know a good portion of the kids from church and the school.

It was definitely an adventurous first day of subbing to say the least. The teacher I was subbing for was going on a field trip for the High School band so I was only taking over a few of classes in the middle of the day and I actually got instructions straight from him which was really helpful, I had a couple nightmare days last April involving missing plans and no plans and wound up 6th graders. Another post for another day. I was prepared to encounter an attempt to switch names between students as this group is famous for so I was surprised when my first class of the day seemed to be going pretty smoothly. It was a 9th grade History class and I knew a few of the girls which might have helped curb the name changing. But about 10 minutes into the class a secretary announced over the loud speaker for a student to come down to the office. My class erupted into giggles and smirks and I assumed that student had done something amusing but wrong earlier and was now getting into trouble for it. Until about 5 minutes later when one of my students got up and walked out the door with all of his stuff and one of the girls announced to me that he was the one that had been called to the office and was not supposed to be in our class. He had been impersonating an absent student. So 20 minutes into my first day I was initiated in by a prank. At least that part is over now.

The next hour was an 8th grade History class and they were taking a test so it was a pretty easy hour except when the students noticed that at the top of their test, the copier had messed up the word "Class" where they were supposed to write their hour, and had left out the first two letters leaving the word "a$$" right at the top of their test. I only had one smart-aleck student that filled in the blank with "wipe" so his test said "a$$wipe" right at the top.

My last hour of students started off with my whole class in the wrong classroom so I was alone in the correct classroom while there were about 20 sixth graders unattended in a band room. After a 10 minute delay, a run to the office and an announcement for them to go to the right room, I had lost any ounce of control and authority I might have had over them.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day as I teach middle school math! 

The life of a substitute is never easy or boring, that is for sure.

To Ski or Not to Ski

Winter sports.  Not really my thing.

However, partially inspired by the Winter Olympics I decided it was time to try skiing a few weeks ago. It looks pretty easy, except that it's not. A couple of friends and I headed out to Mt. Brighton in every borrowed piece of ski gear we could find and the best part of the day was that we were actually not cold, so yay for layers!
All three of us had never been skiing before so went straight to the conveyor belt bunny hill to test out our skills. We had watched YouTube "How to Ski" videos the night before in an attempt to look less inexperienced on the slopes. That didn't really work out. We all fell just trying to get on the conveyor belt to get to the top of the hill (or small mound as it should be called). Between the conveyor belt and the tow rope on the larger bunny hill we definitely had our share of falls. I fell while attempting to ski/walk across the flat ground and was stuck there for 5 minutes until I realized I could take my skis off so I could stand up. I'm sure the employees and veteran skiers got a few good laughs at our expense all day. The ski school full of small children were easily showing us up and after a few hours of different bunny hills and multiple falls and crashes, we took our lunch break and then basically decided we were done for the day. For a first time ski trip it was pretty successful, I eventually figured out how to stay upright and mastered the art of the "pizza".

That is me, caught in a rare moment of not being on the ground.

This is our biggest hill attempt, it actually is pretty steep, the picture doesn't quite do it justice.

 Lunch break! We were pretty much done by then. Once you take the ski boots off you really don't want to put them back on.

My favorite part of the day was watching a collegiate snowboard competition while sitting by a bonfire and watching little snowflakes like this one land on me. So little and intricate!

Our end of the day reward; Applebee's appetizers and dessert. I will never pass up cheesecake of any kind.
Skiing is definitely not one of my favorite activities but it was fun to try and hangout with new friends, maybe I'll go again and actually take a lesson.