Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Teaching again

After spending 18 years in a filing cabinet, my teaching license is officially active again.  I was able to register with the local subfinder system, and last Friday and yesterday I taught school for the first time since baby Abram was born.

I have had an easy re-introduction to teaching.  My first gig was an elementary school English Language Learner classroom where I taught groups of 8 kids (Hispanic and Russian) a basic grammar lesson.  For sure this would be a dreamy job.  Small group of kids, no homework to grade, teaching English grammar (which I tend to do anyway even when not teaching school)?  Wow!  It was very fun, and the kids were delightful.

Yesterday was also pretty easy.  At first it was a let-down, because when I clicked on the job it said "General Science grades 6-8."  I jumped for joy.  That is exactly what I love--science!  I was so excited.   I noticed that it was at an alternative school, but I figured that just meant it would be a smaller group, and maybe kind of watered-down science.  But science is science and I couldn't wait.

When I arrived at the school I learned that the teacher I was subbing for was not a science teacher.  She was a case manager and spent 3 of her 7 periods each day doing paperwork, testing, and working to keep kids motivated to stay in school.  So I ended up spending 2 periods baby-sitting a computer lab class, helping 4 kids finish essays, and then teaching one girl a math lesson.

There are still 7 days of school.  We'll see what kind of experiences I get before the year is over.  Maybe an actual classroom of kids?  Maybe?

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