Yesterday, Monday, I took the day off. It is the first "peronsal" day I have ever taken. I mean, I have gone on vacation once, maybe twice, but this is the first time that I took a day just for myself for the 5 years that I have been teaching. I think God is punishing me for it!
I went back to school today energized and ready to go...until I walked in. My substitute did a horrendous job. For the first 90 minutes of class, I tried to get things back in order, fixing the mistakes she made. It was horrible.
I spend 3 1/2 hours on lesson plans for the substitute. I printed everything out, made detailed instructions, and set everything up in an organized manner. She didn't follow a darn thing! She went off on her own, did things here way, and completely forgot to give the students 2 assignments. 2!!! That is most of the morning!
In the afternoon, she lost the lesson plans and made everything up. The assignments were sitting ON THE DESK, and she didn't bother giving them out.
So, that happens and I'm starting off the day horribly, when boy #1 decides to begin his constant blabbing, talking back, and disruption. He begins by telling me that he doesn't care about any consequences from the day before. Then he says he didn't start working on something they did for 20 minutes. After sitting down, and talking the entire time, he says he couldn't remember what they did yesterday, so I take him in the hall and he says they didn't read anything. I ask the class, and they said that they had, so I asked the kid and he said he doesn't remember. Well, I send him to the office to do his stuff, and he gets angry. Turns out that he had participated and done what he was supposed to do after all, so I bring him back in and apologize.
He continues the day not listening to instructions, turning in unfinished work, mouthing off, and disrupting class. I talk to him, I plead with him, I even left the room for a little bit to calm down. Upon returning, he continues the same stuff after consistent warnings, and then gets mad when I "yell" at him and send him to the office. When I show up later he looks at me, turns around, and says, "Don't even talk to me!"
So, he sits there, I finally get him to talk after math class, and he does just fine, like flipping a switch.
So...a day from hell after taking a day off. I got the message...no more days off!
(The rest of the class still hadn't turned in assignments that they have had a week to do. Everyone was missing at least one assignment, and then the wouldn't be quiet when working. The kept talking, and moving, and talking. Then one of them had the nerve to talk back when I told him to sit down. ARGH!)
Guess I must learn patience....lots and lots of patience!
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4 comments:
Sorry you had a sucky sub. At least you are one of those wonderful teachers that actually leaves a lesson plan and work to do.(we lowly subs thank you for that) I have found that one of the worst weeks of school is the week before Christmas. These kids just don't give a hoot.
They have shut down a little bit, and it is tough to keep them going. I'm just tired of the constant talking and missing work. One more day and then two weeks of vacation should be nice!
That was Eldon...not Amy. I always forget that it automatically logs her in! :P
Oh crickey!! So hard to try to take sanity days and have them blow up in your face. Hopefully the vacay did wonders to your outlook and you are back on track. I hear wonderful things about what a great teacher you are.
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