Substitute: Day 1

Today, after my morning class, I went to a nearby elementary school to substitute for a sick teacher. I had subbed there before, and was honored to be asked to return. A second grade class of 18 students awaited my arrival, and after a brief introduction and a scrambled together planning session with another teacher, we lined up and headed for lunch.

When we returned from lunch, we immediately set to work reading this week's story and discussing it. Although it was from a basal reader, it was a fun story about a boy kidnapped by cowboys and becoming one. We discussed words like imagination, stampede, and matador. We talked about "slang" and how cowboys might not speak formally. In the course of our interactions, I complimented a student on her handwriting while she wrote on the white board. I told the class that she was being quite meticulous. From looking at what the student was doing, the students figured out the meaning of the word! Voila - vocabulary lesson. Later, I asked them to fold a piece of paper vertically and saw opportunity for another quick vocabulary mini-lesson - vertical and horizontal. After an hour or so of hard hitting language arts, I offered them the opportunity to put their heads down and rest or come to the story area and listen to me read a story. I got about half the class to the story until they saw it was a "Junie B. Jones" book, then 3 or 4 others joined us. We read 3 chapters! They loved it, and it was the perfect activity for an unplanned day.

After story time, we had free art time, then cleanup and ready for the end of the day!

I was asked back to substitute tomorrow, and I'm very excited about the opportunity to work with these students again, and building my reliability and relationship with the administration at the school. I'd love to be a regular at their school, because the atmosphere is great and the teachers are helpful. Now, I'm going to put together a plan for tomorrow's activities.