First Day of School - For Me, that is, As a Substitute, that is...

I got called this morning, around 7am, and was able to get everyone off to school so that I could go to our local high school. I was late (but they knew I'd be late), so I didn't have time to get used to the school or where everything was. They have like, 1800 students. I think that's a big school.

I was the "Special Education" teacher's aide, for today. Geometry class was wonderful. The teacher told me what he expected of me. I walked around and helped the kids do some problems. They didn't know what they were doing, but they were teachable and tried hard to get their problems done.Algebra was a different story. The teacher told me all I needed to do was sit "back there." There were only 9 kids in the class, but half of them were cursing like crazy. I stood between 2 students so that they'd stop talking about their weekend and listen to the teacher. Another student kept popping the end off his mechanical pencil. Finally, at one point, I took it and told him he could have it back at the end of class. He said it was the only way for him to write, so regrettably I had to give it back to him. Next time, I'll be prepared. I'll have a bunch of regular pencils sharpened, in my purse!! I told one of the kids to stop cursing, but what was my next course of action when he did it again? Was I allowed to send him to the principal's office? A friend of mine seems to think I could do that. I'm going to find out before I take my next assignment.

The next 2 classes were very well-managed. The teacher really cared about these special needs students. She was also very strict with them. One of the students has seizures, so I was in shock when he had his first seizure. Everyone stops, the 2 nurses that stay with him all the time, grabbed him and helped him not hurt himself. I was supposed to walk him to his next class, but I knew he'd already had 2 seizures and I was very afraid to go with him, alone!! Anyway, they decided to keep him in this class and brought his work to this class. I sat with him and helped him work thru it as the teacher continued on with the rest of the class.

Oh, I did have to laugh at one point. The kids ate lunch in one area. The teachers ate in the same cafeteria but just divided off a bit. I was sticking with the one teacher, bc I wasn't sure what was expected of me. So, when she got up, I kind of followed her, trying not too closely, bc I could tell she was just ditching her lunch. Her kids (special ed) saw her get up, so they followed her. She ditched her lunch, they continued to follow her. She walked around a doorway just to get rid of a tray, and they followed her there. They looked like ducks following after their mom, LOL!! It was so funny, I guess, bc I was already so self-conscious about following her too closely *snicker*!!

Anyway, we needed a little extra income to come in, lately, and I'm very excited that I finally did something to bring it in!! Plus, I was home before my kids were.

This past Sunday, we had 94. The previous week we had our all-time high - 109!