A History/P.E. Teacher

I subbed today for a Social Studies/Gym teacher.

Most of my gym classes today played soccer.  I guess this was injury day.  One girl pulled a muscle in her leg.  One girl twisted her ankle.  Two boys tried to catch the ball with their face.  Luckily there was no blood or broken limbs.

The seventh grade history class had an awesome assignment.  They were given a fictional report on a 4000 year old archaeological dig site.  They had to draw pictures of all the items described in the report, and suggest how the items may have been used.  Once they finished, I gave them a picture of the dig site.  It turned out that the scene they read about was a modern motel bathroom, where someone had died in the bathtub.
I thought the assignment was fun.

The final image.

A Pretend Gym Teacher

Last week I had two separate assignments as history teachers.  During both of those assignments I was asked to sub for a gym teacher on what would have been a prep period.

The first day I was in a very large class being co-taught with another gym teacher.  She was there that day, so I just needed to supervise.  The class was having a badminton tournament.  About 15 minutes in the other teacher asked me if I wanted to be her partner against a pair of students with no one else to play.  I agreed, and quickly discovered two things.  1) I am HORRIBLE at badminton (though the teacher and the students were cool about it.... going so far as to let me re-serve shots when I missed the shuttlecock entirely) .  2) Badminton is a surprisingly athletic game, and wearing a button-down shirt and tie while playing is a very bad idea.
On a side note, the other teacher and I DID end up winning a very close game.  I'm pretty sure if I hadn't been given an unofficial handicap we would have lost.  Also, she nailed a kid directly in the eye with a shuttlecock, then laughed at him once she realized he hadn't lost any vision.

The second day was a much smaller gym class, and the students were playing Pickle Ball, and I also joined in on a game the last 10 minutes of class.  Despite all appearances it was much more difficult than badminton.  It was good that the group I was playing with weren't really keeping score.  In fact they were not all that interested in the competitive aspect of the game period.

A Senior English Teacher (Day 2) and a Gym Teacher

I was the same English teacher as I was on Monday.  This would have been day three, except there was a snow day yesterday.  I don't think I will be subbing for her again tomorrow.  I am in the same building, though, covering meetings.  I'm pretty sure that if that teacher is gone again, my assignment will be changed.

I covered for a gym teacher the last hour of the day.  He had the kids playing an interesting variant of dodgeball. They call the game, "Medic Ball."  It plays out just like dodgeball, except if you get hit, you have to sit down.  One player is designated as the "medic," and gets to carry around a little scooter that can be used as a shield.  The medic can't pick up or use balls, but his job is to run the scooter to anyone sitting down, and pull them back to the team's wall, at which point the person is back in the game.  You can win by either getting an entire team to sit down, OR by hitting the medic.

A Gym/Weight Lifting Teacher

Today was a perfect example of the flaws in the sub-placement system I work with, some of which I mentioned yesterday.
I got the call for today's job at 4am this morning.  The (automated) system says the teacher's name, but it wasn't one that I recognized, even though I'm in that school quite often.  When I wake up again a couple hours later, I get online to check out the job.  It's at this point that I read the teacher's note, "this position requires a person well versed in Lifting and Training and capable of managing 38 semi-independent teenagers."
The second part is easy enough, but I don't know anything about "Lifting and Training."  (On a side note, I love that he capitalized those two words.)  I suppose this is partly my fault, for not getting up at 4am to check the job boards.  If I had, I would have seen that the same school had two other openings today, both of which ended up not being filled.  I would have much rather been the band teacher, for whom I had to cover for an hour.

A Gym/Special Ed Teacher (Days 3 & 4)

I've had a mini long-term subbing job this past week.

The past two days my 7th grade gym class has played a variation of capture the flag.  I wouldn't have made them play it today, except they BEGGED that we play it again.  Part of the game's mechanics involved large (3'x5') padded mats on the floor, which served as "safe zones."  Because they were padded, kids liked to dive onto them head first.  This resulted in a LOT of head-to-head collisions.  Luckily there were no serious injuries.

Most of the classes I had were high school resource rooms.  Today was the last day before winter break, and no one was giving home work.  The kids pretty much just played games on the computer while I read.

I spent the day telling countering "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Winter Solstice."
The kids were confused.

A Gym/Special Ed Teacher (Day 2)

We played kick ball in 7th grade gym class today.  It wasn't even "regular," boring kick ball, it was 5-base kick ball.  We also used a GIANT rubber ball.  It was all those kids could do to get it airborne.  Two of the girls were really tiny, and I had to suppress a laugh whenever they ran at the ball and caught it, nearly knocking them over in the process.

The following conversation took place in one of the special ed classes (actually, it is more of a resource room, a quiet, calmer place for some kids to come work on stuff for other classes).

Student:  What's 30/40?
Mr. C: Oh, come on.  You can do that one in your head.  It's three-fourths, or .75
Student:  Sure, you can do it.  You know there's a reason we're in this room...
Mr. C: ..... *shakes head*
(Time passes)
Student: Oh! 30 starts with a 3 and 40 starts with a 4!  That IS easy!
Mr. C: Yup.

A Gym/Special Ed Teacher

Seventh graders are weird.  I played dodge ball with a class today, and after a girl got out, rather than run off to the side, she decided to spin in helicopter circles across the gym.

One boy told me that he has a metal plate in his head, and that it hurts when he sticks magnets to it.  I told him to stop sticking magnets to his head.  He agreed that it would be a good idea.
He then went on to tell me that the reason the plate is there, is because he got his head caught in one of those bouncy playground toys that sit atop a giant spring.  Later a teacher told me that this isn't true, and that the kid likes to make up stories.

A History/Home Economics/Aerobics Teacher

I subbed today for a teacher with a very complicated title.

I love when lesson plans just say, "the students are working on a project, they know what they should be doing."
Sometimes I'll get lucky and one or two students in a class will know what the teacher is talking about.

An Elementary Gym Teacher

I subbed for an elementary gym teacher today.

My first graders today were given a "free play day."  What this means is that I pulled a bunch of stuff out of the equipment room, and let them go crazy.  It didn't take too long before I got bored, so I picked up a rubber kickball, and started bouncing it around as I walked.  At some point, a kid accidentally threw a ball at me.  I saw it coming, and made a big show out of bouncing it back to him off the ball in my hand.  He was amazed by this, so I let him do it again.  This was a mistake, it took only a couple seconds before half the class was playing, "let's throw things at Mr. C."  

Quote of the day -
2nd Grader:  "You smell like my dad!"

A Middle School Gym Teacher.

I subbed for a middle school gym teacher today.

I pretty much just played crazy kickball with the kids all day.

Had a kid trip over a thrown ball and slam his head into the floor.  After a few seconds of the whole gym holding their breath, he still wasn't moving.
I'm really glad there was a parapro in the room, so she could run and call the office while I sat and tried to talk to the kid.
I hope the kid is okay.  When he was finally able to stand, and walk out of the room, he was complaining of not being able to fully see out of one eye...

An Elementary Gym Teacher.

I subbed today for an elementary gym teacher.

It was only a half day, but it was a lot of fun.

I had four classes, each played a variation of freeze-tag and a variation of dodgeball.  The last couple classes I decided to join in on the dodgeball... THAT was a lot of fun, especially since, instead of getting "out" I would just switch teams.

Also, as of about 10 minutes ago, I am officially going to be teaching summer school at a local high school.  It's only four hours a day, four days a week, for six weeks... but I'm still looking forward to it.

A Band/PE Teacher

I subbed for band/PE teacher today.  Am I the only one who thinks that is an odd combination?

The directions for my first two classes (high school band and choir) just said, "Free/study day.  They can work on other homework or talk amongst themselves.  They can also play on the Wii."  That's right, this guy had a Wii in his classroom. Sadly, though, he only had WiiSports and WiiMusic.  I tried out the latter on my prep.... and it was REALLY boring.

We also had "free play" during gym class.  I got to toss around a frisbee with a few middle schoolers.  Good times.

A High School Health/PE Teacher

I subbed today for a high school health/PE teacher.

We played soccer in gym class and watched a very graphic video about teen drinking in the health class.

Highlights from gym class include,

• A student kicking the ball into the lights on the ceiling and shattering one.  The game was delayed because of broken glass.
• Mr. C. getting a ball head-butted directly into his eye.
• A scene directly out of some uplifting movie, where the girl with Down's syndrome emerged from the melee, dribbling the ball across the floor as total silence fell across the gym.  No one approached her as she carefully made her way across the playing field, before dramatically kicking the ball towards the goal....... missing wildly.