A Business Education Teacher

I subbed in a business/computer class the other day.

Computer classes might just be the single most boring class to sub for, especially when the kids are good.  All day the kids sat silently and typed away.

In fact, this may have been the most interesting part of the day...

Student: "Hey, is this vocab sheet double-sided?"
Mr. C: *picks up his copy and flips it over, showing a blank side* "Nope."
Student: "Oh, I guess I could have done that."

An Elementary and High School Computer Teacher

Unless something changes, I'll be in the same job the next few days.  The job is a bit difficult to classify.  I start my day in the elementary library, teaching a computer class to 5th graders.  After an hour of that, I'm a librarian until about noon, when I head to the high school library to be their librarian for about an hour, before finishing out the day teaching a high school computer class.

The 5th graders were working on some internet typing games today.  What's funny is that they are through the BBC, so not only do all the games feature a British accent, but the kids get to spell words like "colour" and "favourite."  I wonder if they even notice the difference.

In the back room of the elementary library they had a 3" tall, super-detailed statue of Dobby the House Elf from the Harry Potter movies.  I'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow.

In the high school, they were putting on a school talent show at the end of the day.  Most of the "acts" consisted of kids singing badly to modern pop songs.  One boy actually put on a magic act, interwoven with a mild comedy act.  He was, by far my favorite... if only because he had the guts to do something so different.

At the end of the show, while the judges were tallying their scores, all of the kids who performed went on stage to sing Don't Stop Believing, by Journey.  It ended with the entire school belting out the song along with those on stage.

Lastly, can anyone tell me if the American Chiller and Michigan Chiller books by Johnathan Rand are as super-popular elsewhere in the country as they are here?

A Spanish/World History History Teacher.

I got to watch an episode of American Family today, along with the first 40 minutes of In the Time of the Butterflies; both staring Edward James Olmos.  American Family was pretty good, especially after the 3rd time and I realized the a large portion of the episode was a flash back.  Prior to that realization I was really confused why the baby and the 8 year old boy both had the same name and the same mother.

I also covered for an 8th grade computer teacher.  The kids had to do an "internet scavenger hunt."  They were given various websites, and had to answer questions on the sites.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Well, the first thing most of these little angels did was go to Answers.com instead, and just type in the question.  When I told them, "no, that isn't how we're doing this.  Part of this assignment is that you learn how to do your own research online," they acted as if I had just kicked their puppy.  When the whining finally stopped, I caught several kids just typing the questions into Google.  As if I'm not going to know that that is the exact same thing.
I'm going to sound like an old man here, but when I was their age, and I wanted to find out how many rooms were in the White House, I had to look it up in a book!

An 8th Grade Computer Teacher

It hit me today that I spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week with an ever changing hoard of quick to anger, paranoid, hormonal, and slightly crazy human beings.  I come into their lives, usually unannounced, and as hard as I try to prevent it, end up disrupting their comfortable routines; this of course puts them on edge, and more likely to resent me right from the start.
Yet, despite all this, I keep going back for more.  Am I crazy?

A Business and Technology Teacher

I subbed today for a middle/high school business and technology teacher.  What this means is, for the most part, kids learn typing skills how to use the more advanced features of Microsoft Office along with creating things like memos and business-y things.
I love it when kids think they're more tech savvy than me.  They get really angry when I say things like, "when I said 'close out of that game' I didn't mean 'hide it behind your Word document.'" 

I have subbed in 21 different school districts over the past three years.  I counted; the number was much bigger than I expected.  Only the school I was in today allows students to use Facebook.  I understand that some teachers use it for projects, but it is one hell of a distraction and kids get really snotty when you tell them to get off of it.