I'd hate to disappoint you!

Sooo...yesterday I subbed for a Learning Support teacher. Oh what fun that was. Let me tell you. I have a great appreciation for people in special education. Those teachers have so much patience and can tollerate so much. I spent most of the day correcting word mispronunciations, doing basic math problems, and taking social studies notes so that the learning support kids had them in their notebooks. Learning support is difficult for me, because some of those kids can do the things that "average" students can do, they just don't try. Maybe it's because they have a ADD or ADHD or because they're a little slower than most of the other kids their age...but if they tried just a little harder and actually cared about something, they could do it and keep up with their peers!

I love working with the Life Skills kids though. They are amazing. While I was doing my second experience during my student teaching, I taught Life Skills music two times a week. It was heartwarming to watch those children actually enjoy making music and singing. Of course, it was all about routine and we did a lot of repetition, but they always understood everything at the end of the day. I can't emphasize how amazing those kids were. I had a lot of apprehension going into my first expreience of teaching the Life Skills class. But after they warmed up to me, I had a lot of fun with them. I miss them.

On the other hand, at Penns Manor, this kids are included in the general music classroom, and are allowed to do whatever they want in the room. If they were put into their own class, they would be better under control and recieve better instruction. The teacher-student ratio would be much smaller, and they would get more one on one time. It's possible to do, I think the school district needs to wake up!

Today, I was supposed to be the shop teacher. What a scary thing that would have been for me. I was sooooo worried going into the school this morning. The teachers are to leave plans for the day, but who knows what that shop teacher would have left for me. I was afraid I would have to monitor kids using power tools and that frightened me because those are machines that I would have no control over and couldn't prevent anything from happening.

I ended up subbing for the high school general music/chorus teacher. I didn't get to do any actual teaching, and it was quite boring. The kids read articles and summarized what they read, had a study hall, or played guitar. It was a waste of my time...though I did read more of my book Eat, Pray, Love . Which, I have to say, is an awesome book. It's very enlightening. If you haven't read it, you should.

Tonight, I worked at the office when I got back from the school. I was so tired, I couldn't stay for long. We just had dinner from Venice Cafe. That's the second time we've eaten there, and it's very good! They have a huge selection of Italian deliciousness. Try it! Of course...we forgot that the Meadows opened today...not that we would've been able to get close to the counter. I'm sure they were packed tonight!