This week in teaching

Pretty straightforward week for me, but with a couple of twists. Thanks to the WASL (that's the big state-mandated test) starting up this week, I didn't get as much secondary work as usual. And just by chance, I also ended up teaching most of the time in the slightly-further-away back-up district, instead of my nearby main district. I started the week off there, however, with an elementary PE job. As they were between units, the regular teacher encouraged me to do something with scooterboards. Kids like scotterboards! So after the safety talk (and sure enough, despite everything I said, one kid ran over her own fingers iin the last class), we played scooterboard soccer. Lots of fun, lots of rolling around, and only one major accident (a misplaced arm resulting in a cut lip, with some blood, but everything turned out fine). Tuesday it was off to fill in for one of my tutoring colleagues again, and I lucked out there. He teaches junior high Language Arts/Social Studies, and the English classes were all about the counselors coming in to get them set to register for next year, mostly going over the courses and catalog and stuff. I helped out, but didn't have any actual teaching, so all I had to worry about were the two social studies classes. One was honors and all I had to do was give them the assignment and turn them loose, and the other was…well, not quite so easy. Oh, well, it was only one period. Wednesday was elementary music, and I realy lucked out there! Wednesdays are short days anyway in this district, and this was her light day, so I only had four classes. In all of them, I got to show the Disney version of Peter and the Wolf, which worked out very well. (There was one kindergarten student who kept telling me about how he'd already seen Peter Pan, even though I explained to him a few times that that was a different movie. I think he got it once it started, however.) Thursday and Friday was high school math, and thanks to the WASL, it was anything but business as usual. Thursday started with the WASL (I got to proctor, which basically meant that I sat around and read my magazine while the students took the test and the other teacher kept an eye on things, not that he didn't do some of his own work on the computer as well), then two long block classes, and a long planning period. I made up for it on Friday, however, which meant long block classes all three periods, an extended advisory, and a pep assembly, all without a break beyond lunch. Whew!

It's quite so far for the coming week. In fact, except for a high school math teacher I've already worked for on Thursday and Friday, I have nothing else lined up for the rest of the school year, which is unusual. But I know something will turn up. It always does. And if it doesn't, I have plenty to do to apply for jobs for the fall.

A shout out to all those school secretaries out there! I haven't seen this much with high school secretaries, since they see so many teachers in a day, week, or year, but there have been a lot of junior high and elementary secretaries out there who have recognized me and greeted me by name, many after not having seen me for months or even years. I've always said that the two most important people to make friends with at a school are the secretary and the custodian, as they are the nerve center of a school that can really make things work for you.