For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a teacher. There were times when I considered other careers, like sports medicine doctor, astronaut, or marriage and family therapist, but I always ended back at teacher. Plain and simple—I love kids.
I recently took a long-term sub position in a first grade class and boy have I been in for the ride of a life-time! Being a “sub” is hard work because the kids don’t think of me as their teacher. They act and treat me differently than they would/do if their real teacher were there. It’s a struggle to get them so listen and to follow my rules. The last two weeks have been better, but the five weeks before that I would go home and cry at least twice a week because I was just so stressed out and frustrated! I was seriously considering finding another career path because I did not think teaching was for me. I still struggle and there are days/moments when I hate my job, but then there are the little darlings that make me smile and bring me back to reality… the ones who remind me just why I actually love my job:
While doing a lesson on the weather, we read a passage, and then students were to answer questions. One was, “what are clouds made of?” there were two blank lines for students to fill in, “water”, and “ice”. One girl gets out of her seat and comes to the front of the class and whispers to me, “But Ms. Miller, aren’t clouds made of that other stuff, too? You know, the white puffy things. Marshmellows!” So precious! I just smiled and said, “No sweetie. Clouds are not made of marshmellows, they just look like it because they’re so white and fluffy.” That truly made my heart smile.
Then there’s another sweetheart who loves dogs. She writes about her new puppy whenever the opportunity allows her. On Friday, the class had to take a theme skills test and the last section required them to read a passage and make inferences. The last question said, “How do you think the author feels about cats and dogs?” There were three multiple choice responses. I don’t remember the first response, but the second and third said, “She thinks that dogs make great pets and cats do, too.”, and “She thinks that puppies are cute and make the best pets.” The answer to the question was the second one. This little girl filled in the correct bubble for B, but next to answer C wrote this: “I like this one best, but I know it’s the wrong answer.” I laughed out loud when I read it! What a doll!
And then there’s the kid who glued himself to his chair… or tried to, anyway. This boy is an undiagnosed case of ADHD to the extreme! Over the course of the 5 hour class period, he only spends about ten minutes of the day in his chair. I wish I were exaggerating, but I can’t make this up! It frustrates me beyond belief, and I seriously get irritated that his family is not cooperating with the school to fix the situation. I’m not one to run to pills as the answer to child behavior problems, but in this case, clearly medication will settle him down. On a daily basis I try to calmly talk to him and say, “pretend there is a rope tied around your legs and you can’t get up.” or “pretend you have glue on your bottom and you’re stuck to your chair.” I figured the image of this would be fun for him-almost a game of sorts. Well, little did I know that this would come to bite me in the ass. After lunch one day, he apparently decided to take my “game” literally and spread an entire glue stick on his chair and proceed to sit on it. I didn’t notice his little fiasco until he got out of his chair to clean it up with Kleenex, which in turn stuck to his butt like little white tail-feathers. At the moment of the disaster, I was fuming! The whole class watched as I practically turned into the Incredible Hulk. He cleaned his chair while I wrote him a referral to the office and got his things gathered for him to take with. After school; however, and now every time I re-tell the story, I laugh! I mean, it is pretty funny to think that in a kid’s mind a glue stick might actually get the job done!
…if only he had used super glue…
So there you have it. A day in the life of a teacher (err…long-term sub). The things these kids do that make me smile and want to pull my own hair out, all at the same time.
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