To Hideout or Not to Hideout

Today is Monday. As a sub, I get those lovely 5am calls. I was pondering shutting the alarm and my ringer off and promptly pulling the covers back over my head. Just then the phone rang. It was timely. I accepted a job to teach 3rd grade. I instantly got up and decided to be the morning person I am. I think the coffee with hazelnut creamer may have helped minutely. I typically like to know where I am going and what I am doing before I go to sleep and most often that is the case. I have had days that I got up, started getting ready and never received a call. I will admit I have had days I have pulled the covers over my head and gone back to sleep but today was not one of them.

I am glad I got up and taught 3rd grade. The morning was wondrous. The students came in and got to work right away. Math went really well. (I will have to write about overcoming my teaching math phobia.) Language Arts went fabulous. They were working on rough drafts. I unfortunately did not get the chance to read any, but I did get to help one student get started. Sometimes getting started can be the most difficult part. Then I got to read part of Squids Will Be Squids by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. The most amazing part of the day was handwriting. They were all extremely focused and very methodically writing. I should have taken a picture. Then came social studies and it just wasn't the same. (Now, you may think that perhaps they were sitting too long. I will tell you that they had P.E. in between handwriting and social studies.)

Of course, I was bummed because I love social studies. I wasn't doing things exactly the same as usual. We had six pages in the textbook to cover and a worksheet to complete. The topic was immigration, schooling, the Great Migration, sports and assimilating. Assimilating wasn't the term used but that was one of the subjects. I did my best to have lively discussion and not just read from the book. I even had them get up and move around a little. It is a little more difficult because it wasn't my classroom and the options are not the same. I could have jigsawed it or found some pictures to look at.

All in all.......I am glad I went. It seems like subbing gets a little easier each time I do it.