I was nervous and excited and not sure what to expect. I got up early the next morning and when I arrived at school they had me sign in and the teacher who is charge of all of the casual teachers gave me my schedule for the day. This sheet of paper has a map of the school on the back side and on the front tells you what class you are teaching, what recess duties you are responsible for, and what other classes you will be teaching during the day. HUH???? I was a little confused when she told me that during my break time I would need to go to a first grade classroom to teach a lesson and then right after go to a different kindergarten class to teach. I was fine with not having a long break but thought it was interesting that I would be teaching other classes in the middle of the day. I showed up to the first grade classroom a few minutes before I was supposed to be there and she gave me a very quick rundown on what I would be teaching for the next hour. Luckily, I am familiar with teaching fractions to first graders so it wasn’t a big deal but I still thought it was bizarre…and where in the world was she going for the next hour anyway? Then I headed back to Kindy to teach a “maths” lesson to those students. Again, a quick reference of what I needed to do and then off she went!
I made it through the day and left my detailed notes for the teacher of how the day went. I felt pretty great about my first day but left still confused about a few things. As a classroom teacher, I always left very detailed lesson plans for my subs. I know I probably left more direction than was ever necessary but I wanted the day to go smoothly for the sub but also for my students. My school even required every teacher to have a detailed “Sub Folder” so that any substitute could come in and have everything they needed in one place. I was wishing I had one of these fancy sub folders to answer many of my questions on their daily process. Here were some funny things that happened this first day:
I had a kindergarten class of 28 little cuties. I got called, “Mrs. Luke” by several of them. J Throughout the day several of them would tell me they liked my voice or how I talked. One student kept telling me my voice sounded American. When I went to the 1st grade classroom I was supposed to do a lesson using the Smart Board. (I’m a big fan of the Smart Board, by the way! All of their classrooms have one and the teachers use them all the time.) I didn’t have time to go through the fraction lesson before the teacher left the room so I didn’t have a chance to see if I had questions for her. Well, the first slide presented a question! The example was sharing a certain number of “pykolets” between a certain number of kids to show sharing and fractions with halves and quarters. The first question on the slide said, “Can anyone tell me what a pykolet is?” Great! I need to know the answer to this, too! ;) When I said the word, pykolet, I pronounced it, pick-o-let. A student answered with, “A baby pig.” I said, “No, that is a piglet.” He said, “I know, that’s what you said!” Um…hmmmm….I had 28 wide eyes staring up at me waiting to hear what I would say next…luckily there was a parent volunteer in the room and she whispered to me that the word was acutally, PIE-KO-LET. Now when I asked the kids they said, “Oh, that’s just a fat pancake!” Me: “Yes, yes, very good!” Nice one, Mrs. Lucas!! Geez!
In the kindergarten class I covered I had to stay with them until Afternoon Tea began. I had them wrapping up what we were working on and told them we had about 5 minutes until Afternoon Tea would begin. (recess and snack time) One of the little girls looked me straight in the eye and said in her most serious face while using her most serious Aussie accent, “No, it’s Ahfta-noon Tea!” I said, “That’s what I said...Afternoon Tea.” Student: “NOOOOO!!! It’s called AHFTA-noon tea!!!!” Me: “I know and that's what I said. Remember I might say things a little different from how you say them.” Another student says, “Yeah, remember, she’s from America. She speaks another language!” HA! Ha! LOVE Kindergarten kids! J I was relieved to have Wednesday off because I was exhausted. That evening I got a call to see if I could do 5th grade the next day. She told me the teacher was sick and that she would be hearing back from her soon to know if she had left plans or not but she would send me a text to let me know if I would need to have my own plans prepared or not. HUH???? (again) I asked her to elaborate. She said that it would be very uncommon for a teacher to leave plans if they are sick. It is up to the casual teacher to “be creative” and to have plans prepared for the whole day. She told me I was welcome to use any resources from their school and that I could ask the other teachers if I had specific questions. My stress level immediately rose and I kind of freaked out waiting for her to text me to let me know if there were plans left or not. If this was for a K-3 class, I would be fine because I know much more about these grade levels and have many of my own resources. I had absolutely nothing for 5th grade! Below are the texts between us:
“Hi Lisa it's Kristin. There is no work left for you unfortunately but there is a year 5 meeting that the kids need to go to in the hall first thing in the morning. Other than that it's up to you what you teach. As I said there are resources in the photocopy room to help you out or whatever you have from home you are welcome to bring and photocopy. Let me know if u have any questions. I’ll c u tomorrow. Thanks.My response:
Thanks for letting me know. Will there be a schedule for the day so I know what a typical Thursday looks like for the class? I forgot to ask which teacher it is. Thanks for calling me! Her response:
No worries! I can't guarantee a usual day plan. Tho I'm sure the kids could fill u in. I’d just plan some maths, writing, maybe read a book and do some related activities, a bit of grammar maybe. Perhaps a fun art type of activity for the afternoon? Let me know if u need a hand tomorrow.”I was most concerned that I didn’t even know what they were currently working on in any subject, or at least an idea of where to start planning, OR even a schedule to work from. I stayed up late working on plans. Thanks to Melissa Freeman for some helpful websites and info that evening, too!
I showed up extra early the next morning. I checked in with a few of the other 5th grade teachers and they weren’t really sure what she was working on currently but they were as helpful as they could be. I guess I am used to planning with my grade level and we were always working on the same concepts. The class was polite and helpful for the most part. I was pleasantly surprised that I really liked that age level! J I know it wasn’t a perfect day but I survived. We did maths, writing, reading, and many other things, and I felt like it worked out much better than I expected. I was asked to come back the next day for 4th grade.
Friday in 4th grade went very, very well and I really liked this group of students! During my “break time” I covered a first grade class again and also a 6th grade class. This time I went to those teachers BEFORE school started to find out what I would be teaching. See, I’m getting the hang of it!After my first three days I started to understand their casual teaching process much better. I’m so glad that I “get it” a little better now so I know next week will be much less frustrating and overwhelming. I was asked to teach next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and they want me to do every Tuesday for the whole Term 3 through the end of September.
I got brave and decided to ask several questions to the casual teacher supervisor Friday after school so I could clear up all of my nerves. I asked about where these teachers were going in the middle of the day when they were having me cover for them and teach their classes. She told me that sometimes teachers don’t get the full break time they are supposed to have so this is a catch up time for that. She also said it is sometimes a special perk for some deserving teachers. That made sense. I also informed her of how the sub system works in the U.S. and why I was so confused with their process and why I had so many questions. She said she understood and said I was doing just fine…which is why she kept asking me back. PHEW! A frequent casual teacher for this school talked to me on Friday afternoon and gave me a lot of good advice. She also told me about a big teacher supply store and some useful materials I should buy. Luke and I went to the store on Saturday. There was actually an entire section in the store specifically for Casual Teachers so I felt better and better as I looked through the resources and picked out several books to purchase.
This process so far has made me really miss having a classroom of my own but the silver lining is that it is getting me out of my comfort zone immediately and giving me a lot of good experience in EVERY grade level just as I had hoped. I love being back in a school and by the end of the week I had students from all grade levels seeing me and saying, “Hi, Mrs. Lucas!” Ah, success! JI’m definitely earning every bit of my paycheck and I realize now why it was such a long process to get to this point and why they only hire qualified and experienced teachers. Bring on Week 2!
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