I’ve changed a lot

And I noticed it today.

I went back to the school where I subbed exclusively for many years today. I was working in 7th grade math – a happy place for me. I really like this teacher. It turned out I wasn’t equipped for her students.

I had a co-teacher first hour, so although it was a little bouncy, she took care of undesirable behavior, and all went well. The next hour, I didn’t fare as well. Not too long into class, I notice a boy just sitting in his seat playing a game on his phone. Phones are not supposed to be out and certainly not to play games while you are supposed to be doing math. I asked what he was doing, and he said, “Playing a game. Duh.” I told him I would take his phone (intending to set it aside until the end of the hour) and he readily gave it to me. I grabbed a post-it to attach his name, because no part of me ever wants to have a phone I don’t know who to return it to. He, and the three kids around him, laughed and said, “Jorge.” I wrote it on the post-it and told him to tell them that was his name when he went to the office to pick it up. He got very serious very quickly. “That’s not my name. My name is XXXXXX.” I shrugged and said, “I already wrote Jorge.” Since I haven’t been in this building for quite a while, I thought I would check to be clear on what to do with the phone. The answer? Send “Jorge” to the office with all of his belongings. Bye, Jorge.

The astounding thing? It happened AGAIN, within the same hour. Kid sitting there gaming on his phone, told me his name was Diego, and ended up in the office.

I know for certain that 14 people lied to me when I asked for their names. I have a seating chart. I can look to see who they are. I was asking more than half of them their names so I could just know who they were while I was helping them do their math. Huh.

I was told, “I don’t have to do what you say,” four times by four different kids.

I had two students just use the camera on their Chromebooks as mirrors to adjust their looks. For the whole hour.

I had three students scream “I don’t know how to do this,” before starting the review assignment. All three refused help in learning how to do it.

I had dozens of students finish a math maze within minutes, while showing no work (an assignment requirement). They were able to figure out the surface area of a variety of shapes in their heads. GENIUSES!! Or not.

I had a kid repeatedly play music on his Chromebook, then when everyone told him to knock it off, say, “It wasn’t me.” He also crawled on the floor for a while. He jumped on a chair and SHRIEKED “Spider! Spider!” Two sweet girls went to his rescue. He identified a tiny stone as the spider. He fell on the floor and shook and yelled he was breakdancing. I finally asked him to leave.

I managed to help a few kids do their math. I tried to thank the few who were working.

It was pretty much a disaster all day. The thing that has changed is that I really didn’t take it personally. I tried really hard. I was mean. I was nice. I gave suggestions. I offered help. But I did not think it was all my fault that I couldn’t get them to even sit down, much less learn. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t cry, so I am going to take that as a win.