What A Good Day

I subbed for a special ed teacher today. She team teaches two hours with a terrific Algebra teacher (oooo algebra – little puzzles of fun), teaches two hours of essential math (oooo algebra – such fun), and has one study hall. I don’t think they really would have to pay me to do this job, it is so perfect. The essential math kids sit in their seats, take notes, ask questions, and do math. For those of you who haven’t been in a middle school since you were in middle school, that might seem appropriate and expected. In 2022, it’s not. Anytime I get kids to sit in their seats, I consider it a win for the day. Someone asked me the other day what rules kids have these days. I eloquently answered, “um…” and she said, “Exactly! They can run down the hall, push and shove people, grab someone else’s hat (because it’s okay now to wear whatever you want to school – hats, hoodies pulled tight so you can literally see nothing but their eyes, any item of clothing that is sold in any store) and the most that happens is someone might say ‘don’t do that.’ ” I could not disagree. During pandemic, I don’t think kids ever heard no. Parents were trying to work and get their kids to do school and keep everyone safe and all the other things and if their kid asked if they could glue 8 sheets of green paper together and then cut it into little pieces, the answer was yes. Why not? There is nothing wrong with doing that. If the kid wanted to put all of their toys in a row according to rainbow order and leave them there for 7 weeks, the answer was yes. Because why not? They were thinking, they were planning, they were organizing – it seemed like a win. There was endless time to do …. whatever there was to do, because most most most of the regular stuff wasn’t happening. So now we have a bunch of kids who have no idea how to deal with time and no idea what to do with routine and no idea how to be in a group and no idea what no means. It’s not their fault, it’s not their parent’s fault, it’s not anybody’s fault – it just is. So, when I got a group of ten kids willing to sit and work on something that is not easy for them, I was filled with joy.

The terrific Algebra teacher has things locked down and work gets down. Tons of questions get asked and I get to run around answering – showing kids how the algebra puzzles work. There is simply nothing better. Study hall brings kids who work when they have work to do; then they are allowed to play on their computers. That used to kill me. I thought we could do better than that. But that is what is expected, so I let it go. I try to interact with them about what they are choosing to do/play, but I don’t have to argue with them to use their brains. It makes it easy on me. And they all have shown me that the work is done first.

So, a glorious day at work. Because of new medication and some dizzies, Keith has been driving my commute. He picked me up today and we went to the grocery store for a quick dash in to get something for dinner. Since we are leaving on a not-too-early flight tomorrow, he suggested perhaps we could pick up a doughnut treat for breakfast before we leave.

Mine got eaten before tomorrow. Such a good day.