Social Studies All Week!

I'm very excited to be subbing all week - Tuesday - Friday due to the holiday - in the same classroom. An assistant principal who I work with at my other job let me know that a teacher would be out all week for medical reasons and asked if I would like to work. I jumped at the opportunity to sub all week in the same classroom and for Social Studies.

I really enjoy working in the same classroom on multiple days because I am able to get to know the students as well as gain experience in a more stable classroom environment. Hopefully I will have more to blog about throughout the week!

Long Term

I am interviewing Tuesday morning for a long term, middle school substitute teaching job. Unfortunately, it is not for a Social Studies class, but a Family and Consumer Sciences class. This is a Connections (elective) class which eighth, seventh, and sixth graders may take. I am interviewing for it because few people are certified for this class. If it were a standard subject, they would have plenty of certified applicants available. The sub coordinator has suggested myself and another sub for the position. I assume that the other sub is interviewing as well. I am not sure if there are any other candidates besides the two of us.

This is a great opportunity to make connections within the middle school. Due to the job market finding a teaching position is about who you know (more so than ever); this would be a great way to make myself known in the school. Taking this position would mean missing an opportunity with the high school that I sub for, proctoring the Advance Placement tests at the end of the school year. This is something I did last year, and enjoyed doing. However, the long term sub job provides guaranteed daily work from the middle of March to the end of the school year. The AP testing is a three week job with varying hours.



The class seems easy enough. Here is a breakdown of some of the topics I would be teaching if I get the position.

• Careers- résumé creation (on the computer), job application basics, mock interviews (done with parent/teacher/business volunteers serving as the interviewers)
• Textiles- basic handstitching and button sewing put together to create a product; laundry HW assignment; laundry HW assignment
• Personal Finance- financial planning, income vs. expenses, budgeting, financial literacy
• Food and Nutrition- safety and sanitation, measurement basics, eating disorders, fad diets, recipe math and cooking labs
• Child Development- original game creation, ages and stages of development
• Housing and Interiors- reasons to keep a home clean and neat, home safety, elements of design

Lunch and Learn

They're eating pizza (it's considered a veggie now!)

This week and last week I have been working at the high school level in a program called Lunch and Learn. It is basically tutoring during lunch time for US History. It works out to be about two hours every day. I work with groups of students (anywhere from 1 -10 students at a time), helping them prepare for their EOCT (end of course test), which is a cumulative test which they must pass in order to obtain credit for the class.


I am also only being paid to work for two hours every day, and have missed a few opportunities for full sub days, but am hoping that this is an opportunity to meet administrators in the school and make connections. I am working closely with one administrator who I was not familiar with before, and she has come in to observe me twice during the program.


The students are selected for this program based on a practice test which they take as a predictor of their achievement on the actual test. Because of this, these are not (generally) higher level students and (many) are not very motivated to learn. Most of them do not actually show up - maybe a little under 1/3.


Unfortunately, many students are in the program for a reason. They just do not know their US History, or are not practiced in thinking critically about information. For example (and I am not giving this example in an attempt to make fun of students, but this is a good example of the types of students I am working with). I was showing an example of a time line question:






While explaining the question, I prompted students to provide their own knowledge about the events in the time line. When I asked them to name the war in which the Battles of Lexington and Concord were fought in, two (of four) classes couldn't tell me. I prompted them with the next item, the Declaration of Independence, and asked them again. The students could not tell me what war we fought to gain our independence! One student offered WWI as an answer.











Whether they just aren't thinking deeply about the questions or truly do not know the answers, this shows that the students need the assistance which Lunch and Learn provides. I have been trying to focus on testing skills such as analyzing maps, charts, political cartoons, and graphs which contain US history facts and providing historical facts along the way. If I just throw fact after fact at them, they will forget them all. I hope that by attending Lunch and Learn, they gain some skills and knowledge, and are able to pass the EOCT.

Subbing

I have been subbing a little over a month now, due to the fact that teaching jobs are as plentiful as any other type of job right now. I am hoping to make some good connections which will help with my job search next year. Each day subbing is a little different which means that subbing is hardly ever boring. I have been subbing both middle and high school and enjoy both for different reasons.

Friday was an interesting day. I subbed for the first time in middle school Social Studies (7th grade, which was the grade I student taught last fall). Because they were learning a subject which I had taught before I felt that I had more to offer.

The highlight of my day, however, came when I covered one period of 6th grade L.A.. The school was short on subs and had a different sub for each period for that class. Following the lesson plan, I took up their homework and assigned a few pages of quick book work. The fun part came last. The class was reading The Hunger Games (which if you haven't read, you should!) and I got to read about two chapters aloud for them.

Read it!

I have never read aloud before and was a little nervous about how well I would do. A few of the students were following along in their own copy, but most were just listening as I read. They were near the end of the book, and the part which I read contained quite a few exciting events and plot twists. Many of the students were literally sitting on the edge of their seats, they would gasps at exciting parts, there were a few "oh no's!" at the plot twists, and excitement when the main character's prevailed. I must have done a decent job considering the reaction of the students. It was a lot of fun, getting that kind of reaction to students enjoying the class period.

Long Time No Blog

Well, it has been a while since I have put anything here. I have been pretty busy and haven't really had much to say.

This weekend I have been working on getting my resume out to a lot of schools. Both my mentor as well as a middle school Assistant Principal who works at my part time job suggested that I begin sending out resumes. For now I have decided to focus on middle schools, as I believe that I will enjoy working in a middle school more than a high school. However, due to the conditions of the job market, I will be applying to High Schools as well.

I purchased (expensive) resume paper and envelopes and will be sending out my resumes to the schools closest to my home, along with a cover letter. I hope to make a good impression with them. I also found some thank you cards on clearance from the same people who make the resume paper which I can send out after job fairs or interviews.

Each school does its own hiring and it may be done by a variety of people (principal, assistant principal, or any other sort of administrative position) so it is hard to tell which schools are more receptive to mailed resumes or just search the database of applicants. Either way, it can't hurt!